Glenn Ciolek

Senior Lecturer

Glenn Ciolek is a theoretical and computational astrophysicist. His research focus has been in the theory of the interstellar medium, particularly astrophysical plasmas and magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) and their applications to star-forming molecular clouds and cores. This has included multifluid non-ideal MHD simulations (including dust grains) of shock waves in interstellar clouds, and numerical studies of gravitational collapse and fragmentation of protostellar cores. Working with his Rensselaer colleague, Prof. Wayne Roberge, he has developed a Riemann-Godunov numerical code using adaptive mesh refinement to investigate the time-dependent formation and nonlinear evolution of MHD shocks in weakly-ionized interstellar clouds. Some calculations have also employed parallel processing and the use of the supercomputers at the Center for Computational Innovations (CCI) at Rensselaer. Glenn is also interested in the astrobiological applications of his research, and has been associated with the New York Center for Astrobiology (NYCA) at Rensselaer.