Padoan, Paolo

Biography

Academic Degrees: PhD in Astrophysics, Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen, 1997 Degree in Astronomy, University of Padova, 1992 Academic Positions: ICREA Research Professor, University of Barcelona, March 2010 - present Associate Professor, UC San Diego, June 2007 - February 2010 Assistant Professor, UC San Diego, June 2003 - June 2007 Postdoctoral Fellow, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, 2001 - 2003 Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University, 1999 - 2001 Postdoctoral Fellow, INOAE, Puebla, 1998 - 1999

Research Interest

A major goal of his research is to understand the origin of stars. Star formation is a central problem in the study of galaxy evolution and cosmology. Stars are a dominant energy source to the interstellar medium of galaxies and control their chemical enrichment; the first massive stars in the universe contributed to its re-ionization. Because star-forming gas in galaxies is highly turbulent, the study of star formation involves the investigation of turbulence as well. A general theory of turbulence does not exist, but computer simulations provide valuable information on universal properties of turbulent flows. He conducts numerical experiments of super-sonic, self-gravitating magneto-hydrodynamic turbulence with physical parameters appropriate for describing star-forming gas in galaxies. Using adaptive mesh refinement methods, numerical simulations may span a huge range of scales, from the size of a galactic disk to that of an individual circumstellar disk.