Josh Peek

We have moved from asking What is in the universe? to How did the those things come to be?
I try to answer this question by examining the diffuse phase of the universe. The story of every object in the universe can be simply told as "diffuse material became dense under the influence of gravity". My work aims to understand the flow of this diffuse material. To do this I use spectroscopic measurements of gas, observations of dust, and vaarious machine vision and machine learning methods. I do this work with numerous collaborators, including Radio Quiet folks and members of the ISM*@ST Group

GALFA-HI

I lead the Galactic Arecibo L-Band Feed Array HI (GALFA-HI) survey of neutral hydrogen in the Galaxy in the 21-cm line, which covers 13,000 square degrees at 4' resolution. DR2 is now available.

Deep Learning

I use deep learning methods to extract information from astronomical images about the physical state of the interstellar medium and galaxies. I am also exploring how we can use deep learning tools to explore astronomical archives.

Dust Maps

I developed a novel technique to directly measure the optical reddening from the interstellar medium, and find errors in the standard SFD98 dust map. I've also extended this work to the ultraviolet using GALEX.

Galactic Fibers

I explore and characterize diffuse, fibrous features in the neutral interstellar medium which we discovered with GALFA-HI. Their strongly magnetized character makes them powerful probes of the dynamic ISM and polarized CMB foregrounds.

Kinetic Tomography

I work on methods that combine data from 3D extinction maps with cubes from radio telescopes (CO, HI) as well as stellar absoption lines in pursuit of the velocity field Galaxy.

Circumgalactic Medium

I study the gas that surrounds galaxies, filling their dark matter halos, and feeding their star formation. I do this with high velocity clouds in HI, simulations, absorption lines, and dust. I am the PI of an HST/COS large program called QuaStar

Interstellar Institute

I am the founding co-director of the Interstellar Institute (I2). I2 is a collaborative group of astronomers that attends and supports a yearly, month-long workshop at the Intitut Pascal at Paris-Saclay University. I encourage you to join us next year!

At STScI I am the Head of the Data Science Mission Office and I am the PI of the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes.

MAST

I am the former Principal Investigator for the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes. I continute to support Susan Mullally in her role as PI. MAST's mission is "to maximize the scientific accessibility and productivity of astronomical data".

SDSS-Legacy

STScI is a member institution of SDSS-V, the fifth generation Sloan Digital Sky Survey; I serve as our representative to the Advisory Council. One of STScI's contributions to SDSS will be SDSS-Legacy, which will serve as the final archive for all SDSS data in perpetuity. I co-lead this project with Adam Bolton; SDSS-Legacy is a cross-AURA project and will be shared between NOAO and STScI.

Fornax

With collagues at IRSA and HEASARC, I am leading the development of a prototype system for Cloud-based astrophysical investigations for NASA, including cloud-ready astronomical data and science platforms. Stay tuned!

Science is storytelling. I tell scientific stories and help others do the same.

Colloquia

I like giving astronomy colloquia. Lately I've been speaking about the intersection of machine learning & astronomy. Give me a shout if you'd like me to come speak.

The "Paper" of the Future

With Alyssa Goodman I wrote an article describing and showcasing what as possible in digital publishing in astronomy.

Public Lectures

I give award-winning public lectures!

Interstellar Matter

I made a short film called Interstellar Matter based in part on our GALFA-HI data, which is an official selection of the 11th Annual Imagine Science Film Festival in New York.

Speed of Trust

I also speak on questions of how and why we build our astronomical archives. Here's a talk I presented to all NASA science archvies

My academic research group is called Radio Quiet; I guess I have a habit of working with fellow radio astronomers on something other than radio astronomy. Radio Quiet also has Eddie Schlafly and Claire Murray as PIs. I have advised PhD students at Columbia University and Johns Hopkins University, where I am an Associate Research Scientist. I also supervise postdocs at JHU and STScI

Dr. Hannah Bish

I supervise Dr. Bish's work on UV absorption and reflection studies of the Milky Way disk-halo interface.

I have been at this long enough now that I have some graduates of my group doing wonderful things!

Dr. Claire Murray

I supervised Dr. Murray's postdoctoral work on phases of the interstellar medium and SMC dynamics. She is now an assistant astronomer at STScI.

Dr. Susan Clark

I co-advised Dr. Clark on her PhD work in neutral gas morphology in the ISM and magnetic fields. She is now an assistant professor in the Stanford Physics department.

Dr. Enrico Di Teodoro

I supervised Dr. Di Teodoro's postdoctoral work on machine learning and disk flows in galaxies. He is now a professor at University of Florence

Dr. Kirill Tchernyshyov

I advised Dr. Tchernyshyov on his PhD work developing the field of Kinetic Tomography using applied mathematics methods. He now works in green energy consulting.

Dr. Yong Zheng

I co-advised Dr. Zheng on her PhD work in the circumgalactic medium and the disk-halo interface. She is now a an assistant professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Dr. John Wu

I supervised Dr. Wu's postdoctoral work on galaxies and Neural Networks. He is now an assistant astronomer at STScI.

Michael Busch

I advised Michael on his thesis, which focuses on hydroxyl (OH) as a probe of dark molecular gas in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies. He is now a NSF Fellow at UCSD.

Dr. Catherine Zucker

I supervised Dr. Zucker's Hubble Fellowship work on Kinetic Tomography. She is now permanent staff at SAO.