Jake VanderPlas

Jake VanderPlas
Name	Jake VanderPlas
Nationality	American
Field	Astronomy; Data Science; Software Engineering
Alma mater	University of Washington; University of Washington Bothell
Known for	scikit-learn; "Python Data Science Handbook"; AstroPy contributions

Jake VanderPlas is an American astronomer, data scientist, and software developer known for contributions to scientific Python, astronomical data analysis, and open-source pedagogy. He has worked at institutions such as the University of Washington, University of Chicago, and the University of Michigan, and has contributed to projects including scikit-learn, AstroPy, NumPy, and Pandas. VanderPlas’s work spans collaboration with researchers affiliated with organizations like NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

Early life and education

VanderPlas completed undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Washington and pursued doctoral research connected with institutions such as the University of Washington Bothell and collaborations with the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics community. During his doctoral training he engaged with research groups associated with the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (now Vera C. Rubin Observatory), the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and the Space Telescope Science Institute. His early training included methods from collaborations involving the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the California Institute of Technology.

Career

VanderPlas has held positions at the University of Washington, the University of Chicago, and the University of Michigan, and has collaborated with teams at Google, Microsoft Research, and research units at Amazon Web Services. His professional work intersects projects at organizations like NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics. He has participated in conferences such as the SciPy Conference, the PyData Conference, and the Strata Data Conference, and contributed to community efforts led by the Python Software Foundation and the NumFOCUS organization.

Research and contributions

VanderPlas has contributed to scientific software projects including scikit-learn, NumPy, Pandas, Matplotlib, and AstroPy. His research encompasses methodologies used in programs like the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory development efforts, and collaborations related to the Kepler (spacecraft) mission and the Gaia (spacecraft) data releases. He has advanced statistical techniques applied in analyses associated with the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope. VanderPlas’s software contributions integrate with platforms used by teams at the European Southern Observatory, the Max Planck Society, and the Smithsonian Institution.

He has published work that Methodologists and instrument teams at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and the Space Telescope Science Institute reference for machine learning pipelines leveraging tools from scikit-learn and TensorFlow, and for data manipulation using Pandas together with Dask.

Publications and books

VanderPlas is author of the "Python Data Science Handbook", a resource frequently cited alongside texts by authors connected to O'Reilly Media, the American Astronomical Society, and publishers collaborating with the Institute of Physics. His publications appear in venues associated with the Astrophysical Journal, the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, and proceedings from the Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems conferences. He has contributed chapters and tutorials used in workshops organized by the Royal Astronomical Society, the American Astronomical Society, and the International Astronomical Union.

His tutorials and notebooks have been incorporated into curricula at institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, and Princeton University, and are used by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, the Carnegie Institution for Science, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Teaching and outreach

VanderPlas has taught courses and workshops at venues including the University of Washington, the University of Chicago, the Flatiron Institute, and community events run by the Python Software Foundation and NumFOCUS. He has delivered keynote and invited talks at the SciPy Conference, the PyData Conference, the Strata Data Conference, and meetings of the American Astronomical Society. His outreach activities include contributions to online learning platforms used by students at the Open University, the California Institute of Technology, and the University of Cambridge, and collaborations with organizations such as Data Carpentry and Software Carpentry.

He has participated in training programs connected with the Space Telescope Science Institute and the European Space Agency, mentoring students who progressed to positions at institutions like the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the European Southern Observatory, and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Awards and recognition

VanderPlas has been recognized by communities affiliated with the Python Software Foundation and NumFOCUS for contributions to open-source projects like scikit-learn and AstroPy. His "Python Data Science Handbook" has been recommended in reading lists by the American Astronomical Society and course syllabi at the University of Michigan and the University of Washington. He has received invitations and fellowships to speak at institutes such as the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, the Flatiron Institute, and the Simons Foundation.

Category:American astronomers Category:Open-source software contributors