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Padoan, Paolo
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ICREA Research Professor at UB (Universitat de Barcelona). Experimental Sciences & Mathematics
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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
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Research Interests
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A major goal of my 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. I conduct 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.
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Key Words
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Star Formation, Turbulence, Interstellar Medium, Planet Formation, MHD
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