Dr. Robert T. Fisher Curriculum Vitae

Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics cell : (708) 574-5368 University of Chicago e-mail : rtfi[email protected] US Citizen web : http://flash.uchicago.edu/ rfisher ∼ Research Experience

Research Scientist, Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Chicago (2005– • current)

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Postdoctoral Research Associate, (AX Division, • 2002-2005)

Education

University of California at Berkeley, Ph.D., (Physics, 2002) • – Thesis : “Single and Multiple Star Formation in Turbulent Giant Molecular Cloud Cores” – Thesis Advisors : Christopher F. McKee and Richard I. Klein

University of California at Berkeley, M.S., (Physics, 1998) • Caltech, B.S. with Honors, (Physics, 1994) • Teaching Experience

Adjunct Faculty Member, Liberal Arts Department, School of the Art Institute of Chicago • (2006–current). Taught introductory astronomy for art major students.

University of California, Berkeley Spring 1996. Taught three sections of introductory astron- • omy for liberal arts majors.

University of California, Fall 1994 - Fall 1996. Led both recitations and lab sections of in- • troductory physics (classical mechanics, electricity and magnetism, and modern physics) for premedical students and for engineers.

California Institute of Technology, Fall 1993 - Spring 1994. Assisted in teaching a freshman • physics research tutorial.

California Institute of Technology, Summer 1993. Led discussion section for introductory • physics for BRIDGE Program (later to become Freshman Summer Institute), Oﬃce of Mi- nority Student Aﬀairs. Fisher CV 2

Current Research Interests

Type Ia Supernovae Explosion Mechanisms. Convective Simmering Phase of Ia Progenitors. • Fluid Dynamics of Buoyant Nuclear Flame Bubbles.

Star Formation and the Physics of the Interstellar Medium. The Physical Role of Turbulence • in Single and Multiple Star Formation. Role of Chemistry and the Magnetic Field in Turbulent Star Formation.

Fundamental Physics of Turbulent Flows. Lagrangian Properties of Turbulence. Combustion • in a Turbulent Medium.

Scientiﬁc Computing. Ideal and Non-Ideal Magnetohydrodynamics, Compressible and In- • compressible Gas Dynamics, Embedded Boundaries, Radiative Transfer, and Self-Gravity. High-Performance Computing. Open Scientiﬁc Data Archives.

Refereed Publications

1. Universality and Multifractality of Lagrangian Turbulence, (with A. Arneodo, R. Benzi, J. Berg, L. Biferale, E. Bodenschatz, A. Busse, E. Calzavarini, B. Castaing, M. Cencini, L. Chevillard, R. Grauer, H. Homann, D. Lamb, A.S. Lanotte, E. Leveque, B. Luethi, J. Mann, N. Mordant, W.-C. Mueller, S. Ott, N.T. Ouellette, J.-F. Pinton, S. B. Pope, S.G. Roux, F. Toschi, H. Xu, P.K. Yeung), Submitted to Physical Review Letters, 2008.

2. Sub-Alfvénic Non-Ideal MHD Turbulence Simulations with Ambipolar Diﬀusion: I. Turbu- lence Statistics, (with P.S. Li, C. McKee, and R. Klein), Submitted to Astrophysical Journal, 2008.

3. Intermittency and Universality in Fully-Developed Inviscid and Weakly-Compressible Turbu- lent Flows, (with R. Benzi, L. Biferale, L. Kadanoﬀ, L., D. Lamb, and F. Toschi) Accepted to Physical Review Letters, 2008. arXiv:0709.3073

4. Three-Dimensional Simulations of the Deﬂagration Phase of the Gravitationally-Conﬁned Det- onation Model of Type Ia Supernovae (with J. Jordan, D.Townsley, A. Calder, C. Graziani, S. Asida, D. Lamb, and J. Truran), Accepted to Astrophysical Journal, 2008. arXiv:astro- ph/0703573v2

5. Terascale Turbulence Computation on BG/L Using the FLASH3 Application Framework (with S. Abarzhi, K. Antypas, S. Asida, A. Calder, F. Cattaneo, P. Constantin, A. Dubey, I. Foster, J. Gallagher, M. Ganapathy, C. Glendenin, L. Kadanoﬀ, D. Lamb, S. Needham, M. Papka, T. Plewa, L. Reid, P. Rich, K. Riley, K and D. Sheeler), IBM Research Journal Special Issue on Applications of Massively Parallel Systems, 2008, 1 : 127 – 136. Fisher CV 3

6. On the Hydrodynamic Interaction of Shock Waves with Interstellar Clouds. II. The Eﬀect of Smooth Cloud Boundaries on Cloud Destruction and Cloud Turbulence, (with F. Nakamura, C. McKee, and R. Klein) The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 2006, 164 : 477 –505.

7. Scientiﬁc Applications on the Massively-Parallel BG/L Machine (with K. Antypas, A. Calder, A. Dubey, M. Ganapathy, J. Gallagher, L. Reid, K. Riley, D. Sheeler, and N. Taylor), in Parallel Computational Fluid Dynamics: Theory and Applications, 2006.

8. An Unsplit, Cell-Centered Godunov Method for Ideal MHD (with R. Crockett, P. Colella, R. Klein, and C. McKee), Journal of Computational Physics, 2005, 203 : 422 –448.

9. A Turbulent Interstellar Medium Origin of the Binary Period Distribution, The Astrophysical Journal, 2004, 600 : 769–780.

10. The Jeans Condition and Collapsing Molecular Cloud Cores : Filaments or Binaries? (with A. Boss, R. Klein, and C. McKee), The Astrophysical Journal, 2000, 528 : 325-335.

11. Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Cluster-Ion Fragmentation (with J. Weinstein, S. Vasanawala, M. Shapiro, and T. Tombrello), Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B, 1994, 88, 74 – 80.

Selected Non-Refereed Publications

1. Recent Advances in the Collapse and Fragmentation of Turbulent Molecular Cloud Cores (with R. Klein, C. McKee, and M. Krumholz), in Star Formation in the Interstellar Medium: In Honor of David Hollenbach, Chris McKee and Frank Shu, 2004, 227–234.

2. Resolution Issues in the Collapse and Fragmentation of Turbulent Molecular Cloud Cores (with R. Klein and C. McKee), in Gravitational Collapse: From Massive Stars to Planets : A Meeting to Celebrate Peter Bodenheimer For His Outstanding Contributions to Astrophysics, 2004.

3. Recent Advances in the Collapse and Fragmentation of Turbulent Molecular Cloud Cores (with R. Klein, M. Krumholz, and C. McKee), in Winds, Bubbles, and Explosions: A conference to Honor John Dyson, 2003, 92-96.

4. Low Mass Star Formation in Turbulent Molecular Cloud Cores (with R. Klein, C. McKee, and M. Krumholz), in Star Formation at High Angular Resolution, International Astronomical Union. Symposium no. 221, 2003. Fisher CV 4

5. Fragmentation and Star Formation in Turbulent Cores (with R. Klein and C. McKee), in The Formation of Binary Stars, Proceedings of IAU Symposium 200, 2001. astro-ph/0007332

6. Gravitational Collapse and Fragmentation in Molecular Clouds with Adaptive Mesh Re- ﬁnement Hydrodynamics (with R. Klein, C. McKee, and J. Truelove), in Numerical As- trophysics : Proceedings of the International Conference on Numerical Astrophysics, 1999. astro-ph/9806330

Professional Activities

Invited Participant, National Science Foundation Cyber Fluid Dynamics Workshop (2007) • Member International Collaboration for Turbulence Research (ICTR) • Member Computational Astrophysics Data Analysis Center (CADAC) • Organizer, University of Chicago ASC FLASH Center Turbulence Workshop (2006) • Visiting Scientist, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (2005 - current) • Reviewer, Physical Review • Member American Physical Society, Divisions of Fluid Dynamics, Computational Physics, • and Astrophysics

Awards

NASA Graduate Student Research Fellowship • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Sciences • (IGPP) Fellowship

NASA/University of California at Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory Summer Research Fel- • lowship

George W. and Bernice E. Green Prize for Creative Scholarship, awarded annually to a Caltech • undergraduate for outstanding research

National Merit Scholarship Finalist • Selected Conference and Workshop Presentations

Invited colloquium on “Type Ia Supernovae from a Computational Fluids Perspective” at • Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata, August 2007.

Turbulent Mixing and Beyond Workshop, August 2007 at International Center for Theoretical • Physics in Trieste, Italy. Contributed talk on “Large-Scale Numerical Simulations of Weakly- Compressible Turbulent Flows.” Fisher CV 5

Computational Physics and New Perspectives in Turbulence, International Union of Theo- • retical and Applied Mechanics Symposium, September 2006 in Nagoya, Japan. Contributed talk.

UCLA Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics Workshop, • April 2005. Invited talk on “The Formation of Brown Dwarfs : A Comparison of SPH and AMR Disk Fragmentation.”

AMR Workshop, ASCI Flash Center, University of Chicago, September 2003. Contributed • talk on “How to do Subcycled, Self-Gravitating Hydrodynamics on an Adaptive Mesh : Es- sential Obstacles and Fundamental Methodology.”

NASA Ames Center for Star Formation Studies, January 2003. Invited talk on “Recent • Progress on Star Formation in Turbulent Molecular Cloud Cores.”

Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, November 2000. Seminar on “Single and • Multiple Star Formation in Turbulent Molecular Cloud Cores.”

Selected Outreach and Public Education

Public presentation at Chicago Science in the City, Daly Center, October 2007 • Public talk at Bret Harte Elementary School, September 2006 • Public presentation at Argonne National Laboratory Open House, August 2006 • Public talk at AstroScience Workshop, Adler Planetarium, July 2006 • Public talk at Chicago Astronomical Society, Adler Planetarium, April 2006 • Public talk at Ryerson Undergraduate Astronomical Society, University of Chicago, March • 2006

Science fair judging at Pleasanton Elementary School District, Spring 2005 • Selected Research Grants and Computer Time

Co-Investigator, “A Cyber-Enabled Open Data Repository Resource for the Fluid Dynamics • Community,” NSF CDI Proposal, $2 million pending.

Principal Investigator, “Support for International Collaboration on Turbulence Research,” • University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory Joint Theory Institute, 2007 - 2008, $78,000 awarded.

Co-Investigator, Flash Center DOE INCITE, 2007, 22 Million CPU hours awarded. • Principal Investigator, “Large-Scale 3-D Simulation of Weakly-Compressible Homogeneous • Isotropic Turbulence with Lagrangian Tracer Particles,” LLNL BG/L, 20005. 26.7 Million CPU hours awarded. Fisher CV 6

Co-Investigator, “Progress Towards a Comprehensive Theory of Star Formation – From Low • to High Mass and on to Giant Molecular Clouds,” LRAC, 2005. 700,000 SUs awarded on SDSC IBM SP-4.

Co-Investigator, “Progress Towards a Comprehensive Theory of Star Formation – From Low • to High Mass and on to Giant Molecular Clouds,” NRAC, 2004. 1,100,000 SUs on SDSC IBM SP-4 requested and awarded.

Co-Investigator, “Toward a Comprehensive Theory of Star Formation,” LBNL NERSC ER- • CAP, 2003. 700,000 SUS awarded on IBM SP-3.

Co-Investigator, “Towards A Comprehensive Theory of Star Formation – From Low to High • Mass,” NRAC, 2003. 770,000 SUs on SDSC IBM-SP2 requested and awarded.

Selected Media Coverage

WBEZ Public Radio, March 23, 2007 : “Blowing Up Stars for Science’s Sake” • HPCwire, March 23, 2007 : “Scientists Compute Death Throes of White Dwarf Star” • New Scientist, March 22, 2007 : “At Last, Virtual Stars Go Kaboom on Cue” • Space.com, March 22, 2007 : “Wow! Scientists Explode a Virtual Star” • Astronomy Magazine, March 22, 2007 : “How to Incinerate a White Dwarf” • Slashdot, March 22, 2007 : “Astronomers Explode Virtual Supernova” • NPACI Envision Magazine, Spring, 2006 : “A Star is Born” •