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Tom Abel is a Professor of Particle Physics and Astrophysics and of Physics at Stanford University, with a joint appointment at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. He serves as a senior member at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC), where he was Director from 2013-2018. His research spans computational cosmology, focusing on the formation of the first objects in the universe.
Abel received his Ph.D. from Ludwig-Maximillian University in Munich in 1999, with a thesis on the Formation of the First Objects in the Universe. Prior to joining Stanford in 2004, he was faculty at Penn State University and held postdoctoral positions at Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, UK. He has been a visiting scientist at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois since 1993.
His research focuses on the first billion years of cosmic history using ab initio supercomputer calculations. Abel's group has shown from first principles that the very first luminous objects are very massive stars and has developed novel numerical algorithms using adaptive-mesh-refinement simulations that capture over 14 orders of magnitude in length and time scales. His current work continues on first stars, first galaxies, and their role in chemical enrichment and cosmological reionization. Most recently, he has pioneered novel numerical algorithms to study collisionless fluids such as dark matter and astrophysical plasmas.
His group studies the full spectrum of first objects in the universe: first stars, first supernovae, first HII regions, first magnetic fields, and first heavy elements. Their work has settled a 30-year debate on the nature of the first luminous objects, demonstrating they were massive stars. Abel has also developed adaptive ray tracing techniques to study radiation effects and magneto-hydrodynamic algorithms for plasma behavior.
- Elected Fellow of the AAAS (2014)
- Lagrange Prize, Institute Lagrange de Paris (2011)
- NSF Career Award (2003-2008)
- Gordon Bell Prize Finalist (2001)
- Wempe Prize (2000)
Abel has mentored numerous students and postdocs who have gone on to prominent positions at institutions worldwide. His group has developed several important computational tools, including contributions to the yt analysis framework and specialized codes for dark matter simulations and radiation hydrodynamics. His research has been featured in numerous high-impact publications, planetarium shows, and media outlets including National Geographic and Scientific American.
He leads the KIPAC visualization lab, where immersive visualization techniques are used to analyze complex cosmological data. His group's visualizations have appeared in major publications and documentaries, including BBC's Cosmic Dawn, National Geographic's Inside the Milky Way, and the IMAX film Voyage of Time.
