Browse School of Humanities and Sciences

BioJonathan S. Abel is a Consulting Professor at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) in the Music Department at Stanford University, working in music and audio applications of signal and array processing, parameter estimation and acoustics. He is also a co-founder of Seismic Innovations, LLC, and Seismic Services, LLC, companies specializing in microseismic signal processing. Abel was a co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of the GRAMMY Award winning Universal Audio, Inc. He was previously a researcher at NASA/Ames Research Center, Chief Scientist of Crystal River Engineering, Inc., and a Lecturer in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Yale University. As an industry consultant, Abel has worked with Apple, Dolby, FDNY, LSI Logic, L3 Technologies, LR Baggs, Native Instruments, SAIC, Sennheiser, Sigma Cubed, Triple Ring, and the U.S. NRL on projects in professional audio, GPS, fire department siting and deployment, medical imaging, room acoustics measurement, audio effects processing, passive sonar, and microsiesmic signal processing. He holds Ph.D. and M.S. degrees from Stanford University, and an S.B. from MIT, all in electrical engineering. Abel is a Fellow of the Audio Engineering Society for contributions to audio effects processing.

Contact Info
- CCRMA, Music Department
- Stanford University
- Stanford, California 94305
Mail Code: 3076

Tom Abel

Professor of Particle Physics and Astrophysics and of Physics

BioWhat were the first objects that formed in the Universe? Prof. Abel's group explores the first billion years of cosmic history using ab initio supercomputer calculations. He has shown from first principles that the very first luminous objects are very massive stars and has developed novel numerical algorithms using adaptive-mesh-refinement simulations that capture over 14 orders of magnitude in length and time scales. He currently continues his work on the first stars and first galaxies and their role in chemical enrichment and cosmological reionization. His group studies any of the first objects to form in the universe: first stars, first supernovae, first HII regions, first magnetic fields, first heavy elements, and so on. Most recently he is pioneering novel numerical algorithms to study collisionless fluids such as dark matter which makes up most of the mass in the Universe as well as astrophysical and terrestrial plasmas. He was the director of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology and Division Director at SLAC 2013-2018.