About me

Samuel P. Loomis, PhD. The P. is to distinguish myself from the Halloween guy. You can just call me Sam.

I currently work at Syngenta Seeds, and received my PhD. in physics and complex systems in 2022. I’m a complex systems modeler who’s super into information-theory-based data science, and have written a package on time-series analysis with kernel embeddings, and another on stochastic clustering. On the side I’m also an amateur astronomer, a huge history/geography nerd, and a beginning farmer (though the only animal on our farm so far is currently a 12-pound chiweenie ⊕
My dog Ruby. And also me.).

My Curriculum Vitae contains a detailed summary of my past and ongoing experiences—but I’ll list the quick facts here too.

I got my PhD. at UC Davis in Jim Crutchfield’s lab Complexity Sciences Center . My dissertation work focused on how complex systems process information, exploring applications in quantum computing, machine learning, and most recently in carbon policy analysis. These are not as far apart as they might seem. The same laws of statistics which govern quantum computers are also important for discovering structure in complex data and even show up in economic/ecological models. My Research and Publications pages give more detail on the scientific work I’ve done, and how it all fits together.

My home is in North Carolina, where my wife Catie and I live close to our families on her family’s sixth-generation farm. I grew up in Cary and received my undergraduate degrees in Physics and Mathematics at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.

There I researched general relativity under David BrownGR at NC State , who taught me a lot about research, writing, and also manifold geometry. Though I no longer actively study G.R., the tools and skills I learned then continue to guide my research and understanding.

Community has always played a large role in my life and I want to mention some of the great experiences I’ve had engaging with my community. In my time at Davis I had the great fortune to serve as a board member and fundraiser for the Yolo Interfaith Immigration NetworkYIIN website, and their donations page . YIIN is a wonderful organization which has been serving and advocating for immigrants for over a decade, and I recommend donating to them whenever the inclination strikes you. If you’re local, they are also a great organization to volunteer with.

As an undergrad I spent a few summers as a counselor at SATELLITE CampSATELLITE’s Mission page, and how to sponsor a camper , a STEM outreach and leadership development program for students from rural North Carolina high schools. Each year about 60 students spend five nights at NCSU to learn about science and technology related educational and career paths. Each year working with them was transformative.