Postdoctoral Fellowship: MPS-Ascend: Spin Magnetohydrodynamics: Spin and Strong Magnetic Fields in Nuclear Collisions

Kevin Ingles is awarded an NSF Mathematical and Physical Sciences Ascending Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to conduct a program of research and activities related to broaden participation by groups underrepresented in STEM. This fellowship to Dr. Ingles supports his research project entitled “Postdoctoral Fellowship: MPS-Ascend: Spin Magnetohydrodynamics: Spin and Strong Magnetic Fields in Nuclear Collisions” under the mentorship of sponsoring scientists. The host institution for the fellowship is the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and the sponsoring scientist is Dr. Jacquelyn Noronha-Hostler. Dr. Ingles will pursue a research project to develop numerical studies of the effects of the strong dynamical magnetic fields or particles spins in the evolution of the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) formed in heavy ion collisions (HIC)s. These numerical studies will help resolve inconsistencies between theory and recent spin polarization measurements and will also be useful in studies of the dense matter formed in neutron star mergers. Dr. Ingles will participate in outreach and mentoring activities focusing on undergraduates and graduate students from historically excluded groups through involving them computational physics research, helping them develop their science identities, and mentor students through existing programs at UIUC such as the Young Scholars Program, the Guidance for Physics Students (GPS), and the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA) Institute. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.