PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Benjamin Nachman

Also known as Ben Nachman, Benjamin P. Nachman

Benjamin Nachman is a physicist who applies machine learning to fundamental physics. He coauthored Classification Without Labels and OmniFold, methods that let physicists learn from mixed samples and unfold collider data. He coauthored the LHC Olympics report and a living review of machine learning for particle physics, and received the 2021 Guido Altarelli Award and the 2022 Henry Primakoff Award. In 2025, he joined SLAC as an associate professor and became co-director of Stanford’s Center for Decoding the Universe. As of October 2026, he is an associate professor at Stanford, with courtesy appointments in physics and statistics.

Works
2,759
Citations
61,317
h-index
114
Rankings
#88 by h-index
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 27 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2012–2013

    Cornell and Cambridge degrees

    He earns a BA in physics, mathematics and economics at Cornell in 2012, then an MASt in applied mathematics and theoretical physics at Cambridge in 2013.

  2. 2016

    A Stanford physics doctorate

    He earns a PhD in physics with a statistics minor at Stanford in 2016. He then becomes a Chamberlain Postdoctoral Fellow in the Physics Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

  3. 2017

    Classification Without Labels

    With Eric Metodiev and Jesse Thaler, he introduces Classification Without Labels in 2017. The method trains a classifier on statistical mixtures without requiring individual labels or class proportions.

  4. 2019

    OmniFold for collider data

    With Anders Andreassen, Patrick Komiske, Eric Metodiev and Jesse Thaler, he coauthors OmniFold in 2019. The method uses machine learning to iteratively reweight simulated data and supports unbinned, high-dimensional unfolding.

  5. 2020

    Staff scientist at Berkeley Lab

    In 2020, he becomes a staff scientist in the Physics Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. His research develops methods that combine AI with computer simulations and train machine-learning models on data without labels.

  6. 2021

    The LHC Olympics and a review

    In 2021, with Gregor Kasieczka and collaborators, he coauthors The LHC Olympics 2020, a report on a community challenge that uses simulated collider events to test anomaly-detection methods. With Matthew Feickert, he also coauthors A Living Review of Machine Learning for Particle Physics, which organizes research and invites community contributions.

  7. 2021

    The Guido Altarelli Award

    He receives the 2021 Guido Altarelli Award for experimental physics for precision measurements of jet-substructure observables and the use of machine-learning methods.

  8. 2022

    The Henry Primakoff Award

    In 2022, he receives the Henry Primakoff Award for Early-Career Particle Physics for contributions to collider searches for new physics with machine-learning algorithms and for explaining these methods to the wider physics community.

  9. 2025

    SLAC and the decoding center

    In 2025, he joins SLAC as an associate professor of particle physics and astrophysics. He becomes co-director of Stanford’s Center for Decoding the Universe in 2025.

  10. As of October 2026

    Stanford faculty and editorial roles

    As of October 2026, he is an associate professor of particle physics and astrophysics at Stanford, with courtesy appointments in physics and statistics. He is chair line of the American Physical Society Group on Data Science (2024–2027) and deputy editor of Physical Review X Intelligence (2025–2028). His group develops physics and statistics methods for particle, nuclear and astrophysics using modern machine learning.

Career

  1. Since 2025Stanford UniversityAssociate Professor of Particle Physics and Astrophysics
  2. Since 2025Stanford UniversityCo-director, Center for Decoding the Universe
  3. NowStanford UniversityCourtesy appointments in Physics and Statistics
  4. From 2020Lawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryStaff Scientist
  5. 2020–2024Technische Universität Dresden
  6. 2020–2025Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
  7. 2019–2024European Organization for Nuclear Research
  8. 2018–2025TU Dortmund University
  9. 2017–2024CNRS
  10. 2017–2025University of California, Berkeley
  11. 2017–2026Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules
  12. From 2016Lawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryChamberlain Postdoctoral Fellow
  13. 2016–2019University of Geneva
  14. 2016–2025University of Oxford
  15. 2015–2023University of Adelaide
  16. 2013–2016Cornell University

Education

  1. 2016Stanford UniversityPhD in Physics
  2. 2013University of CambridgeMASt in Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics
  3. 2012Cornell UniversityBA in Physics, Mathematics and Economics

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

Checked career sources: profiles.stanford.edu, colloquium.slac.stanford.edu, nachmangroup.stanford.edu, openalex.org.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. Benjamin Nachman’s Profile | Stanford Profiles profiles.stanford.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  2. Reimagining the Exploration of Fundamental Interactions with AI | Colloquium Series at SLAC colloquium.slac.stanford.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  3. Classification without labels: Learning from mixed samples in high energy physics arxiv.org. Checked 27 October 2026.
  4. OmniFold: A Method to Simultaneously Unfold All Observables arxiv.org. Checked 27 October 2026.
  5. We Are Berkeley Lab - Ben Nachman we-are-berkeley-lab.lbl.gov. Checked 27 October 2026.
  6. The LHC Olympics 2020: A Community Challenge for Anomaly Detection in High Energy Physics arxiv.org. Checked 27 October 2026.
  7. A Living Review of Machine Learning for Particle Physics arxiv.org. Checked 27 October 2026.
  8. Guido Altarelli Award 2021 physics.smu.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  9. Henry Primakoff Award for Early-Career Particle Physics | American Physical Society aps.org. Checked 27 October 2026.
  10. Nachman Group: AI for Fundamental Physics nachmangroup.stanford.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.