Josiah Couch

Experience

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  Oklahoma State University

  Aug 2009 - May 2012

  Conducted research in experimental particle physics under the supervision of Prof. Flera Rizatdinova.- Studied real and Monte-Carlo simulated data from DØ and ATLAS.-Used cut and count techniques, implemented in C++ with the ROOT package to reduce background and estimate number of signal events.-Applied for and received funding through the Freshman Research Scholarship and Niblack Research Scholarship programs.-Prepared and presented public presentations on ongoing and finished work.-Wrote a senior honors thesis studying differential top anti-top production cross section at ATLAS with different choices of cutoff on the highest momentum jet. Tools used: Linux, C/C++, ROOT. Show less

  • Undergraduate Researcher

    Jan 2010 - May 2012

  • Computer Lab Monitor

    Aug 2009 - Dec 2011
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  Walmart

  May 2012 - Sept 2012

  Associate

  Assigned to Garden Center, performed tasks as needed including watering and culling live plants, stocking and organizing merchandise, assisting customers with loading purchases, and running the cash register.Tools used: broom, pallet jack

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  Max Planck Institute for Physics

  Mar 2013 - Apr 2013

  Student Technician (Hilfswissenschaftler)

  Worked in data collection and processing related to the testing of pixel detectors for an upgrade to the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Specifically, I plotted and recorded data related to the response of pixel detectors to radiation sources after identifying and masking noisy pixels. Tools used: Microsoft Excel

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  The University of Texas at Austin

  Jun 2014 - Jan 2021

  I did research in theoretical physics under the supervision of Prof. Willy Fischler. My main research interests were in applications of quantum information theory to quantum gravity, and I primarily worked in the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence. See publication section below for publication details.-Collaborate with other researchers to apply collective knowledge of general relativity, quantum field theory, and quantum information theory to problems in quantum gravity.-Apply knowledge of advanced mathematics, as well as the Mathematica software package, to obtain quantitive answers to specific research questions-Communicate results to the physics community through presentations and publications.Tools used: Mathematica, LaTex, Slate + chalk Show less I worked variously (by semester) as a lab TA, discussion TA, or grader.-Present problem-solving techniques to students in topics ranging from electricity and magnetism to quantum mechanics, to modeling in VPython, depending on course. -Evaluate student performance on homework, lab reports, and exams as required by the instructor.-Oversee labwork, explaining proper lab procedure as well as uncertainty and data analysis, and helped troubleshoot equipment when necessary.Courses:Discussion/Grader:- PHY 373 Quantum Physics I: Foundations (4 semesters)- PHY 341 Forensic Science (2 semesters)- PHY 389K Graduate Quantum I (1 semester)- PHY 362L Quantum Physics III: Particles and Nuclei (2 semesters)- PHY 316 Electricity and Magnetism (2 semesters)- PHY 352K Classical Electrodynamics I (1 semester)Lab:- 103M Engineering Physics I (4 semesters)- 103N Engineering Physics II (1 semester)Tools used: LaTex, Python, MS Excel/LibreOffice Calc, Canvas, Quest Show less Worked with Prof. Peter Onyisi and another student at the CERN main campus as a graduate research assistant and to complete the requirements of PHY 380N (Experimental physics) at UT Austin.-Used a boosted decision tree (from TMVA package) to study which features are most useful in classifying events from ATLAS data as either signal or background. In this case, the relevant signal was Higgs production with an associated top anti-top pair.- Wrote a python script to interface between part of the software for the ATLAS Fast Tracker (FTK) hardware and a COOL database holding configuration information.Tools used: Python, PyROOT, GNU/Linux shell script, ATLAS Toolkit for Multivariate Analysis (TMVA) Show less

  • Graduate Researcher: Weinberg Theory Group

    Aug 2015 - Jan 2021

  • Teaching Assistant

    Aug 2013 - Jan 2021

  • Graduate Research Assistant: UT Experimental Physics Requirement

    Jun 2014 - Aug 2014
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  Boston College

  Jan 2021 - Jul 2022

  Postdoctoral Research Fellow

  I worked on research related to the graph alignment (AKA approximate graph isomorphism) problem. In particular, I- Applied results from discrete statistics and graph alignment to the problem of recovering the order of a shuffled chain of pairwise correlated Erdos-Renyi graphs- Used python to study the above problem empirically

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  Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

  Aug 2022 - now

  Postdoctoral Research Fellow

  I currently do machine learning and computational immunology research with the Arnaout Lab (https://arnaoutlab.org/).