Capturing the Fire: Flames and Flame Models in Astrophysics

Alan Calder is an associate professor in the Astronomy Group within the Dept of Physics and Astronomy at Stony Brook University. His research is in the field of nuclear astrophysics, and his work involves simulating explosive astrophysical phenomena. Dr. Calder also has extensive experience with large-scale computing. Prior to coming to Stony Brook, Dr. Calder had research appointments at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Chicago, where he was at the Center for Astrophysical Thermonuclear Flashes. He was also an instructor at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. Alan Calder’s research is principally in bright stellar explosions known as Type Ia supernovae. These events produce and disseminate heavy elements and are therefore important for galactic chemical evolution. The light curves of these events can be standardized and thereby used as distance indicators for cosmology studies investigating the expansion history of the Universe.