Vita

Peter E. Nugent Jr. · Division Deputy for Science, Applied Mathematics & Computational Research Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Project Scientist of the La Silla Schmidt Southern Survey; member of DES, DESI and LSST-DESC. Author of over 389 refereed articles (1993–2026), h-index of 114.

Professional Experience

• 2014–presentDivision Deputy for Science, AMCR Division, LBNL
• 2010–presentSenior Staff Scientist, LBNL
• 2014–presentSenior Fellow, Berkeley Institute for Data Science
• 2010–2018Adjunct Professor of Astronomy, UC Berkeley
• 2016–2022Department Head for Computational Science, LBNL
• 2010–2014Group Lead, Computational Cosmology Center
• 2010–2014Group Lead, NERSC Data Analytics
• 2001–2010Staff Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
• 1996–2001Postdoctoral Fellow in Physics, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
• 1995–1996Research Assistant, University of Oklahoma
• 1988–1990Teaching Assistant, Bowdoin College

Education

• 1997Ph.D. in Physics (concentration in Astronomy), University of Oklahoma
  Thesis: Non-LTE Spectrum Synthesis of Type Ia Supernovae. Advisor: Edward Baron.
• 1993M.S. in Physics, University of Oklahoma
• 1990B.A. (Magna Cum Laude) in Physics (High Honors), Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine

Honors and Awards

• 2020Oppenheimer Science and Energy Leadership Fellow
• 2015Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics
• 2013LBNL Director's Award for Exceptional Scientific Achievement
• 2013NERSC Award for Innovative Use of High Performance Computing
• 2009SuperComputing 2009 Storage Challenge Award
• 2007Gruber Prize in Cosmology
• 1997Nielsen Award, Physics Department, University of Oklahoma
• 1990–1995GAANN Fellowship, U.S. Department of Education, University of Oklahoma
• 1988–1990Noel C. Little & Edwin H. Hall Physics Prizes, Bowdoin College

Current Grants (where PI or lab-PI)

• 2026–2027AHPI: Agentic HPC Pipeline Initiative (DOE Genesis Mission, $900k)
• 2026–2027HERALD: High-throughput ECI Review and Agentic Legacy Document processing (DOE Genesis Mission, $632k)
• 2024–2027TRAC: Trustworthy Rapid Approvals for Countermeasures (DTRA, $850k)
• 2026VerfAI for IAEA Compliance (DOE/NNSA, $30k)
• 2025–2026CM2US (DOE/ASCR, $200k)
• 2022–2025ModCon (DOE/ASCR, $200k)
• 2023–2026EMERGE: ExaEpi for Robust, Generalized Epidemiology (DOE/ASCR, $12M)
• 2023–2028Center for Computational Excellence (DOE/HEP, $5M)
• 2023–2026High Performance Computing for Energy Innovation (DOE/EERE, $800k)
• 2023–2026A FAIR Universe: Unbiased Data Benchmarks for Physics (DOE/HEP, $1.8M)

Leadership & Membership Roles

• 2022–presentProject Scientist & Deputy Director of LS4
• 2015–presentLBNL Lab Manager for the HPC4Mfg and HPC4EI programs
• 2008–presentCo-founder of the Computational Cosmology Center at LBNL
• 2009–2014Northern California Coordinator for HiPACC
• 2008–2014PI of the Palomar Transient Factory Type Ia Supernova Project
• 2002–2005Hubble Space Telescope User's Committee
• 1996–presentReferee for ApJ, ApJL, PRL, Science, Nature and PASP
• 1991–presentAmerican Astronomical Society

Teaching Experience

• 2020–presentThesis advisor for Emily Ramey and Kenneth Lin, UC Berkeley
• 2025Thesis advisor for Sarafina Nance, UC Berkeley Ph.D., Type IIP Supernovae for Cosmology
• 2022Co-advisor for Charlotte Ward, University of Maryland Ph.D., Tracing the Formation and Merger-Driven Growth of Massive Black Holes with the ZTF
• 2021Thesis advisor for Michael Medford, UC Berkeley Ph.D., Scalable Methods for Detecting Microlensing Black Holes with the Zwicky Transient Facility
• 2020Thesis advisor for Abigail Polin, UC Berkeley Ph.D., Signatures of Normal and Unusual SNe from Sub-Chandra Explosions
• 2018Thesis advisor for Chelsea Harris, UC Berkeley Ph.D., Numerical Modeling to Characterize the Circumstellar Environments of Type I Supernovae
• 2018Thesis advisor for Daniel Goldstein, UC Berkeley Ph.D., Foundations of Strongly Lensed Supernova Cosmology
• 2018Thesis advisor for Kaylan Burleigh, UC Berkeley Ph.D., A Monte Carlo Method for Identifying Imaging Systematics in Galaxy Surveys
• 2016Co-advisor for Yi Cao, Caltech Ph.D., Cosmic Explosions
• 2015Thesis advisor for Casey Stark, UC Berkeley Ph.D., Hydrodynamic Simulations and Tomographic Reconstructions of the Intergalactic Medium
• 2004Thesis advisor for Daniel Kasen, UC Berkeley Ph.D., 3-D Studies of Supernovae
• 2013–2018Created the first High Performance Computing class for Astronomy, UC Berkeley
• 1996–presentSupervised 50 undergraduate research projects
• 1991–1993Created and conducted a computer laboratory class for Introductory Astronomy

Postdoc Sponsor / Mentor Of

Maayane Soumagnac (LBNL), now faculty at Bar-Ilan University; Zarija Lukić (LBNL), now Research Scientist at LBNL; Andreu Font-Ribera (LBNL), now staff at UCL; Dovi Poznanski (UCB), now faculty at Tel Aviv University; Antonino Cucchiara (LBNL), now staff at NASA Goddard; Rollin Thomas (LBNL), now staff at LBNL; Sebastien Bongard (UCB), now CNRS staff at IN2P3; D. A. Howell (LBNL), now staff/faculty at LCOGT/UCSB.

Selected Publications

• Anya Nugent & Peter Nugent, “Dying star reveals its inner structure,” Nature 644 (2025).
• Fitz Axen, M. & P. Nugent, “The Progenitors of Superluminous Type Ia Supernovae,” The Astrophysical Journal 953 (2023).
• Oyama, Y., P. Nugent et al., “The Case for Strong Scaling in Deep Learning: Training Large 3D CNNs with Hybrid Parallelism,” IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems (2021).
• Polin, A., P. Nugent & D. Kasen, “Observational Predictions for Sub-Chandrasekhar Mass Explosions: Further Evidence for Multiple Progenitor Systems for Type Ia Supernovae,” ApJ 873 (2019).
• Goldstein, D. A. & P. E. Nugent, “How to Find Gravitationally Lensed Type Ia Supernovae,” ApJ 834 (2017).
• Nugent, P. E. et al., “Supernova SN 2011fe from an exploding carbon-oxygen white dwarf star,” Nature 480 (2011).
• Law, N. M., S. R. Kulkarni, P. E. Nugent et al., “The Palomar Transient Factory: System Overview, Performance, and First Results,” PASP 121 (2009).
• Nugent, P., A. Kim & S. Perlmutter, “K-Corrections and Extinction Corrections for Type Ia Supernovae,” PASP 114 (2002).
• Perlmutter, S., G. Aldering, P. Nugent et al., “Measurements of Ω_M and Ω_Λ from 42 High-Redshift Supernovae,” ApJ 517 (1999).