Professional background
Currently I am a Research Scientist at the Tech-X Corporation in Boulder, Colorado. I am a computational plasma physicist involved in code development for NIMROD, a plasma modeling code which solves the extended magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations in geometries relevant to nuclear fusion experiments and astrophysical plasma modeling. As part of this work I am associated with the SciDAC Center for Simulation of RF Wave Interactions with Magnetohydrodynamics (SWIM), investigating physical and computational issues involved in the self-consistent coupling of radio frequency (rf) wave codes with MHD codes. A notable example of such rf/MHD interaction is the stabilization of neoclassical tearing modes by electron cyclotron current drive in tokamaks, which has been demonstrated successfully in several experimental devices and which we are attempting to self-consistently simulate. I also collaborate with members of the SciDAC Center for Extended MHD Modeling (CEMM).
Prior to joining Tech-X I held a postdoctoral research appointment (also associated with the SWIM project) in the physics department/Center for Plasma Theory and Computation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I began working at UW-Madison in July of 2007 after completing my doctoral thesis at Princeton University, working at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. My research at PPPL dealt with several topics which arise in gyrokinetic particle-in-cell simulation, most notably the effects of discrete particle noise (associated with finite marker size) and the issue of growing weights. In addition, I have done both theoretical and experimental research in the area of nonneutral (pure electron) plasma physics, a topic I was introduced to as an undergraduate at Brigham Young University an increasingly large number of years ago.
For interested parties, an html version (likely not-completely-up-to-date) of my CV can be accessed in the obvious way. Alternatively, various publications and presentations I have been involved with can be accessed by clicking the tabs above.
