Issue 1, 2014
Issue 3, 2009
Nordita welcomes two new Assistant Professors and four Nordita Fellows. Two new postdoctoral fellows and a PhD student have joined the ERC project on astrophysical dynamos. We wish all of them a pleasant and productive time at Nordita!
Dr. Troels Harmark, Denmark, comes to Nordita from the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen. Troels obtained his PhD from the NBI in 2001, after which he was a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University and then an Assistant Professor at the NBI until now. His area of research is general relativity, string theory and the AdS/CFT correspondence. He is currently working on an effective description of higher dimensional black holes (blackfolds) and on their characterization. He is also working on describing the statistical mechanics of black holes using gauge theory and on mapping the spectrum of gauge theory and string theory via the AdS/CFT correspondence.
Dr. Sabine Hossenfelder, Germany, comes to Nordita from the Perimeter Institute in Canada. She obtained her PhD in Frankfurt, Germany in 2003 and has been a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Arizona, the University of California Santa Barbara, and the Perimeter Institute before coming to Nordita. Sabine is interested in physics beyond the Standard Model in general, and in the phenomenology of quantum gravity in particular, which has been the focus of her research in recent years.
Dr. Annica Black-Schaffer, Sweden, received her PhD from Stanford University in 2009. Her research interests center around strong correlation effects in electronic materials. Her past work has focused on superconductivity in various systems including graphene.
Dr. Paata Kakashvili, Georgia, comes to Nordita from Rice University where he was a post-doctoral fellow following his PhD from Chalmers University in Sweden in 2006. His main area of research is strongly correlated systems, with emphasis on low-dimensional condensed matter and ultra-cold atomic systems. Other research interests include non-equilibrium transport in condensed matter and trapped ultra-cold atomic systems, and high-Tc superconductivity.
Dr. Niccolò Bucciantini, Italy, received his PhD from the University of Firenze in 2004. He comes to Nordita from the University of California Berkeley where he was a Hubble Fellow. His research interests focus on the application of recently developed numerical schemes for relativistic magneto hydrodynamics (RMHD) to the study of outflows from compact objects and their interaction with the environment, and in particular to pulsar winds and pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe).
Dr. Valentina Giangreco M. Puletti, Italy, received her PhD from Uppsala University in Sweden in 2009. Her research interests are focused on string theory and in particular on so-called gauge/gravity dualities in different dimensions. She is also interested in conformal field theories, integrable systems, and in quantum field theory in general.
We also welcome two new post-doctoral fellows and a PhD student associated with the ERC project on astrophysical dynamos.
Dr. Piyali Chatterjee, India, comes to Nordita from the Tata Institute for Fundamental Research in Mumbai, India where she was a Visiting Fellow. She received her PhD from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore in 2007. Her research interests are centered on solar and stellar dynamos, helioseismology and magneto hydrodynamics.
Dr. Gustavo Guerrero, Colombia, joins Nordita from the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil where he obtained his PhD on astrophysics. He is interested in the physical processes governing the solar magnetic cycle. His work includes magneto hydrodynamics, mean field dynamo theory, turbulence, convection and magneto convection.
Mr. Jörn Warnecke, Germany, is a new PhD student in Astronomy at Stockholm University working under the supervision of Professor Axel Brandenburg at Nordita.
Nordita welcomes two long-term senior visitors.
Professor Kåre Olaussen, is at Nordita on sabbatical leave from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology for six months starting July 2009. He received his PhD in Applied Mathematics from MIT in 1978, with a thesis on high energy scattering in gauge theories. Since then he has worked on various topics in classical and quantum field theory, quantum mechanics, and statistical physics, and is interested in most areas of theoretical and mathematical physics. His recent work includes (i) possible symmetries of multi-Higgs-doublet extensions of the standard model, (ii) dynamical modelling of wave packet reduction in quantum mechanics, (iii) the Casimir effect in diverse dimensions, (iv) the possible behaviour of identical particles with time dependent decay rates, (v) the intrinsic structure of the two-phase interface in the 2D Ising model, (vi) peculiarities of the virial expansion of ideal quantum gases at dimensions d=3, 8/3, 10/4, 12/5, and 14/6, and (vii) entanglement of spin chains and its possible application to the FQHE. Kåre is staying in 132:006 in the Nordita main building until the end of this year.
Professor Matthias Rheinhardt, is a Visiting Professor at Nordita during the 2009-10 academic year, associated with the ERC project on astrophysical dynamos. He is on leave from the Astrophysical Institute Potsdam. He has been working on magnetic fields in neutron stars and, more recently, on extensions of mean-field dynamo theory as well as the determination of turbulent transport coefficients in Cartesian and spherical domains. His office at Nordita is room 122:030 with the astrophysics group.
A list of current Nordita visitors is always available in graphical form on http://cms.nordita.org/?q=vm where you can also see past and future visitors. Optionally you can also click to display all participants in the ongoing scientific program.
The objective of the School is to provide training for PhD students working in magnetohydrodynamics in general, and in astrophysical dynamos, the geodynamo, and laboratory dynamos in particular. A proper understanding of dynamos has become mandatory in many fields of research. Solar activity with its 11 year cycle is just one example where we are still lacking a theoretically consistent model in spite of the urgent need to predict the intensity of the next cycle. The latter is particularly critical is estimating the life time of artificial satellites in Earth orbit and hence the need for costly service missions. In the last 10 years major theoretical advances have led to a much deeper understanding of dynamos at large magnetic Reynolds numbers. In addition, three different laboratory experiments have now been successful in displaying dynamo action, broadening the range of phenomena that need to be understood theoretically.
The web page for electronic registration is www.nordita.org/winterschool2010 where you may also download the poster of the school.
This event is supported by NordForsk.
Travel and local expenses for all accepted students from the Nordic countries
will be reimbursed.
25 September 2009 to 25 October 2009
Understanding the origin of solar and stellar magnetic fields is one of the central problems of physics and astrophysics, and a key to understanding the cosmic magnetism, in general. There are two main difficulties in studying this problem: 1) magnetic fields are generated by turbulent dynamos in convection zones below the visible surface, not accessible by direct observations; 2) solar and stellar magnetic activity is a multi-scale phenomenon, involving physical processes on very small scales, probably, below the current observational limit, and at the same time showing remarkable large-scale spatial and temporal organizations over a whole star. The prime target of our investigation is the Sun, which serves as the Rosetta Stone in this field and holds the key to unlocking the secrets of magnetic field generation in the Universe. The most detailed observational data and theoretical models have been obtained for the Sun, but a very significant progress has also been achieved in observations and theories of magnetism on other stars.
→ Details and application form: www.nordita.org/dynamos2009
2-29 November 2009
This event combines a school, a scientific program and a conference in multiscale modelling in numerical analysis, nano and material science, chemistry and biology.
The purpose of this event is to join a school, a scientific program and a conference in multiscale modeling where teachers, students and scientists in computational science and engineering will be brought together to present, discuss and solve problems in areas of research involving multiple scales.
→ Details and application form: www.nordita.org/multiscale2009
→ Link to electronic preprints: www.nordita.org/preprints
The following preprints have been posted to the Nordita on-line archive since the last newsletter issue:
If you have information about meetings or other items that would be useful to include in Nordita News, please send it to Anne Jifält, Nordita, email: anne@kth.se.