CV

Contact Information

Name Dr Josh Veitch-Michaelis
Professional Title Applied Machine Learning Researcher
Email
Phone
Location , ,

Professional Summary

Applied machine learning researcher specialising in remote sensing, with over a decade of software development experience. I have worked in academia and industry, from space science to ecology and I’m passionate about using technology for social good and planetary stewardship. I have wintered in Antarctica for two world-class telescopes (IceCube and SPT).

Experience

  • 2023 - 2024

    South Pole, Antarctica

    10-meter South Pole Telescope (SPT) Winterover
    University of Chicago
    Operated SPT, on-call 24/7. Hardware and cluster management, supported Event Horizon Telescope operations and contributed to SPT’s codebase.
  • 2023 - 2023

    Zürich, Switzerland

    Project Faculty
    Frontier Development Lab
    Co-supervised a research group to now-cast space weather events like flares and CMEs, working with ESA’s VIGIL team (on-ground and on-satellite ML deployment).
  • 2022 - 2023

    Zürich, Switzerland

    Postdoc in AI for Remote Sensing (Systems Group)
    ETH Zürich / Restor
    Informed Restor’s AI strategy applied to remotely sensed data from partner orgs. Developed Restor’s open-source tree crown delineation pipeline, including dataset curation/annotation, ML model training and benchmarking on user data.
  • 2020 - 2021

    South Pole, Antarctica

    IceCube Winterover Experiments Operator
    Wisconsin-Madison University
    Operated the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole, providing 24/7 critical hardware and software support. Maintained an on-prem cluster of 100+ machines.
  • 2018 - 2020

    Liverpool, UK

    Postdoctoral Research Assistant in Drone Image Analyses (Astro-Ecology)
    Liverpool John Moores University
    Led instrument design for a real-time, drone-mounted endangered species detection system using thermal/visible imaging and deep learning. Collaborations with Save The Elephants (Kenya), WWF, ZSL (London), Durrell (Madagascar) and Knowsley Safari.
  • 2019 - 2019

    Oxford, UK; ESRIN, Italy

    Researcher
    Frontier Development Lab, Europe
    Development of a satellite-based flood segmentation model, supported by UNICEF and ESA. Presented at NeurIPS HADR workshop, 2 follow-up papers in Sci. Rep. Launched on a D-Orbit satellite in June 2021 and was flight-tested in space.
  • 2013 - 2018

    Tonbridge, UK

    Computer vision/robotics and photonics engineering
    I3D Robotics Ltd. & IS Instruments Ltd
    Designed bespoke 3D imaging and analysis systems, including embedded ML. Clients included robotics, heavy industry (steel), agriculture and nuclear.
  • 2011 -

    Board Member & Working Group Leader
    International Workshop for Astronomy
    IWA is a non-profit organisation that runs the International Astronomical Youth Camp (iayc.org). Supervised over 50 participants, held various board positions and continue to support the camp.
  • 2016 -

    Webmaster
    International Workshop for Astronomy
    Linux server administration, deployment on GCP.

Education

  • 2012 - 2016

    Mullard Space Science Lab, UK

    PhD
    University College London
    Space and Climate Physics
    • Thesis: Fusion of LIDAR with stereo camera data – an assessment
    • Supervised by Prof. Jan-Peter Muller
    • RSPSOC award for best PhD thesis (2017)
  • 2008 - 2012

    Warwick, UK

    BSc MPhys, first class honours
    University of Warwick
    Physics
    • Thesis: Systematics of Quark masses and mixings, supervised by Prof. Paul Harrison

Awards

  • 2024
    Antarctica Service Medal (Winterover)
    National Science Foundation, USA

    For supporting US Antarctic science operations (South Pole Telescope and IceCube Neutrino Observatory). Awarded in 2021 and 2024.

  • 2019
    Google Cloud Research Credit
    LJMU

    $5k to support research into RGB-Thermal data fusion for ecology.

  • 2018
    ADASS Hackathon, 3rd place
    Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems

    Project: Automated Periodogram Selection using Machine Learning.

  • 2017
    Best PhD Thesis
    Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society (RSPSOC)

  • 2016
    SIM Scholar
    Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers

    Postgraduate award for excellence in instrumentation research, nominated by UCL.

  • 2011
    Undergraduate Research Scholarship
    University of Warwick

    Calibrating the ULTRACAM High-Speed CCD Camera.

Skills

Programming (): Python, C++, Qt (GUI development), Shell
Machine Learning (): PyTorch, Edge deployment (EdgeTPU, NCS, Jetson), Computer vision, Remote sensing
Geospatial & Robotics (): GIS, OpenCV, ROS
Infrastructure (): Linux system administration, Git, Cloud (GCP), Docker
Hardware (): Camera/LIDAR systems, CAD (SolidWorks), Rapid prototyping (3D Printing), Multi-layer PCB design, Digital electronics and firmware, Large telescope systems

Languages

English : Native speaker

Interests

Hobbies: Photography, Making things, Bouldering, Piano, Gliding