Curriculum Vitae

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Education

}2018 – 2024PhD in Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of TorontoNSERC CGS-D Fellow 2020–2023. NSERC CGS-M Fellow 2019–2020.Thesis: Charting Stellar Streams of the Milky WaySupervisors: Jo Bovy, Jeremy Webb
}2014 – 2018B.S. in Mathematical Physics and Astronomy, Case Western Reserve UniversitySumma Cum Laude.Supervisors: Stacy McGaughGPA 4.0.

Professional Appointments

}2024 – 2027Postdoctoral Associate, MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space ResearchBrinson Prize Fellowship (2024–2027).
}2021 –Coordinator & Core Developer, AstropyRole: Member, Core Developer Team; lead maintainer for Cosmology, co-maintainer of Units.2025–2028: Coordination Committee (executive committee).2025–2026: Strategic Planning and Organizing Committee.Funding: Astropy Cycle III β€” Cosmology and Quantity 2.0.Team awards: 2025 AAS Lancelot M. Berkeley–New York Community Trust Prize, the 2023 IOP Publishing Top Cited Paper Award and the 2022 ADASS Prize for an Outstanding Contribution to Astronomical Software.
}2017SOURCE Participant, Case Western Reserve UniversityMentor: Stacy McGaugh (CWRU Astronomy).Role: summer research position.Funding: Support of Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors (SOURCE).Project: an algorithm for maximal disc decompositions of galactic rotation curves, applied to the SPARC database to extract lower bounds on the dark matter content of the sample galaxies. Published in Starkman et al. 2018.
}2016NSF-REU Participant, Cornell Laboratory for Accelerator-based Sciences and Education (CLASSE)Mentor: Ira Wasserman (Cornell Astronomy).Role: summer research position at CLASSE.Funding: NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates.Project: whether monopolar neutron-star magnetospheres can produce coherent curvature radiation. Coherent radiation near the light-cylinder boundary is a candidate source of FRB-like signals.
}2015Summer Researcher, Case Western Reserve UniversityAdvisor: John Ruhl (CWRU Physics).Funding: federal grants awarded to Prof. Ruhl.Project: Markov Chain Monte Carlo programs predicting how well South Pole Telescope detectors can distinguish B-modes from noise.

Publications

}In PrepCoordinax: an extended framework for coordinates and differential geometry in JAX β€” N. Starkman, A. Price-Whelanin-prep
}In PrepConvex Stellar Stream Segments Constrain Dark Matter Nature and Halo Geometry β€” N. Starkmanin-prep
}In PrepSpatial Correlations in Extragalactic Stellar Stream Convexities: Distinguishing CDM, SIDM, and MOND β€” N. Starkmanin-prep
}In PrepDirectly Model the Stream: A State-Space Model for Gravitational Potentials from Stellar Streams β€” N. Starkmanin-prep
}2026Euclid Quick Data Release (Q1): The geometry of dark matter halos from extragalactic streams β€” N. Starkman, J. Nibauer, S. Pearson, S. Wu, et al. Astronomy & Astrophysicssubmitted
}2026Physics-Informed Neural Networks for Modeling Galactic Gravitational Potentials β€” C. Myers, N. Starkman, L. Necib. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societysubmitted
}2026Galactic Amnesia: The Information Washout of the Milky Way Merger History β€” L. Necib, D. Folsom, E. Y. Davies, N. Starkman, et al.submitted
}2026Potamides: Mapping Dark Matter Halo Shapes from Stellar Stream Tracks in the Local Universe β€” S. Wu, N. Starkman, S. Pearson, J. Nibauer, et al. The Astrophysical Journalsubmitted
}2026phasecurvefit: A High-Performance JAX Framework for Phase-Space Walks with Pluggable Metrics and Strategies β€” N. Starkman, J. Nibauer. Journal of Open Source SoftwaresubmittedSubmitted to JOSS and pyOpenSci.
}2025Physics-Informed Neural Networks for Modeling Galactic Gravitational Potentials β€” C. Myers, N. Starkman, L. Necib. Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2025)
}2025Potamides: JAX tools for curvature-based inference from stellar streams β€” S. Wu, N. Starkman, J. Nibauer, S. Pearson. Journal of Open Source Softwaresubmitted
}2025StreamSculptor: Hamiltonian Perturbation Theory for Stellar Streams in Flexible Potentials with Differentiable Simulations β€” J. Nibauer, N. Starkman, K. Johnston. The Astrophysical Journal 983, 68
}2025unxt: A Python package for unit-aware computing with JAX β€” N. Starkman, A. M. Price-Whelan, J. Nibauer. Journal of Open Source Software 10, 7771
}2025Stream Members Only: Data-Driven Characterization of Stellar Streams with Mixture Density Networks β€” N. Starkman, J. Nibauer, J. Bovy, J. Webb, et al. The Astrophysical Journal 980, 253
}2024Angular Correlations of Cosmic Microwave Background Spectrum Distortions from Photon Diffusion β€” N. Starkman, A. Kosowsky, G. Starkman. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 529, 2274
}2023On the fast track: Rapid construction of stellar stream paths β€” N. Starkman, J. Bovy, J. Webb, D. Calvetti, et al. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 522, 5022
}2022The Astropy Project: Sustaining and Growing a Community-oriented Open-source Project and the Latest Major Release (v5.0) of the Core Package β€” A. M. Price-Whelan, P. L. Lim, N. Earl, N. Starkman, et al. The Astrophysical Journal 935, 167Co-wrote the Highlighted Feature Development, New and Planned Features, Precision, Accuracy & Reproducibility, and Performance sections.
}2020Straight Lightning as a Signature of Macroscopic Dark Matter β€” N. Starkman, J. S. Sidhu, H. Winch, G. Starkman. Physical Review D 103, 063024
}2020An extended Pal 5 stream in Gaia DR2 β€” N. Starkman, J. Bovy, J. Webb. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
}2018A constant characteristic volume density of dark matter haloes from SPARC rotation curve fits β€” P. Li, F. Lelli, S. S. McGaugh, N. Starkman, et al. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
}2018A new algorithm to quantify maximum discs in galaxies β€” N. Starkman, F. Lelli, S. S. McGaugh, J. Schombert. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 480, 2292

Fellowships & Awards

}2026Pacific Postdoc ProgramA one-month fellowship at at the University of Washington in Seattle
}2025AAS Lancelot M. Berkeley–New York Community Trust Prize β€” to the Astropy CollaborationTeam award, as a core developer and Coordination Committee member of Astropy.
}2024Brinson Prize Fellowshipβ€œto support early-career astrophysicists and cosmologists who are committed to chasing bold ideas with creative, nimble, and innovative research."
}2024NSERC PDF (declined)Postdoctoral Fellowships program (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada). Declined
}2023IOP Publishing Top Cited Paper Award, North America β€” to the Astropy CollaborationTeam award, as an author of the v5.0 paper: top 1% most-cited in Astronomy and Astrophysics.
}2022Jackman Massey Bursary
}2022OSOTF HUDD Award at MasseyOntario Student Opportunity Trust Fund
}2022ADASS Prize for an Outstanding Contribution to Astronomical Software β€” to the Astropy ProjectTeam award, as a core developer of Astropy.
}2020 – 2023NSERC - CGS DAlexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship-Doctoral Award (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada)
}2019 – 2020NSERC - CGS MCanada Graduate Scholarships 1st Year Program (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada)
}2018Donald A. Glaser AwardTo an outstanding Mathematics and Physics Senior
}2018John Schoff Millis AwardTo the senior with the best academic record in the College of Arts and Sciences
}2018Summa Cum Laude
}2018Graduate Admissions AwardUofT Faculty of Arts & Science
}2018 – 2024University of Toronto Graduate Fellowship
}2017Outstanding Junior Award of Arts and Sciences
}2017The Albert A. Michelson Prizeβ€œTo a [3rd year] physics major who has demonstrated superior performance”
}2017Goldwater Scholarship Honorable Mentionβ€œFor exceptional promise of becoming this nation’s next generation of research leaders”
}2016Phi Beta Kappa Academic Award
}2016Goldwater Scholarship Honorable Mention
}2014 – 2018Case Western Reserve University Merit Scholarship
}2014 – 2018Dean’s High Honor ListTo the students with the best academic record. Awarded semesterly

Major Grants

}2022Astropy Cycle III Funding Grant β€” USD 12,000USD 12,000 NASA ROSES and Moore Foundation funding to Astropy Lead: β€œCosmology in Astropy"
}2022Astropy Cycle III Funding Grants β€” USD 8,000USD 8,000 NASA ROSES and Moore Foundation funding to Astropy Lead: β€œQuantity 2.0: unitful calculations beyond NumPy"

Software

}
preamble

A LaTeX preamble worth reusing

}
jaxmore

There's more to JAX

}
phasecurvefit

Paths through phase space

}
oncequinox

Singletons for Equinox

}
diffraxtra

Extras for Diffrax

}
quax-blocks

Building blocks for quax classes

}
mvgkde

Multivariate Gaussian KDE

}
spexial

scipy.special in JAX

}
plotting_backends

Dispatch over plotting backends

}
is_annotated

Check whether a type hint is Annotated

}
dataclassish

dataclasses, for everything

}
galactic_dynamics_interoperability

Interoperability between galactic dynamics libraries

}
xmmutablemap

An immutable mapping, JAX-compatible

}
zeroth

Efficiently get the index-0 element of any iterable

}
optional_dependencies

Construct checks for optional dependencies

}
galax

Galactic dynamics in JAX

}
plum

Multiple dispatch in Python

}
coordinax

Coordinates in JAX

}
trackstream

Stellar stream tracks

}
unxt

Units in JAX

}
quaxed

Pre-quaxed libraries

}
quax

Multiple dispatch in JAX

}
cosmology.api

A standard interface for cosmology libraries

}
Astropy

Astronomy in Python

}
macro_lightning

Constrain macroscopic dark matter with lightning

Invited Talks

}2026Marche III: Big Bang, Big Stars, Big Computers (Jesi)Energy Structures of Extragalactic Stellar Streams Reveal Dark Matter Halos
}2026EAS 26-S10 (Lausanne)The Geometry of Dark Matter Halos from Extragalactic Streams
}2026CWRU Seminar (Cleveland)Computationally Unscrambling EGGS (Extra-Galactic Gravity from Streams)
}2025TevPA (Valencia)The Geometry of Dark Matter Halos from Extragalactic Streams
}2025DARK seminar (Copenhagen)The Geometry of Dark Matter Halos from Extragalactic Streams
}2025Texas A&M Seminar (Texas)The Geometry of Dark Matter Halos from Extragalactic Streams
}2025CCA Software seminar (NYC)unxt, coordinax, and software development in JAX
}2025Princeton Thunch Seminar (Princeton)Euclid: The Geometry of Dark Matter Halos from Extragalactic Streams
}2025DARK seminar (Copenhagen)Bayesian models for detecting streams in LSST data
}2024CWRU SeminarStream Members Only: Data-Driven Characterization of Stellar Streams for Inference on the Galactic Potential
}2023CITA SeminarAstropy Cosmology: the Present and the Expanding Future
}2022Oxford Physics ColloquiumStraight Lightning as a Signature of Macroscopic Dark Matter (Invited Colloquium Talk)
}2021Origins Science Scholars Lecture SeriesScience of Origins: Dark Matter and the Milky Way
}2020Johns Hopkins University Physics Journal ClubStraight Lightning as a Signature of Macroscopic Dark Matter
}2017Cosmology Overview at CWRU Origins (Talk)The Universe: A Brief History

Presentations

}2026New Frontiers in Cosmology (Talk)Energy Structures of Extragalactic Stellar Streams Reveal Dark Matter Halos
}2026Near Field Cosmology in the Era of Big Data (Talk)Energy Structures of Extragalactic Stellar Streams Reveal Dark Matter Halos
}2026DARK Seminar (Talk)Energy Structures of Extragalactic Stellar Streams Reveal Dark Matter Halos
}2026York Seminar (Talk)Euclid: The Geometry of Dark Matter Halos from Extragalactic Streams
}2025TeVPA (Talk)Euclid: The Geometry of Dark Matter Halos from Extragalactic Streams
}2025IAUS 43 (Talk)Euclid: The Geometry of Dark Matter Halos from Extragalactic Streams
}2025Cosmology 2025 (Talk)Euclid: The Geometry of Dark Matter Halos from Extragalactic Streams
}2025MKI Journal Club (Talk)Euclid: The Geometry of Dark Matter Halos from Extragalactic Streams
}2025DDA #56Extra-Galactic Gravity using Streams (EGGS) from Euclid's Zoo(niverse)
}2025Euclid LU-SWG (Talk)Extra-Galactic Gravity using Streams (EGGS) from Euclid's Zoo(niverse)
}2024ASA: Astrostatistics Interest Group Paper Competition (Talk)Stream Members Only: Data-Driven Characterization of Stellar Streams
}2024Streams 24: The theory edition (Talk)From JAX to Galax, a new generation of stellar stream tools Using ML to select stellar stream members
}2024Division on Dynamical Astronomy #55 (Talk)Stream Members Only: Data-Driven Characterization of Stellar Streams
}2024Globular Clusters and Their Tidal Tails (Talk)Stream Members Only: Data-Driven Characterization of Stellar Streams
}2023DESC sprint week
}2023Astropy Conference (Talk)An Interoperable Future with Astropy
}2023IAUS379: Dynamical Masses of Local Group Galaxies (Poster)Stellar Stream Track Reconstruction, with Errors
}2023AAS 2023 (Talk)Astropy Tutorials on Units & Constants
}2022CATS-2022Streams22: A workshop for assembling a Community Atlas of Tidal Streams
}2021AAS 2021 (Talk)Astropy Tutorials on Units & Constants, Coordinates, and Cosmology
}2021CASCA AGM (Poster)Straight Lightning as a Signature of Macroscopic Dark Matter
}2021CASCA AGM (Poster)Stellar Stream Track Reconstruction, with Errors
}2021Stellar Stats Workshop (Talk)Stellar Stream Track Reconstruction, with Errors
}2020STScI 2020 The Local Group: Assembly and Evolution Symposium (Poster)Constraints on Milky Way Halo Triaxiality from Palomar 5
}2020Kaplan cosmology course (Talk)Paid lecturer in Kaplan Cosmology course at Case Western Reserve University
}201930th Texas Symposium On Relativistic Astrophysics (Talk)Resolving the Recombination Visibility Function Width Tension Awarded best graduate student presentation
}20195th Gaia Challenge Conference (Talk)Using Manifold Learning Techniques to Identify Stream Progenitors
}20195th Gaia Challenge Conference (Talk)Extending the Pal5 Stream Detection Limits
}2019Great Lakes Cosmology Workshop (Talk)Parameterizing the recombination visibility function
}2018The Standard Model at 50 YearsA Celebratory Symposium for the Standard Model Conference Volunteer
}2018CWRU SOURCE Intersections (Poster)A new algorithm to quantify maximal disks
}2017CWRU Physics Seminar (Talk)Understanding the Dark Matter distribution in galaxies using maximal disks
}2017CWRU Astronomy Summer Seminar (Talk)Understanding the Dark Matter distribution in galaxies using maximal disks
}2017Dwarf Galaxies on the Shoulders of GiantsWorkshop on topics related to dwarf galaxies and the dark matter problem Conference Volunteer
}2016Cornell CLASSE Summer Seminar (Talk)Coherent curvature radiation in a neutron star’s monopolar magnetic field

Conferences & Workshops

}2026Astrophysics and Space Science in Marche III: Big Bang, Big Stars, Big ComputersRole: SOC
}2026Gaia HackathonRole: LOC
}2025Astropy Coordination MeetingRole: SOC
}2025Division of Dynamical Astronomy #56Role: SOC
}2025Gaia HackathonRole: LOC
}2024JAXtronomy WorkshopRole: SOC
}2024Astropy Core Developer Conference
}2024From JAX to GalaxWorkshop at Globular Clusters and Their Tidal Tails
}2023The Future of Astrophysical DataInfrastructure & NYC, USA
}2022Astropy Core Developer Conference (Talk)The future of interoperability with Python's Protocols Role: Core developer, maintainer for Astropy Cosmology and Units
}2021ComSciCon GTA 2021& Online Role: Organizing Committee member for the Toronto ComSciCon – a workshop series for graduate students on science communication skills
}2020ComSciCon GTA 2020Role: Organizing Committee member for Toronto’s first ComSciCon
}2020Massey Telescope Public Talk SeriesRole: Co-host and gave talk on Ojibwe (First Nation) constellations
}2019Astronomy 11Role: Local Organizing Committee member and lead workshop on scientific plotting
}2019ComSciCon Canada 2019Selected participant at Canada’s first national science communication workshop for graduate students

Mentoring

}2026Reem Hamraz Google Summer of Code for AstropyHardening Astropy’s core stability
}2025 – 2026Amir Abdul (Howard)Baryon Modeling in External Galaxies with Stellar StreamsLeadership Alliance National Symposium, July 23–25, 20252025 NSBP-NSHP Joint Annual Conference, November 19–23, 20252026 APS Global Physics Summit, March 14–20, 2026
}2025 – 2026Taisiia Karasova (MIT) with Prof. Lina Necib (MIT)Machine Learning Galaxy intrinsic sizes
}2024 – 2026Charlotte Myers (MIT) with Prof. Lina Necib (MIT)Physics-Informed Neural Networks for Modeling Galactic Gravitational PotentialsNeurIPS Paper
}2023 – 2025Connor McKeigan (Astronomy, UofT) with Prof. Ting Li (UofT)Undergraduate thesis project: β€œCharacterizing the stellar streams of S5”
}2019 – 2022Massey Tutoring ProgramVolunteer math and physics tutor to prospective first-generation college students2019, 2020 and 2022.

Teaching

}2019 – 2020Lead Observer: AST101-325, University of TorontoRole: Trained and liaised with TAs and students in all courses using the campus telescope facilities.
}2019 – 2024TA, AST 201: Stars and Galaxies, University of TorontoRole: Designed and ran weekly course tutorial sections, created exam questions, proctored exams, and graded course projects.2019, 2021–2024.
}2018 – 2023TA, AST 101: The Sun and its Neighbours, University of TorontoRole: Designed and ran weekly course tutorial sections, planetarium shows, & observing nights; created exam questions, proctored exams, and graded course projects.2018, 2021–2023.
}2015Grader: Honors Mechanics, CWRUGraded assignments and exams
}2014 – 2015Physics Instructor for IB Physics, Montessori High School, ClevelandPrepared and tutored IB physics class, assigning and grading homework, for IB exam

Peer Review

Professional Service

}2022 – 2023Massey House CommitteeJunior Fellow governance committee at Massey college.
}2019 –Massey Junior FellowUniversity of Toronto's graduate college for those showing exceptional promise and engagement within academia and the world beyond it.
}2019 –MasseyScope Committee MemberOrganizing astronomy outreach with a focus on underprivileged communities
}2019 – 2020Sigma Nu Alumni Advisory BoardRole: Member of the Sustainability and Chapter Operations committees
}2018 –Canadian Astronomical Society (CASCA)
}2015 – 2017Executive Board Member for Chabad at CWRUOrganized events on campus: dinners, holidays, charity events, and outreach programs Role: General Executive Board Member (2016-2017) Role: Chief financial officer (2015 -2016)
}2015 – 2018Sigma Nu FraternityMember in good standing. Served as webmaster (2016-2018) in charge of the fraternity webpage for news, programmed events, and intra-fraternal governance

Outreach

}2019 – 2021AstroTours Telescope OrganizerOrganizer for all telescope outreach in Dunlap's public event
}2019 – 2022Massey Telescopes Outreach CoordinatorOrganizing committee member for astronomy outreach and appreciation at Massey College
}2019Planet Party Toronto Volunteer
}2018 – 2020Astronomy on Tap Toronto Volunteer
}2018 – 2019AstroTours Planetarium PresenterRegular planetarium show designer and presenter for Dunlap's AstroTours public outreach
}2018 – 2021AstroTours Toronto Outreach Volunteer

Small Grants

}2023Dunlap Student Training GrantTo attend the DESC sprint week
}2023Collaboration Meeting GrantTo visit the Center for Computational Astrophysics and collaborate on the paper
}2023Astropy Moore Travel GrantTo participate in the 2023 Astropy Coordination meeting
}2022Dunlap Student Training GrantTo attend Streams22: the Community Atlas of Tidal Streams workshop
}2022Streams22 Conference BursaryTo attend Streams22: the Community Atlas of Tidal Streams workshop
}2019Reinhardt Travel AwardTo present at the 30th Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics
}2019STScI Travel FundingTo attend STScI 2020 The Local Group: Assembly and Evolution Symposium
}2019Dunlap Student Travel GrantTo present at the 5th Gaia Challenge Workshop (Value: $2,075)
}2019Reinhardt Travel AwardTo present at the Great Lakes Cosmology Workshop
}2019ComSciCon Canada Travel AwardTo attend the first Canadian Science Communication Conference, ComSciConCAN

Media

}2023The JCR: A Massey Podcast - ChatGPT: Friend or FoePanelist for a public podcast interviewing researchers on how generative AI is used in various scientific fields
}2023The New ScientistFeatured in article on various strategies to detect dark matter, including the method from my paper
}2022Massey Dialogue: Science and AestheticsPanelist for interdisciplinary salon discussion series
}2021Smithsonian Feature ArticleInterviewed for feature article about my paper
}2020Massey Dialogue: Techplomacy with Consul General Rana SarkarPanelist and co-organizer for a salon discussion on the Future of regulating Big Tech