The DEPARTMENT OF
PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY
presents
From Universe
to Body:
A Physicist's
Path into
Healthcare AI
Udara Abeysekara, PhD
Dr. Abeysekara ‘s PhD work studied the connection
between the GeV gamma-ray emission from pulsars and
the TeV emission from their associated Pulsar Wind
Nebulae. After the Ph.D., he continued my work in high-
energy astrophysics at the University of Utah, where he
WednesdayOctober 14th, 2026
co-discovered very-high-energy particle acceleration in
the microquasar SS 433 — a micro analog of an Active
Galactic Nucleus located within our own galaxy. My
Seminar Talk: 1:30 pmWith an accompanying workshop on October 28th!
research also spanned several other areas of TeV
gamma-ray astronomy, including Lorentz violation,
primordial black holes, and extended gamma-ray
emission within the galaxy. In parallel, he applied
machine learning techniques to improve gamma-ray data
Tracy Hall Science Center
Room 102
analysis and to detect rare astrophysical phenomena.
Over time, his research interests shifted toward applying
his data analysis expertise to healthcare, eventually
leading me to focus on AI applications in healthcare
research. In recent years, his work has centered on
transfer learning for predictive models across hospitals,
applying agentic-AI techniques to extract clinical insights
from Electronic Health Records, as well as patient
phenotyping.In this seminar, I will discuss the
transferable skills I developed in physics that are
uniquely valuable in healthcare research and corporate
jobs - skills I believe are far more marketable outside of
physics than most people realize.
