SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Showing 1-20 of 1,774 Results
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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.
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Frank Abild-Pedersen
Senior Scientist, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
BioDr. Abild-Pedersen is the acting co-director of SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis. He is leading a research team that focuses on developing an understanding of the factors determining the catalytic properties at the interface between gas/solvent and solid surfaces and to apply these insights to processes and catalysts of importance for energy transformations and for sustainable chemical production. His research takes advantage of computer facilities at SLAC and Stanford to gain the necessary understanding and to link these simulations to experiments where new catalyst synthesis methods are developed, and the catalyst materials are characterized both in terms of performance (activity, selectivity, durability, etc.) and in terms of geometrical and electronic structure. The underlying philosophy of his research is that by having a fundamental understanding of the way surfaces catalyze a chemical reaction we can make a quantum leap in our ability to make predictions for new catalysts and processes. This requires the development of a theory of heterogeneous catalysis, including electrocatalysis, based on computational and experimental results.
Dr Abild-Pedersen has extensive experience with simulations and modeling of chemical reactions. His work began with the derivation of energy correlations in catalysis that have helped speed up screening for active, selective and stable catalysts for energy conversion as a graduate student working with Professor Jens K. Nørskov at the Technical University of Denmark. He moved to SLAC in 2010 as a staff scientist and helped build up SUNCAT and define research directions in the field of heterogeneous catalysis. -
Alex Aiken
Alcatel-Lucent Professor of Communications and Networking and Professor of Particle Physics and Astrophysics
BioAlex Aiken is the Alcatel-Lucent Professor of Computer Science at Stanford. Alex received his Bachelors degree in Computer Science and Music from Bowling Green State University in 1983 and his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1988. Alex was a Research Staff Member at the IBM Almaden Research Center (1988-1993) and a Professor in the EECS department at UC Berkeley (1993-2003) before joining the Stanford faculty in 2003. His research interest is in areas related to programming languages.
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Daniel Akerib
Professor of Particle Physics and Astrophysics and, by courtesy, of Physics
BioResearch interests:
Dan Akerib joined the department in 2014 with a courtesy appointment, in conjunction with a full-time appointment to the Particle Physics & Astrophysics faculty at SLAC. He has searched for WIMP dark matter particles since the early 1990s, first with the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search and more recently with the LUX and LUX-ZEPLIN projects. His current interests are in extending the sensitivity to dark matter through expanding and improving time projection chambers that use liquid xenon as a target medium. Together with Tom Shutt, he has led the establishment of a Liquid Nobles Test Platform at SLAC. The group specializes in detector development, xenon purification, and simulations, and has a broad range of opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students to participate in hardware and software development, as well as data analysis.
Career History:
- AB 1984, University of Chicago
- Ph.D. 1990 Princeton University
- Research Fellow, California Institute of Technology, 1990 - 1992
- Center Fellow, Center for Particle Astrophysics, UC Berkeley 1993 - 1996
- Assistant Professor, Case Western Reserve University, 1995-2001
- Associate Professor, Case Western Reserve University, 2001-2004
- Professor, Case Western Reserve University, 2004-2014
- Chair, Case Western Reserve University, 2007-2010
- Professor, Particle Physics & Astrophysics, SLAC 2014 - present
