Nolan Koblischke

2nd year PhD Student in Astrophysics - University of Toronto

Developing AI foundation models for Astro

Previously: UBC Bachelor's in Physics, Minor in Computer Science

My LLM tools: ChatGaia, ChatADS, and AstroCoder.

SpectraFM: Tuning into Stellar Foundation Models
Nolan Koblischke, Jo Bovy
NeurIPS 2024 Workshop: Foundation Models for Science (Accepted)
OpenReview

A Transformer-based model capable of processing stellar spectra across any wavelength range.

Calibrating and standardizing the Tip of the Red Giant Branch in the Small Magellanic Cloud using small-amplitude red giants
Nolan Koblischke, Richard I. Anderson
Astrophysical Journal, 2024
arXiv:2406.19375

Discovered that pulsation impacts the TRGB in the SMC as in the LMC, with older, longer period pulsators leading to a highly accurate TRGB tip measurement.

Small-amplitude Red Giants Elucidate the Nature of the Tip of the Red Giant Branch as a Standard Candle
Richard I. Anderson, Nolan Koblischke, Laurent Eyer
Astrophysical Journal Letters, 2024
arXiv:2303.04790

Discovered that red giant pulsation adds a new dimension of the TRGB method, leading to an enhanced method for measuring the Universe's expansion rate.

Featured in: EPFL News, Space.com, Universe Today, Phys.org, Tech Explorist, MyScience

ChatGaia: Natural Language Interface to the Gaia Space Telescope
Nolan Koblischke
ChatGaia

A ChatGPT-powered tool enabling natural language interaction with Gaia's database of 2 billion astronomical sources. Reached 68,000+ viewers and used thousands of times.

Talks

• Gravity Bench: A Benchmark for an AI Astronomer - ESO Natural Language Processing in Astronomy

• Gravity Bench: A Benchmark for an AI Astronomer - NLP for Space Science Workshop, ESA/ESAC, Madrid

• SpectraFM: Tuning into Stellar Foundation Models - AstroAI Workshop, Harvard-Smithsonian CfA

• ChatGaia: Talk to the Gaia Archive in Natural Language - Debating the Potential of Machine Learning in Astronomical Surveys, Flatiron