Alex Mcdaniel

Alex Mcdaniel Email and Phone Number

Data Scientist | Analyst | Astrophysicist | Machine Learning @ Purpose Financial
spartanburg, south carolina, united states
Alex Mcdaniel's Location
Central, South Carolina, United States, United States
About Alex Mcdaniel

I am currently a Data Scientist focusing on Credit Risk at Purpose Financial. My role involves leveraging large customer lending datasets and cutting-edge machine learning methods in order to make better informed credit decisions while increasing our customer base, as well as monitoring and communicating performance of our credit risk models through detailed data reporting and visualization. I also work across production and data engineering teams to build pipelines that allow us to deliver new innovative lending products to our customers. These responsibilities require a thorough understanding of state-of-the-art data technologies and methods.My academic background prior to my industry transition was in High-Energy Astrophysics as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Clemson University and as a PhD student at the University of California, Santa Cruz. My research focused on analyzing complex data sets to understand the properties of dark matter, galaxies, and other astrophysical phenomena. This encompassed both theoretical and experimental work, including data analysis from instruments such as the Fermi-LAT, Chandra, and XMM-Newton telescopes among others.

Alex Mcdaniel's Current Company Details
Purpose Financial

Purpose Financial

View
Data Scientist | Analyst | Astrophysicist | Machine Learning
spartanburg, south carolina, united states
Website:
havepurpose.com
Employees:
117
Alex Mcdaniel Work Experience Details
  • Purpose Financial
    Data Scientist - Credit Risk
    Purpose Financial Feb 2024 - Present
    Greenville, South Carolina, United States
  • Clemson University
    Postdoctoral Fellow
    Clemson University Aug 2020 - Feb 2024
    Clemson, South Carolina, United States
    In this role I was responsible for performing independent research in high-energy astrophysics and conducted numerous successful studies covering different topics of interest in the field. My various research projects involved the use of advanced mathematical and statistical concepts, as well as extensive data management, cleaning, analysis, and visualization. Beyond pure science, in this role I was also responsible for generating external funding through research proposals, presenting results to broader audiences at conferences and in publications, and mentoring undergraduate and graduate students. Some summary points of this position include:Extracted, cleaned, and organized datasets from various astrophysical catalogs containing ~100s-1,000s of records to obtain optimal samples for analysis, primarily using pandas and numpy/scipy for relevant data transformations.Applied joint maximum likelihood methods to search for gamma-ray emission over the course of several distinct projects, performing simultaneous fits to source populations with typical sample sizes ranging from ~ 30 to >500 objects.Reduced pipeline runtimes by a factor of 10-15x by optimizing performance and parallelizing python based analysis pipelines on remote computing clusters.Awarded >$150,000 in grant funding as well as observation time as Principal Investigator (PI) across multiple instruments and organizations.
  • University Of California, Santa Cruz
    Graduate Student Researcher
    University Of California, Santa Cruz Jan 2016 - Jun 2020
    Santa Cruz, Ca
    In this position I conducted a number of research projects as part of my PhD thesis. This work encompassed image processing and data analysis of astrophysical observations as well as extensive code development implementing mathematical models and scientific computing into analysis and modeling pipelines. Some of these pipelines were publicly released and maintained. Furthermore, during this time I was involved in department and campus-wide leadership positions, including representing the graduate student body on the campus-wide Committee on Research. Some summary points of this role include:- Analyzed X-ray telescope data, combining over 25 observations from multiple instruments observing 11 separate targets. This work used custom developed X-ray data reduction tools along with Python, numpy, pandas, and OpenCV for image processing.- Developed in C++ and publicly released the scientific computing tool RX-DMFit tool (>35 citations), used for modeling and predicting astrophysical emission from dark matter annihilations.- Served as the graduate student representative on the campus-wide Committee on Research, responsible for advising the Chancellor on stakeholder interests related to the university research mission and granting faculty funding awards.
  • University Of California, Santa Cruz
    Course Reader
    University Of California, Santa Cruz Sep 2018 - Dec 2018
    Santa Cruz, Ca
  • University Of California, Santa Cruz
    Teaching Assistant
    University Of California, Santa Cruz Sep 2015 - Mar 2016
    Santa Cuz, Ca
    As a Teaching Assistant in the Physics department I was responsible for the instruction of physics courses and running laboratory instruction sessions for hundreds of students. I independently managed lesson plans and evaluation of students. This position required the ability to clearly communicate complex topics in physics to audiences unfamiliar with the field.
  • Uc Santa Barbara
    Undergraduate Lab Researcher
    Uc Santa Barbara Aug 2013 - Mar 2015
    Santa Barbara, Ca
    In this role I worked as part of the Lubin Lab on the DE-STAR or Directed Energy System for Targeting of Asteroids and exploRation project developing hardware and designing experimental setups. Namely I assisted in developing an experimental setup for measuring photon pressure induced thrust in a vacuum environment. This also included the design with CAD software (Solidworks) and machining of hardware components for a vacuum chamber experimental apparatus
  • Uc Santa Barbara
    Physics Grader
    Uc Santa Barbara Jul 2014 - Dec 2014
    Santa Barbara, Ca
    As a Physics Course Reader, I was responsible for grading hundreds of weekly physics assignments and often developing solutions to the assigned work. This work required extensive time management to meet weekly deadlines as well as strong attention to detail while working through hundreds of documents weekly.

Alex Mcdaniel Education Details

Frequently Asked Questions about Alex Mcdaniel

What company does Alex Mcdaniel work for?

Alex Mcdaniel works for Purpose Financial

What is Alex Mcdaniel's role at the current company?

Alex Mcdaniel's current role is Data Scientist | Analyst | Astrophysicist | Machine Learning.

What schools did Alex Mcdaniel attend?

Alex Mcdaniel attended University Of California, Santa Cruz, University Of California, Santa Cruz, Uc Santa Barbara.

Who are Alex Mcdaniel's colleagues?

Alex Mcdaniel's colleagues are Kristie Wade, Erin Crochetiere, Elyse Alligood, Lisa Dylewski, Becky Gibson, Brian Arscott, Ellen Herzog.

Not the Alex Mcdaniel you were looking for?

Free Chrome Extension

Find emails, phones & company data instantly

Find verified emails from LinkedIn profiles
Get direct phone numbers & mobile contacts
Access company data & employee information
Works directly on LinkedIn - no copy/paste needed
Get Chrome Extension - Free

Aero Online

Your AI prospecting assistant

Download 750 million emails and 100 million phone numbers

Access emails and phone numbers of over 750 million business users. Instantly download verified profiles using 20+ filters, including location, job title, company, function, and industry.