Ashkbiz Danehkar
Ashkbiz Danehkar is a Research Scientist (Principal Investigator) at Eureka Scientific, Inc. supported by a NASA grant from 2022. He was a Research Fellow at the University of Michigan (2019–2021), and a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (2015–2018). He obtained his Ph.D. in Physics and Astronomy from Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, in 2014. He received his MSc in Plasma Physics from the Queen’s University Belfast, UK, in 2009.
His research interests include theoretical physics, astrophysical plasma physics and observational astrophysics. He has conducted research on ultra-fast outflows in active galactic nuclei using X-ray and UV observations Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics sicne 2015. He has carried out research on physical conditions, chemical abundances, kinematics and ionization structures of planetary nebulae at Macquarie University during 2010-2014. He also studied nonlinear dynamics of electron-acoustic solitary waves in multi-species suprathermal plasmas at Queen’s University Belfast in 2009. He was an early-stage researcher in quantum field theory and general relativity at the University of Craiova in 2008.
- Observational Astrophysics: Since 2015 at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, he has studied X-ray and UV observations of ultra-fast outflows launched from accretion flows surrounding supermassive balck holes in active galactic nuclei. As a PhD student at Macquarie University during 2010-2014, he conducted observing runs with the Wide Field Spectrograph (WiFeS/IFU) on ANU 2.3-m telescope at Siding Spring Observatory, and carried out research on 3D kinematics and photo-ionization structures of planetary nebulae. He used IFU spectroscopy to model three-dimensional gaseous structures of ionized nebulae and collimated outflows.
- Plasma Physics: As postgraduate student at the Queen’s University Belfast during 2008-2009, he studied nonlinear dynmaics of electron-acoustic solitary waves in multi-species plasmas. He determined how various plasma parameters modify the solitary wave structures using numerical techniques. This includes the effects of suprethermal electrons in electron-positron pair plasma and electron beam-plasma interaction.
- Theoretical Physics: As an early-stage researcher at the University of Craiova in 2008, he studied cosmological perturbations in general relativity, and gauge and BRST symmtry in quantum field theory. He conducted research about coupling between a dual formulation of linearized gravity and topological background field (BF) model, which could be applicable to cosmological inflections models and dark energy model.
- Computational Science: He studied computational science and engineering at the University of Rostock, which is a field consisting of physics, mathematics and computer science. He learned about computational techniques and applied mathematics for physical phenomena, such as finite element methods, fluid dynamics, nonlinear system theory, and parallel computing for high performance simulations. He applied those numerical skills to plasma physics during his study at Queen’s University Belfast in 2008, which contributed to our understanding of electrostatic solitary waves observed in astrophysical and space plasmas.
See Curriculum Vitae
