Jacob (Jake) B. Simon

I am an Associate 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.

Tabassum (Tab) Tanvir

Tab joined the group in June 2024. Tab is studying how magnetic field effects and self-gravity interact in young, massive planet-forming disks. He is also interested in questions related to how astrophysical objects get their mass. This connects his previous and ongoing studies of star formation with questions of how planetary embryos and planetesimals form with the the masses that they do. 

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.

David has recently won a NASA FINESST grant to study how the Galilean moons formed in an early "circum-Jupiter" disk. 

Jeonghoon (Jay) Lim

Jay joined the group in Fall of 2020.  He is a NASA FINESST recepient and is carrying out numerical simulations of planetesimal formation via the streaming instability.  He is addressing critical questions regarding the precise conditions in which planetesimal formation occurs in planet-forming disks and how efficient this planetesimal formation is. 

Weston Hall

Weston joined the group in Fall 2023.  He is investigating the initial mass function of planetesimals formed via the streaming instability by carrying out large-scale 3D numerical simulations on national-level supercomputers. 

Camden Olds

Camden joined our group in Fall 2024. He will be carrying out extremely large scale simulations of the streaming instability with a new GPU-accelerated code, AthenaK. 

Kyen Lundgren

Kyen Lundgren is working with myself and graduate student Weston Hall to build a suite of high resolution simulations of various gas dynamical processes in astrophysics.  These simulations will be incorporated into a new educational tool I am developing as part of my recent NSF grant, the Computational Astrophysics Lab (stay tuned for this!)

Quinn Gault

Quinn is working with postdoc Tab Tanvir to run a suite of star formation simulations to better understand how stars get the masses that they do. She is a part of the prestigious First Year Honors program at Iowa State University. 

Daniel Carrera

Daniel was a postdoc in my group from 2019-2023 and a research scientist from 2023-2024. While here, he investigated the formation of planetesimals in high gas pressure regions ("pressure bumps") thought to be present in planet-forming disks.

He also worked with former graduate student Abigail Davenport on a study of particle growth in very young, massive planet-forming disks.

Now a research professor at New Mexico State University

Abigail Davenport

Abigail joined the group in Fall 2022. While here, she worked with research scientist Daniel Carrera to understand the structure and evolution of very young (Class 0/I) protostellar disks and how this structure/evolution influences particle growth. She has now graduated with a Masters Degree, and her work will be continued by Daniel.

Now at Kitty Hawk Technologies in Virginia

Olivia Brouillette

Olivia was an undergraduate student and then a post-bachelor researcher in the group.  While in the group, she worked with David Rea and Jay Lim to carry out extremely high resolution, long time-scale simulations of the streaming instability to quantify the precise critical dust-to-gas ratio needed to activate the streaming instability.

Now in the graduate program at New Mexico State University

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.

Now enrolled in IT training at Western Governors University  

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.

Now a research scientist at Persceptive Space

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).

Now employed by Wellmark