Jason Xavier Prochaska

About

Jason Xavier Prochaska is a Professor in the Astronomy & Astrophysics Department within the Physical & Biological Sciences Division at UC Santa Cruz. His primary expertise lies in astrophysics, specifically in spectroscopy, which involves dissecting the light emitted by distant sources such as galaxies, quasars, and transient phenomena to examine the physical properties and processes driving the formation of the universe. His research focuses on the nature of gas within and outside of galaxies during the first few billion years of the universe, utilizing high-resolution spectroscopy of bright, distant sources like quasars and gamma-ray bursts. These observational studies impact our understanding of galaxy formation, cosmology, and fundamental physics. Additionally, he has led follow-up studies of transient and bursting sources, including gamma-ray bursts and fast radio bursts, to gain insights into the gas within galaxies and beyond. Recently, his work with fast radio bursts has contributed to resolving the 'missing baryons problem,' a longstanding challenge in detecting the majority of normal matter in the universe today. Prochaska's background includes a physics degree from Princeton University and a PhD in Physics from the University of California, San Diego. He was a postdoctoral Carnegie+Hubble Fellow at Carnegie Observatories before joining UC Santa Cruz as faculty and an astronomer at the UC Observatories. He became an affiliate of the Ocean Sciences Department at UC…

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Physics
• Astronomy
• Astrophysics
• Data Mining
• Optics
• Mathematics
• Programming language

Selected publications

• Multi-messenger Observations of a Binary Neutron Star Merger

  2017 · 1398 citations

  On 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of ~1.7 s with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg² at a luminosity distance of 40₋₈⁺⁸ Mpc a…

  DOI

• A census of baryons in the Universe from localized fast radio bursts

  Nature · 2020 · 591 citations

  DOI

• PypeIt: The Python Spectroscopic Data Reduction Pipeline

  The Journal of Open Source Software · 2020 · 404 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  PypeIt is a Python package for semi-automated reduction of astronomical, spectroscopic data. Its algorithms build on decades-long development of previous data reduction pipelines by the developers The reduction procedure -including a complete list of the input parameters and available functionality -is provided as online documentation hosted by Read the Docs, which is regularly updated. It is a set of commands designed to perform the reduction without any additional coding. In what follows, we p…

  DOI

• Overview of the Instrumentation for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument

  The Astronomical Journal · 2022 · 402 citations

  Abstract The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) embarked on an ambitious 5 yr survey in 2021 May to explore the nature of dark energy with spectroscopic measurements of 40 million galaxies and quasars. DESI will determine precise redshifts and employ the baryon acoustic oscillation method to measure distances from the nearby universe to beyond redshift z > 3.5, and employ redshift space distortions to measure the growth of structure and probe potential modifications to general relati…

  DOI

• A Catalog of Local Universe Fast Radio Bursts from CHIME/FRB and the KKO

  The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series · 2025-08-13 · 24 citations

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  Abstract We present the first catalog of fast radio burst (FRB) host galaxies from CHIME/FRB Outriggers, selected uniformly in the radio and the optical by localizing 81 new bursts to 2″ × ∼ 60″ accuracy using CHIME and the k’niʔatn k’l ⌣ stk’masqt Outrigger station, located 66 km from CHIME. Of the 81 localized bursts, we use the probabilistic association of transients to their hosts algorithm to securely identify 21 new FRB host galaxies, and compile spectroscopic redshifts for 19 systems, 15…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Disentangling the Cosmic Web with Fast Radio Bursts

  NSF · $320k · 2019–2023

• CAREER: Enriching the Universe -- Investigating Nucleosynthesis and Galaxy Formation in the First Few Billion Years

  NSF · $475k · 2006–2012

• Lyman Limit Systems: Probing the Protogalactic/IGM Interface

  NSF · $275k · 2003–2007

Frequent coauthors

• J. S. Bloom

  New York University

  471 shared

• E. Ramirez‐Ruiz

  University of California, Santa Cruz

  340 shared

• Arthur M. Wolfe

  University of California, San Diego

  331 shared

• N. Butler

  Arizona State University

  328 shared

• A. Kutyrev

  Goddard Space Flight Center

  308 shared

• M. G. Richer

  308 shared

• A. M. Watson

  297 shared

• E. Troja

  University of Rome Tor Vergata

  297 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Astronomy

  University of California, Santa Cruz

  2002

• M.S., Astronomy

  University of California, Santa Cruz

  1998

• B.S., Astronomy

  University of California, Santa Cruz

  1996

Awards & honors

• Simons Pivot Fellowship (2023)
• AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize (2020)
• Distinguished Professor (UCSC) (2020)
• Outstanding Faculty Award (Division of Physical and Biologic…
• Humboldt Fellow Grants (2010)

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