Massimo Gaspari, Ph.D.

Astrophysicist

Princeton University

I am NASA Einstein and Lyman Spitzer, Jr. Fellow in the Department of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University.

I have been working for a decade in the field of Theoretical and Computational Astrophysics focusing on the formation and evolution of galaxies, groups, clusters, and the co-evolution of supermassive black holes (SMBHs). I further study the astrophysics of active galactic nuclei (AGN) feedback, diffuse plasmas, and multiphase gas. I primarily develop and carry out 3D high-resolution MHD simulations with massively parallel supercomputers (>10k cores). I use first-principle simulations as controlled astrophysical experiments to interpret a wide range of multiwavelength observations (e.g., X-ray, optical, radio), at the same time constructing and probing new quantitative physical models.

Research Activity

  α  Theoretical & Numerical Astrophysics: formation and evolution of galaxies, groups, clusters.

  β  Astrophysics of (supermassive) black holes and accreting objects.

  γ  Multiphase gas astrophysics: instabilities, warm filaments, molecular clouds, dust, metals.

  δ  AGN feedback (jets, outflows, radiation) versus cooling flows and star formation.

  ε  Astrophysical plasmas (ICM, IGrM, CGM, ISM): MHD, turbulence, conduction, shocks.

  ζ  Quantiative comparison with multiwavelength observations (X-ray, optical, IR, radio, 21cm).

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Research Methods

  η  High-resolution 3D magneto-hydrodynamic simulations.

  θ  Independent developer of several physical and numerical modules (e.g., for FLASH).

  κ  Adaptive mesh refinement and cloud-in-cell particles (dark matter, stars, BHs).

  λ  Massive parallelization and optimization for HPC supercomputers (e.g., NASA – Pleiades).

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Research Portfolio

 • 97 publications: 2800 citations; h-index 30

 • $2.8 million funding + 81 million CPU-hrs ($1.9 million) allocated

 • 51 invited talks and colloquia (90+ presentations)

 • 44 accepted observing programs (100+ proposals)