Working with Prof. Gordon Emslie (Western Kentucky University, KY) and Dr. Eduard Kontar (University of Glasgow, UK), we are developing methods to investigate and quantify the role of magnetic turbulence in limiting the efficiency of thermal conduction by electrons due to scattering in pitch-angle space ( \( \cos{\theta}\to0 \) ), when the spatial scale of magnetic fluctuations is of order the mean-free-path for Coulomb collisions, or larger. This has broad applicability from astrophysical plasmas (e.g. accretion disks surrounding hot, young stars forming exo-planets), high-energy astrophysics (supernovae, jets), stellar atmospheres, and nuclear fusion plasmas. We have carried out an extensive analytical and numerical study applied to the solar corona.

Another strand of our research concerned with studying fundamental plasma physics is collaborating with Prof. Tom Killian’s Cold Atoms group to help interpret experimental results through the lens of numerical models. We are developing a new, multi-dimensional plasma physics code designed to facilitate numerical experiments to be run in tandem with (and with high fidelity to) the Cold Atoms group’s laboratory experiments.