Sasha (Alexander A.) Kaurov, Ph.D

sasha@kaurov.org — kaurov.org — +1-773-787-9856 — linkedin.com/in/akaurov — Google scholar

Interdisciplinary researcher with 10+ years of experience in astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology, and 2+ years in sociology. Interested in meaningful incorporation of novel technology into education and science outreach.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Blue Marble Space Institute of Science

Research Associate

Seattle, WA

November 2021 — Present

Harvard University

Research Associate, History of Science

Dean's Competitive Fund for Promising Scholarship, PI Naomi Oreskes

Boston, MA 

 March 2022 — Present 

• Working paper: Evaluating the discussion of climate change by religious leaders in the USA by collecting and analyzing publicly available sermons recordings from thousands of churches.

• Led the project “Trends in American scientists’ political donations and implications for trust in science” in collaboration with V. Cologna, C. Tyson, and N. Oreskes, published in Nature’s Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 9, 368 (2022)

Berggruen Institute

Honorary fellow, PI Naomi Oreskes

Los Angeles, CA 

 September 2023 — Present 

• Utilizing Artificial Intelligence techniques to analyze extensive collections of climate change-related documents, aiming to reveal shifts in public and institutional perceptions over time.

The Institute for Advanced Study

Postdoctoral member, School of Natural Sciences
Visitor, Interdisciplinary Program

Princeton, NJ

September 2021 — July 2023

September 2016 — July 2021

Selected projects:

• “Highly Magnified Stars in Lensing Clusters: New Evidence in a Galaxy Lensed by MACS J0416.1-2403”
  A. Kaurov, L. Dai, T. Venumadhav, J. Miralda-Escudé, B. Frye, The Astrophysical Journal 880 (1), 58 (2019)
• “Simulations of 60Fe entrained in ejecta from a near-Earth supernova: Effects of observer motion”
  E. Chaikin, A. Kaurov, B. D. Fields, C. A. Correa MNRAS, Volume 512, Issue 1, Pages 712–727 (2022)
• “Implication of the Shape of the EDGES Signal for the 21 cm Power Spectrum” A. Kaurov, T. Venumadhav, L. Dai, M. Zaldarriaga The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 864, Issue 1, article id. L15, 5 pp. (2018)

Columbia University

Summer lecturer

New York, NY

July 2022 — August 2022

Fermilab

Research Assistant, Astrophysics group

Batavia, IL
September 2012 — July 2013

The University of Chicago

Research assistant

Teaching assistant

Chicago, IL
September 2013 — July 2016 

September 2011 — July 2012

EDUCATION

Victoria University of WellingtonWellington

Ph.D. in Science and Society

Wellington, New Zealand

February 2024 — Present

The University of Chicago

Ph.D. in Astronomy and Astrophysics — scientific advisor Nickolay Gnedin

Chicago, IL, USA

graduated in June 2016

The Saint-Petersburg’s Polytechnic University

B.Sc. in Nuclear Astrophysics

Saint-Petersburg, Russia

graduated in June 2011

COMMUNITY SERVICE / NON-PROFIT

Didactic.AI
Founder

March 2023 — Present

Founded and currently overseeing a research-oriented non-profit initiative aimed at countering the negative influence of existing social media algorithms. Spearheading initiatives to develop ethical, AI-driven recommendation systems tailored for educational contexts.

Earthlings Hub (earthlingshub.org)
co-Founder

March 2022 — Present

Founded in March 2022, Earthlings Hub addresses the educational needs of families and orphanages displaced by the war in Ukraine. More than a hundred scientists, teachers, and psychologists collaborate to offer students a balancing and enriching inquiry-based educational program going beyond the standard school curriculum and incorporating exposure to scientific research. Earthlings Hub is administered by US-based international 501(c)(3) non-profit Blue Marble Space.

The Science Mentors (thesciencementors.com)

co-Founder

2020 — 2022

Co-developed scientific programming and built infrastructure to individually match 300+ mentee-mentor pairs of early career scientists from Eastern Europe.  

Miscellaneous:

• The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) grant review panelist.
• Referee for Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

SCIENCE OUTREACH AND TECHNOLOGY

OmniScope (omniscope.org)

Founder

June 2020 — Present

Utilizing new technologies, such as artificial intelligence and virtual worlds, to educate and communicate about science in the most meaningful and transformative ways. Selected projects:

• Science communication in the shared virtual worlds. Established collaborations and produced immersive virtual reality shows with the Japanese Space Exploration Agency, the Earth Life Science Institute (ELSI, Tokyo Institute of Technology) and Nautilus magazine. Performed talent search, acquisition and directed these projects. — omniscope.org/virtual-worlds
• Online immersive theater show En Route. Co-produced a 2D web-based sci-fi show with leading online immersive theater specialists. Role: science consultant and technology development. — EnRoute.space 

MENTORSHIP AND LEADERSHIP

Academic:

• Served as the primary scientific advisor of five undergraduate students, who later received M.Sc. fellowships in Germany and Switzerland and later pursued Ph.D. programs.
• Mentored graduate student from Princeton University.
• Mentored undergraduate interns from Harvard University.

Outside of academia:

• Established the processes in the non-profit organizations with 100+ members.

REFERENCES

Academic:

• Naomi Oreskes, professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University oreskes@fas.harvard.edu 
• Matias Zaldarriaga, professor at the Institute for Advanced Study matiasz@ias.edu

Teaching, education and outreach:

• Julia Turchaninova, professor at North Houston Early College, former vice-dean of the Russian’s Academy for Educators’ In-Service Training  yturchan@gmail.com 
• Piet Hut, professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study  piet@ias.edu 

LIST OF PROJECTS AND PUBLICATIONS

Computational sociology:

• Trends in American scientists’ political donations and implications for trust in science (Kaurov, 2023; Kaurov et al., 2022)
• Commute accessibility of planetariums in the United States (Kaurov et al., 2021)

Astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology:

• Adapting techniques inspired by machine learning methods for mapping and detection of extragalactic hydrogen (Greig et al., 2022a, 2022b)
• Numerical modeling for statistical description of photon-hydrogen scattering in turbulent media (Munirov & Kaurov, 2023)
• Time-series image analysis for capturing rear gravitational lensing events (Dai et al., 2018, 2020; Kaurov et al., 2019)
• Statistical properties of spatial distribution of dust particles in hydrodynamical simulations of dust-gas mixtures (Steinwandel et al., 2022)
• Simulation of supernova ejecta of heavy 60Fe isotope found on Earth (E. Chaikin et al., 2022)
• Statistical properties of the Large Scale Structure of the universe derived from the basic principles (Ivanov et al., 2019)
• Spatial statistical properties of early universe as an evidence of early heating of the universe and its physical origin (Kaurov et al., 2018; Venumadhav et al., 2018)
• Statistical anomalies of merging galaxies observed by the Hubble Space Telescope (E. A. Chaikin et al., 2018)
• Numerical and analytical modeling and the statistical description of the early universe (Gnedin & Kaurov, 2014; Kaurov, 2016b; Kaurov & Gnedin, 2012, 2014a, 2014b, 2016)
• Numerical modeling of neutron stars (E. A. Chaikin et al., 2017; Kaminker et al., 2014; Popov et al., 2015)
• Numerical modeling of dark matter annihilation and its effect on the universe (Kaurov, 2016a; Kaurov et al., 2016)