Howdy, I'm Cameron Pfiffer.
I'm an engineer, statistician, economist, and hammock enthusiast. I like writing code for supercomputers. I love code, statistics, rowing, and pianos. Learning is my favorite thing.
I am a developer relations engineer at .txt, a startup that makes your AI speak computer. I write weird examples, give talks, and generally help figure out how far we can push the boundaries of what we can do with AI.
I'm a big lover of the Julia programming language. I've worked on the Turing.jl project for Bayesian inference. I also head up the JuliaGenAI project along with Jan Siml, which is a collection of tools for using Julia in generative AI contexts.
I was a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford's GSB. I worked on industrial organization with Shoshana Vasserman. I received my PhD in finance from the University of Oregon. I have a master's in finance from the ICMA Centre at the Henley Business School (which itself is part of the University of Reading), and a BSc in Technical Theater from Southern Oregon University. I'm often a developer for Turing.jl, a probabilistic programming tool, though have since fallen out of active development.
I used to be an alpaca rancher and work for Cirque du Soleil. I'm really fun at parties, and I am a fantastic dancer.
I tend to focus on computational topics in lots of domains, though generally I am an economist. I am currently interested in:
Generative AI and NLP
GPU kernels
Neural network architectures
Type systems and compilers
Industrial organization
Asset pricing
Bayesian statistics
Favorite programming languages:
Julia because it's fast and fun to write!
Rust because someone told me I should learn C and I thought this was cooler.
R because I am a masochist.
Mathematica because I forget how to take derivatives.
I do however flit between interests like a pixie, so this list is likely not current by the time you are reading it.