Research Interests

Dr. Abel's research interests are ab initio supercomputer calculations in cosmological and astrophysical systems. 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 capturing 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. Recently he has also studied relativistic astrophysical flows and magneto-hydrodynamic effects in present day star formation. His research program focuses on building galaxies one star at a time. He heads the KIPAC computational physics department which provides super-computing resources and algorithmic advice to members of KIPAC.

• Cosmology
• Theoretical Astrophysics

Career History

• Ph.D. 2000, Ludwig Maxemillian University Munich
• M.A. 1998, Univ. of Regensburg
• Assistant Professor, Pennsylvania State University 2002-2004
• Associate Professor, Pennsylvania State University 2004
• Associate Professor, of Physics and Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Cosmology, Stanford University, 9/2004-present.

Honors

• Wempe Prize, Astrophysical Institute Potsdam 2001
• CAREER Award, National Science Foundation 2002 

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