About Us
Jacob ("Jake") B. Simon
I am an Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. My primary research focus is on planet formation. My group and I are using sophisticated computer simulations run on some of the largest supercomputers in the US, and we are also closely collaborating with observers to test our theoretical models.
I also maintain a strong interest in how hot gas orbiting nature's most mysterious objects (black holes) spiral into these objects, releasing tremendous radiation as it does so.
Postdoctoral Researchers
Daniel Carrera
Daniel joined the group in the Fall of 2019, arriving from Penn State Unviersity, where he was a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow. He is investigating the formation of planetesimals in high gas pressure regions ("pressure bumps") thought to be present in planet-forming disks.
He is also mentoring graduate student Abigail Davenport on a study of particle growth in very young, massive planet-forming disks.
Graduate Students
David Rea
David joined the group in the Spring of 2020 and is running numerical simulations of the inner 1-10 AU of planet-forming disks in order to investigate the nature and structure of magnetically driven turbulence there and the implications for the earliest stages of planet formation.
Jeonghoon ("Jay") Lim
Jay joined the group in Fall of 2020. He is carrying out numerical simulations of planetesimal formation via the streaming instability in the presence of externally driven gas turbulence. He is addressing critical questions related to where planetesimal formation occurs in planet-forming disks and how efficient it is in the presence of turbulence.
Abigail Davenport
Abigail recently joined the group this past Fall (2022). She is working with postdoc Daniel Carrera to understand the structure and evolution of very young (Class 0/I) protostellar disks and how this structure/evolution influences particle growth. Her work will test the earliest stages of planet formation and whether or not planet formation can begin at the Class 0/I phase.
Undergraduate Students
Olivia Brouillette
Olivia is a new member to the group and is an undergraduate researcher working with David Rea and Jay Lim to better understand the nature of magnetically driven turbulence in disks and its role on planetesimal formation.
Former Group Members
Matthew Small
Matt was a member of the Simon Research Group from Fall 2019 to Spring 2022, after which he graduated with a masters degree. He carried out statistical analyses on the initial mass function of planetesimals produced from simulations of the streaming instability.
Sayantan Auddy
Sayantan was a postdoc in the group from Fall 2020 to Summer 2022. When he was here, he worked on a number of projects, including the nature of magnetically driven winds in planet-forming disks. He also collaborated with us to develop a machine learning tool to quantify the properties of embedded planets from observations of dust rings in protoplanetary disks.
Andrew ("Drew") Thomas
Drew was an undergraduate in the group from Fall 2019 to Summer 2021. While here, he worked closely with postdoc Daniel Carrera to study the formation of planetesimals in gaseous pressure bumps. This work led to a paper with Drew as second author (Carrera, Thomas, et al. 2022).