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oscarhickman/README.md

Oscar Hickman

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Physics at the Insitute for Computational Cosmology at Durham University, focusing on cosmology, large-scale structure and Bayesian inference. My research involves developing high-performance estimators for galaxy clustering and leveraging simulation-based inference techniques.

Before starting my Ph.D., I worked as a Quantitative Developer in investment banking (SMBC), specialising in xVA and derivatives pricing and as a Software Developer in financial technology. I hold an MSci in Physics from Imperial College London.


Research & Scientific Computing

My academic research focus is on developing software tools for large-scale structure analysis and cosmological inference.

  • SUGC – Sparse Unbiased Galaxy Clustering. High-performance, multi-threaded correlation-function counters in Rust and Python for calculating real-space, redshift-space, and high-order N-point statistics on galaxy catalogues..
  • ANVIL – Amortised Noise Variance Inference Library. A high-performance framework for Noise-Amortised Neural Posterior Estimation (NPE) built with JAX, Equinox and Rust to amortise estimator variance in simulation-based inference.
  • galform_execution & galform_analysis – Python utilities for configuring and executing the GALFORM semi-analytic galaxy formation model on HPC clusters, and analysing output HDF5 datasets.
  • CMB_Advanced_Sampling – Cosmological parameter estimation from the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) using advanced sampling techniques.
  • photon-bec-ml – Characterising the phase diagram of a photon Bose-Einstein condensate using machine learning classifiers.

Software & Systems Engineering

Outside of physics research, I build high-performance desktop clients, automation tools, and financial infrastructure.

  • aura – An automated assistant that daily fetches, filters, and summarises arXiv AI/ML publications using LLMs, emailing a structured digest.
  • glide – A keyboard-first, multi-provider desktop email client for Linux built using C# with .NET 10 and Avalonia UI.
  • synapse – A wealth management ecosystem combining portfolio tracking, ML-based equity forecasting, and mortgage tracking (TypeScript).
  • heirloom – A fitness data aggregator that fetches, normalises, and deduplicates activity and health metrics from Strava and Garmin Connect into local SQLite storage.
  • connect4-pic18-glcd – Connect 4 game written in PIC18F87K22 assembly language for a graphical LCD and a 4x4 matrix keypad.

Experience

  • Durham University | Ph.D. in Physics (Cosmology & Bayesian Inference) | 2025 – Present
  • SMBC | Quantitative Developer (xVA, derivatives pricing, trading tools) | 2024 – 2025
  • Investment Software Ltd | Software Developer (financial software & pipeline optimisation) | 2022 – 2024
  • Imperial College London | MSci in Physics | 2017 – 2021

Technical Stack

  • Languages: Python, Rust, C#, C, TypeScript, SQL, Assembly (PIC18), Bash, LaTeX
  • Scientific Computing & ML: JAX / Equinox, PyTorch, TensorFlow Probability, NumPy, SciPy, AstroPy, Pandas, Scikit-learn
  • Systems & Frontend: .NET 10, Avalonia UI, Substrate, Vue.js, Node.js
  • Tools & Infrastructure: Git, Linux (Fedora), Docker, SQLite, PostgreSQL, SLURM (HPC)

Popular repositories Loading

  1. SUGC SUGC Public

    Sparse Unbiased Galaxy Clustering: high-performance Rust/Python correlation-function counters for galaxy catalogues, with support for real-space, redshift-space and high-order N-point statistics.

    Python 2

  2. oscarhickman oscarhickman Public

    Personal profile and portfolio README.

  3. galform_analysis galform_analysis Public

    Python framework for analysing GALFORM semi-analytic model HDF5 outputs.

    Python

  4. NPOD NPOD Public

    Forked from BillCacy/NPOD

    NASA Pick of the Day

    C

  5. aura aura Public

    Automated research assistant that fetches daily AI/ML papers, summarises monthly trends using LLMs and emails a curated digest.

    Python

  6. galform_execution galform_execution Public

    Python-based automation and configuration utility for executing the GALFORM semi-analytic galaxy formation model on HPC clusters.

    Python