Mariel Pettee
Physicist, AI researcher, and artist
marielpettee.com • mpettee@lbl.gov

Education
2021

Yale University, New Haven, CT

PhD in Physics

2015

University of Cambridge, Trinity College, Cambridge, UK
Lt. Charles H. Fiske III Harvard-Cambridge Scholar
Commendable Performance

MASt in Physics

2014

Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Cum Laude, High Honors in Field
Secondary in Dramatic Arts

AB in Physics & Mathematics

Research Experience
2022 - Now

Guest Researcher • Flatiron Institute & Polymathic AI
As a founding member of the Polymathic AI collaboration, I am working to build thefirst foundation models for science. My focus areas include numerical embeddings inlanguage models, understanding interdisciplinary domain transfer, and interpretability.
Supervisor: Prof. Shirley Ho2021 - Now

Chamberlain Postdoctoral Fellow • Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
My postdoctoral work is grounded in radical applications of AI for fundamental physics.
Highlights include the first unbinned measurement at the LHC, finding stellar streams
in the Milky Way with weakly-supervised anomaly detection, improving pion reconstruction with GNNs, and exploring best practices for learning likelihood ratios.
Supervisor: Dr. Benjamin Nachman

2020

AI Intern • Intel AI Lab
As a summer intern with the AI Lab at Intel, I developed a recurrent VAE architecture
to learn latent graph representations of the human body in motion.
Supervisor: Dr. Hanlin Tang

2016 - 2021

Graduate Researcher • Yale University & the ATLAS Experiment at CERN
The highlight of my PhD thesis was finding the first evidence of a Higgs boson producedin association with a leptonically-decaying W or Z boson and decaying into a pair of tau
leptons. I also implemented RNN-based tau triggers in ATLAS and performed trigger
and data acquisition optimization studies at the Mu2e Experiment at Fermilab.
Supervisor: Prof. Sarah Demers

2014 - 2015

Graduate Researcher • University of Cambridge
While pursuing my Master’s degree at the University of Cambridge, I constructed andtested nanoscale battery prototypes made of DNA-functionalized gold nanocolloids.
Supervisor: Prof. Erika Eiser
1Selected Publications
Full list of papers with the ATLAS Collaboration. (Note: ▷ indicates alphabetical author ordering.)
2024

ATLAS Collaboration (Contact Editor). A Simultaneous Unbinned Differential Cross Section
Measurement of 24 Z+jets Kinematic Observables with the ATLAS Detector. Submitted to Phys.
Rev. L. [CERN-EP-2024-132] [arXiv:2405.20041] [hep-ex].
ATLAS Collaboration (Contact Editor). Evidence of the VH, H→ττ process with the ATLAS
detector in Run 2. Phys. Rev. B. [CERN-EP-2023-272] [arXiv:2312.02394] [hep-ex].

2023

S. Golkar, M. Pettee, M. Eickenberg, A. Bietti, M. Cranmer, G. Krawezik, F. Lanusse, M. McCabe, R.
Ohana, L. Parker, B. Régalo-Saint Blancard, T. Tesileanu, K. Cho, S. Ho. xVal: A Continuous Number Encoding for Large Language Models. NeurIPS AI for Science Workshop. [arXiv:2310.02989][stat.ML].
M. Pettee, S. Thanvantri, B. Nachman, D. Shih, M. R. Buckley, J. H. Collins. Weakly-Supervised
Anomaly Detection in the Milky Way. MNRAS. [arXiv:2305.03761] [astro-ph.GA].
S. Rizvi, M. Pettee, B. Nachman. Learning Likelihood Ratios with Neural Network Classifiers.
JHEP. [arXiv:2305.10500] [hep-ph].
V. Mikuni, M. Pettee, B. Nachman. Fast Point Cloud Generation with Diffusion Models in HighEnergy Physics. Phys. Rev. D. [arXiv:2304.01266] [hep-ph].
▷ A. Huang, X. Ju, J. Lyons, D. Murnane, M. Pettee, L. Reed. Heterogeneous Graph Neural Network for Identifying Hadronically Decayed Tau Leptons at the High Luminosity LHC. JINST.
[arXiv:2301.00501] [physics.ins-det].

2022▷ A. Bogatskiy, S. Ganguly, T. Kipf, R. Kondor, D. W. Miller, D. Murnane, J. T. Offermann, M. Pettee(co-editor), P. Shanahan, C. Shimmin, and S. Thais. Symmetry Group Equivariant Architectures
for Physics. Snowmass 2021 White Paper. [arXiv:2203.06153] [cs.LG].
ATLAS Collaboration (co-editor). Point Cloud Deep Learning Methods for Pion Reconstructionin the ATLAS Experiment. [ATL-PHYS-PUB-2022-040].
M. Papillon, M. Pettee, N. Miolane. PirouNet: Creating Dance through Artist-Centric Deep Learning. EAI ArtsIT 2022 (Best Paper Award). [arXiv:2207.12126] [cs.LG].
M. Papillon, M. Pettee, N. Miolane. Intentional Choreography with Semi-Supervised Recurrent
VAEs. NeurIPS 2022 Workshop on ML for Creativity and Design. [arXiv:2209.10010] [cs.LG].
▷ G. Kasieczka, R. Mastandrea, V. Mikuni, B. Nachman, M. Pettee, D. Shih. Anomaly Detection
Under Coordinate Transformations. [arXiv:2209.06225] [hep-ph].

2021

M. Pettee. Interdisciplinary Machine Learning for Particle Physics. PhD Thesis, Yale University.

2020

M. Pettee, S. Miret, S. Majumdar, and M. Nassar. Choreo-Graph: Learning Latent Graph Representations of the Dancing Body. NeurIPS 2020 Workshop on ML for Creativity and Design.

2019

M. Pettee, C. Shimmin, D. Duhaime, and I. Vidrin. Beyond Imitation: Generative and Variational
Choreography via Machine Learning. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Computational Creativity. [arXiv:1907.05297] [cs.LG].
The ATLAS Collaboration (co-editor). Expected Performance of the ATLAS Detector at the HighLuminosity LHC. [ATL-PHYS-PUB-2019-005].

2

Invited Talks
A Simultaneous Unbinned Differential Cross-Section Measurement of 24 Z+jets Observables
2024

Ljubljana, Slovenia

ATLAS Standard Model Workshop

Towards Foundation Models for Fundamental Physics
2024
NASA, Huntsville, AL
Science Mission Directorate AI Workshop
DESY, Hamburg, Germany
1st Large Language Models in Physics Symposium
LBNL, Berkeley, CA
Physics Division Research Progress Meeting
U. of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
AI-Driven Discovery in Physics & Astrophysics
KEK, Tsukuba, Japan
ML for HEP Workshop
What Do Language Models Have to Say About Fundamental Physics?
2024
MIT, Cambridge, MA
IAIFI Summer Workshop
UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Bakar Inst. of Digital Materials for the Planet Seminar
SLAC, Menlo Park, CA
SLAC AI Seminar
2023

IBM, Zurich, Switzerland

IBM Research Seminar

Dancing With Myself: AI and Choreography
2024
Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
AI in the Humanities Symposium
Foothill College, Los Altos Hills, CA Creativity in the Age of AI Symposium
2023

Mills College, Oakland, CA

DanceHack Workshop

2022

U. of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL
Amherst College, Amherst, MA
Ballet Des Moines, Des Moines, IA
Kinetech Arts, San Francisco, CA

Theatre & Dance Department Colloquium
AI in the Liberal Arts Seminar
Panel Discussion: Creativity, Science, and Ethics
Y-Exchange Featured Artist

2020

Kinetech Arts, San Francisco, CA
Brown U., Providence, RI

Kinetech Open Lab Talk
Conference for Research on Choreographic Interfaces

Interdisciplinary AI for Fundamental Physics
2023
Ascona, Switzerland
Hammers & Nails (Swiss Edition)
Flatiron CCA, New York, NY
KITP Workshop on Data-Driven Galaxy Evolution
2022

Univ. of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL
SLAC, Menlo Park, CA
UC Irvine, Irvine, CA
Imperial College, London, UK
Amherst College, Amherst, MA
Cornell U., Ithaca, NY

Physics Department Colloquium
SLAC AI Seminar
Physics & Astronomy Machine Learning Seminar Series
Data Learning Working Group Seminar
Artificial Intelligence in the Liberal Arts Seminar Series
Laboratory for Elementary Particle Physics Journal Club

2021

UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Seattle U., Seattle, WA
U. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN
Flatiron Institute, New York, NY

Berkeley Institute for Data Science ML + Science Forum
Physics Department Colloquium
HEP Seminar
Center for Computational Astrophysics ML Forum

Weakly-Supervised Anomaly Detection in the Milky Way
2023
UChicago, Chicago, IL
Data Science Institute & James Franck Institute Seminar
Rutgers U., New Brunswick, NJ
High-Energy Physics Theory Seminar3

Eqivariance Meets Invariance: Physics-Informed Machine Learning
2023

Minneapolis, MN

American Physical Society (APS) April Meeting

Contributed Talks
A Simultaneous Unbinned Differential Cross-Section Measurement of 24 Z+jets Observables
2024

Sorbonne Université, Paris, France

France-Berkeley PHYSTAT Conference on Unfolding

Using Classifiers for Unbinned Unfolding
2024
Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
France-Berkeley PHYSTAT Conference on Unfolding
Weakly-Supervised Anomaly Detection in the Milky Way
2023
Flatiron Institute, New York, NY
Flatiron-Wide Machine Learning Meeting
Point Cloud Methods for Pion Reconstruction in the ATLAS Detector
2022
CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
Inter-experiment Machine Learning Workshop
New York, NY
APS April Meeting
Dancing with Myself: AI and Choreography
2021
St. Louis, MO
Strange Loop Conference
Choreo-Graph: Learning Latent Graph Representations of the Dancing Body
2020
NeurIPS, Vancouver, Canada
Workshop on ML for Creativity and Design
Run 3 Triggers for HLeptons Analyses
2020
OnlineATLAS Tau & HLeptons Workshop

Expected ATLAS Performance at the HL-LHC
2019
UMass Amherst, Amherst, MA
US ATLAS Workshop
Overview of Tau vs. Jet Identification
2019

Prague, Czech Republic

ATLAS Tau & HLeptons Workshop

Beyond Imitation: Generative Choreography via Machine Learning
2019
UNC Charlotte, Charlotte, NCInternational Conference on Computational Creativity
RNN Tau Identification in the ATLAS HLT
2018Fermilab, Batavia, IL
US LHC Users Association Meeting
CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
ATLAS Machine Learning Workshop
The 2018 ATLAS Tau Trigger & Combined Performance2018
U. of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
US ATLAS Workshop
ATLAS Tau Trigger & Combined Performance at High µ
2018

CERN, Geneva, Switzerland

FTK & the Tau Trigger
2018
CERN, Geneva, Switzerland

ATLAS P&P Physics Plenary

ATLAS TDAQ Week
4

Awards
2023

DOE Mission Science Allocation Award• “Multidisciplinary AI Models for Science”

NERSC

2021

Owen Chamberlain Postdoctoral Fellowship

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

2018

Lightning Round Talk Winner

US LHC Users Association

Women’s Faculty Forum Seed Grant

Yale University

Winner, Windy City Physics Slam
• PBS Chicago Interview Clip

ICHEP

Distinguished Poster Award (Top 20 out of 500)

ICHEP

Leigh Page Prize

Yale University

Honorable Mention

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

Harvard-Cambridge Scholarship• Full tuition for a master’s program at Cambridge

Harvard University

Julia Shaffner Memorial Prize• Outstanding woman in science

Harvard University

President’s Challenge Finalist

The Harvard Innovation Lab

15 Most Interesting Seniors

The Harvard Crimson

Judges’ Award for Acting

International Student Drama Festival

Certificate of Distinction in Teaching

Harvard University

Caroline Isenberg Fellowship

Harvard University

Elizabeth Cary Agassiz Fellowship

Harvard University

Best Lead Actress in a Play

Harvard Theater Award

2016

2015
2014

2013
2012

2011

Press
2024 Viewing the Standard Model with unprecedented detail through the lens of AI
Berkeley Lab Physical Sciences News
2023 ATLAS measures rare Higgs boson interaction with tau leptons, ATLAS Briefing“Scientists Begin Building AI for Scientific Discovery Using Tech Behind ChatGPT”• Simons Foundation Press Release• Berkeley Lab Article
2022 Interviewee on the Cognicast podcast• A wide-ranging discussion of my research trajectory across AI, physics, and art• Episode webpage• Listen on Apple Podcasts
2021 Mariel Pettee successfully defends PhD thesis, Yale Physics
2020 Advice to Women in STEM: Mariel Pettee, Yale Scientific Magazine

5

2019 Feature on Yale University’s Instagram page
Featured on Women+ Art AI
2016 Scientists Battle for Physics Slam Crown, PBS Chicago
2013 15 Most Interesting Seniors: Mariel N. Pettee, The Harvard Crimson

Scientific Essays
2024 A high-dimensional jet-powered measurement of the strong force
CERN Experimental Physics Newsletter
2023 LLMs and the Language of Science
APS Topical Group on Data Science Newsletter
xVal: A Continuous Number Encoding for LLMs
Polymathic AI Collaboration Blog Post
2018 Theories of Everything
Sightline Arts
Now or Never: The Case for a Larger Hadron Collider
Yale Distilled Magazine

Teaching Experience
Guest Lectures
2023 The Language of Movement
2021 Graduate-level Machine Learning for Physics

Amherst College, Amherst, MA
U. of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL

Graduate-level Courses on Scientific Teaching2016 Physics 530: Theory and Practice of Scientific Teaching for Physical Scientists
2014 Astro 302: Scientists Teaching Science

Yale
Harvard

Teaching Assistant Experience
Note: ▷ indicates courses for which I was the sole TA.
2016 - 2018
2018
2017
2016
2015
2012 - 2013
2013

▷
▷

▷

Physics 115: The Physics of Dance
American Studies 349: Technologies for Movement ResearchPhysics 171: University Physics for the Life Sciences
Physics 205L: Modern Physical Measurement
Physics 165L: General Physics Laboratory
Math 121: Linear Algebra and Applications
Math 110: Vector Space Methods for Differential Equations

6

Yale University
Yale University
Yale University
Yale University
Yale University
Harvard University
Harvard University

Student Mentorship
Fall 2024

Malika Golshan, post-grad in Physics at UC Berkeley
Weakly Supervised vs. Fully Supervised Learning

Summer 2024

Abhipsha Das, grad student in Computer Science at NYU Courant Institute
Mapping the Landscape of Scientific Literature with LLMs

Summer 2024

Luis Zerkowski, grad student in Artificial Intelligence at University of Amsterdam
Analyzing Choreographic Duets with Graph-Based Autoencoders

Summer 2024

Zixuan Wang, grad student in Computer Science at Georgia Institute of Technology
Generating Choreographic Duets with Transformers

2022 - 2024

Shahzar Rizvi, undergrad & then graduate student in Statistics at UC Berkeley
Learning Likelihood Ratios with Neural Network Classifiers (published in JHEP)
Next position: graduate student at MIT

2022 - 2024

Sowmya Thanvantri, undergrad in Physics at UC Berkeley
Weakly-Supervised Anomaly Detection in the Milky Way (published in MNRAS)
Next position: graduate student at Princeton

2022

Jason Wong, undergrad in Physics at UC Berkeley
Optimization Studies for the ATLAS OmniFold Measurement (ATLAS preprint)
Next position: graduate student at UC Berkeley

Leadership & Service
2024

Google Summer of Code Mentor• Directly supervised two open-source 12-week research projects with students
Organizer for NeurIPS Physical Sciences Workshop
Co-Coordinator of Polymathic AI’s future research & development cohort

2019 - 2024

Reviewer for NeurIPS Physical Sciences Workshop

2017 - 2021

HLeptons Trigger Liaison: Trigger Studies for the ATLAS H → τ τ Analysis Group

2020

Session Co-Convener, PyHEP 2020 (Conference for Python in High-Energy Physics)

2019

Reviewer for Women in Machine Learning (WiML) Workshop

2014

President, The Signet Society of Arts & Letters, Harvard University

7Inclusion & Outreach2022 - 2024

QuarkNet Speaker• Presented a talk on physics, art, and ML to high school students• Answered their questions in a separate hour-long interview

2020

Member of the American Physical Society’s Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity Alliance2019 - 2021

Member of the Yale Physics Climate & Diversity Committee• Advocated for a department-wide discussion of discrimination in our community• Contributed to the design of our department’s Code of Conduct

2018 - 2020

US LHC Users Association advocacy trip to Capitol Hill
• Met with the offices of around 15 representatives from Congress each year
• Garnered support for high-energy physics research through DOE & NSF

2017 - 2018

Speaker, Science in the News, delivering scientific talks to the New Haven publicGirls’ Science Investigations at Yale
• Volunteer & “ask-a-scientist” Q&A speaker

2016

Winner, Windy City Physics Slam at ICHEP
Choreographer of Form Factors, a dance intervention with physicists at ICHEP

2015 - 2020

Yale Women in Physics Mentor

Posters2022

Point Cloud Methods for Pion Reconstruction in the ATLAS Detector
Large Hadron Collider Physics Conference, Online

2020

Choreo-Graph: Learning Latent Graph Representations of the Dancing Body
Women in Machine Learning (WiML) Workshop at NeurIPS, Online
RNN Tau Identification in the ATLAS High-Level Trigger
ATLAS Trigger & Data Acquisition Week at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland

2019

Generative & Variational Choreography via Machine Learning
Women in Machine Learning (WiML) Workshop at NeurIPS, Vancouver, Canada
Machine Woman: Preservation, Memory, Forgetting, and AI
Women’s Faculty Forum, Yale University, New Haven, CT

2017

Performance of the ATLAS Tau Trigger in Run 2
Advanced Computing & Analysis Techniques in Physics Research (ACAT), Seattle, WA

2016

Trigger Studies for the Mu2e Experiment (Poster Award: top 20 out of 500)
International Conference on High Energy Physics (ICHEP), Chicago, IL

8

Arts
AI & Art
2023

mememormee: an evening-length work featuring AI-generated choreography set on six dancers,
following a residency at Amherst College• Spotlight Presentation at the 2023 NeurIPS Workshop on ML for Creativity & Design

2021

Untitled Bird Project: a 1 hour pop-up exhibit featuring AI-generated bird calls situated in nature

2020

Mirror Exercise: an AI-generated duet with myself• Featured in Le Mérite, at the Comédie de Caen, Théâtre des Cordes, France.
• Highlighted in the NeurIPS Workshop on ML for Creativity and Design’s AI Art Gallery• Digital exhibition at Level Up: The Dramaturgy of Digital Performance & Design• Selected by the AI Transparency Institute & featured at the 2020 AI Governance Forum• Boston Cyberarts Gallery exhibition Perceptions / Distortions (cancelled due to COVID)
Studio fellow, Yale Center for Collaborative Arts & Media• Year-long paid fellowship to develop work across art & technology

2019

SIGMA: a short film of AI-generated choreography• Featured in the NeurIPS 2019 Workshop on ML for Creativity & Design’s AI Art Gallery

Live Performance
2022

Dancer, Sublimation• By Kinetech Arts
• Supported by the Djerassi Resident Artists Program and Creative Work Fund
• Performed at David Ruth Glass Studio, Oakland, CA
Dancer, Detour• By Kinetech Arts, commissioned by the Berkeley Dance Project• Performed at Zellerbach Playhouse, Berkeley, CA

2020

Dancer & Coordinator, Transpositions• Dancer in virtual pieces by Brian Seibert, Renee Robinson, and Elm City Dance Collective
Choreographer, Elon Musk and the plan to Blow Up Mars the musical• Yale Cabaret, dir. Liam Bellman-Sharpe
Dancer, Coordinator, & Rehearsal Director, Yale Dance Lab• New work by choreographer Vicky Shick: “everywhere”

2019

Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company Intensive, Yale Dance Theater• Dancer in a restaging of D-Man in the Waters
Featured performer, The Hexagonal Hive and a Mouse in a Maze
• Interviewed for a documentary by the Derek Jarman Lab, directed by Tilda Swinton

2018

Dancer, Dance Drawings (For Jock)• Choreography by Emily Coates located at the Yale Art Gallery’s Sol LeWitt exhibit
Paul Taylor Dance Company Intensive, Yale Dance Theater• Leading role as “The Hostess” in the first restaging of Taylor’s Party Mix in four decades
9Featured performer, Machine Woman, dir. Anna Hagen & Jeannie Sui Wonders• A short film documenting my AI-generated choreography research
2017

Choreographer: “La Mort du Chorégraphe”, A Different Drum Dance Company
Urban Bush Women Intensive, Yale Dance Theater

2016

Gaga Intensive with Saar Harari & Lee Sher, Yale Dance Theater
Choreographer: “Rang Cherries”, A Different Drum Dance Company

2015

Actor, Attempts on Her Life, dir. Tania Clarke, Corpus Playroom, University of Cambridge
Dancer, Evolution, ADC Theatre, University of Cambridge

2014

Director/Writer/Choreographer: Symmetry Breaking, Farkas Hall, Harvard University• My senior physics thesis: an immersive multimedia performance about the Higgs boson
Choreographer-in-Residence, Harvard Dance Center
Dancer, Paper Wing, chor. Jill Johnson, Farkas Hall

2013

Arts@CERN Internship
Eurydice, Antigonick, dir. Ianthe Demos, American Repertory Theater Mainstage
Isabelle & Executive Producer, The Edge of the Map, dir. Calla Videt (Sightline Theater Company)
Dancer, At Last, Loeb Experimental Theater, Harvard University
Dancer, On The Run, Harvard Dance Center

2012

Vice-President & Mainstage Coordinator, The Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club
Lucy, CryHurtFood, Loeb Experimental Theater & Crucible Mainstage (Sheffield, UK)
Director: for the purpose of catching ourselves in the act of being the most
• Set the Guinness World Record for the longest telephone conversation between two people

2011

Co-founder and collaborator, The Harvard Generalist artistic collective
Drama & Dance Proctor, Harvard University Freshman Arts Program (2011-2014)10