CV:

Publication List:

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the State University of New York (SUNY) Stony Brook, working in the Astronomy Group.

Previously, I was a postgraduate researcher in the Astronomy and Astrophysics department at UC Santa Cruz, working with the Supernovae Science Center. I was formerly a research associate (and graduate student before that) at the Center on Astrophysical Thermonuclear Flashes at the University of Chicago, where I was a co-developer of the FLASH Code. I did my undergraduate at the University of Rochester.

My main research is Type Ia supernovae, specifically flame instabilities like the Landau-Darrieus instability, reactive Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities, and most recently, buoyant reacting bubbles. I also study Type I X-ray bursts (like spreading of perturbations, and somewhat related helium detonations). Some older work involved Type II supernovae (post-shock mixing), and classical novae.

My numerical work centers around methods for computational fluid dynamics, mainly focusing on Godunov methods. I was one of the original developers of the FLASH Code. Lately, I've been collaborating with the Center for Computational Science and Engineering at LBL applying low Mach number hydrodynamics methods to astrophysical flames. Presently, we are expanding this code to the full star, creating a low Mach number algorithm for stratified atmospheres. This method is more general than the traditional anelastic method, as it can evolve finite-amplitude density and temperature perturbations to a hydrostatic background and can also evolve this background state in response to the local heating. Finally, I also am maintaining a simple prototyping code, which I use to test out different hydro schemes.

My supernovae and low Mach number hydrodynamics research is supported by a Outstanding Junior Investigator (OJI) award from the Dept. of Energy, Office of Nuclear Physics. I also received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from the DOE NNSA which will support my other numerical work.

Education:

• Ph.D., Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago (2000)
  thesis:

  ``Helium Detonations on Neutron Stars''

• M.S., Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago (1998)
• B.S., Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester (1996)

Awards:

• President Early Career Award in Science and Engineering (PECASE). Nominated by DOE NNSA. (2006)
  Photo of the DOE Ceremony showing Secretary of Energy, Samuel Bodman, myself, NNSA Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs Thomas P. D'Agostino and DOE Under Secretary for Science Dr. Raymond L. Orbach.
• DOE Office of Nuclear Physics Outstanding Junior Investigator (OJI) Award for a proposal entitled: ``Multidimensional Modeling of Astrophysical Thermonuclear Explosions'' (2006)
• Gordon Bell Award in High Performance Computing, Special Category (2000) for a paper entitled ``High-Performance Reactive Fluid Flow Simulations Using Adaptive Mesh Refinement on Thousands of Processors'', Calder et al. 2000. (SC 2000 conference)

updated Nov. 5, 2006