Alan Kaptanoglu
Assistant Professor at New York University
New York, New York, United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolAlan Kaptanoglu is an Assistant Professor at NYU’s Courant Institute specializing in stellarator optimization and plasma physics, combining theoretical training from Stanford and a PhD from the University of Washington with hands-on simulation and ML experience. Over eight years he has moved from national labs and internships (LLNL, SLAC, PPPL) to postdoctoral roles and faculty, developing computational tools for fusion, radiation transport, and high-energy physics applications. He contributes to open-source scientific software—improving PySINDy documentation, examples, and references—which reflects his ability to translate advanced numerical methods into usable research tools. Based in Brooklyn, he blends deep physics insight with practical code and documentation work, and his background in both ICF hydrodynamics and machine-learning-driven jet reconstruction highlights a rare cross-disciplinary fluency.
8 years of coding experience
2 years of employment as a software developer
Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Physics, Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Physics at University of WashingtonHigh School, High School at Carlmont High SchoolBachelor’s Degree, Physics, 3.7, Bachelor’s Degree, Physics, 3.7 at Stanford University
Github Skills (3)
machine-learning10
documentation10
python10
Programming languages (3)
Github contributions (5)
dynamicslab/pysindy
Oct 2021 - Jan 2023
A package for the sparse identification of nonlinear dynamical systems from data
Role in this project:
Technical Writer & Contributor
Technical Writer & ContributorContributions:7 releases, 39 reviews, 83 commits in 1 year 3 months
Contributions summary:Alan primarily focused on updating and expanding the project's documentation. This includes adding detailed references, including new papers and the official JOSS paper, providing a helpful flowchart, and suggesting future contribution ideas. They also added several new examples and updated existing ones, ensuring the documentation aligned with the latest features and functionality of the PySINDy package. Furthermore, the user corrected typos and updated author lists within the documentation to maintain accuracy.
nonlinear-dynamicsnonlinearstructural-engineeringsparse-regressiondynamical-systems
akaptano/PlasmaPhysics_DMD
Aug 2019 - Apr 2020
Contributions:29 commits, 6 pushes in 8 months
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