Introducing Robert Fisher

This week features Robert Fisher. Bob is a computational astrophysicist primarily interested in the two endpoints in the lives of stars — stellar birth and death. He is keenly interested in the origin of a certain class of stellar explosions resulting from white dwarf stars, which astronomers have used to measure distances across the vast reaches of the cosmos — yet still do not fully understand. In his research, he seeks to understand the origins of these tremendous stellar explosions by simulating them on some of the world’s largest computers. As an assistant professor of physics at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, he mentors an active research group of future computational astrophysicists and scientists, and engages the broader university student population in astronomy and physics education. He also serves on a variety of committees, at the national level, the state level, and the university-level, which seek to advance high-performance computing research across disciplines. Some time in between all of this, you’re likely to find him in the kitchen cooking Persian or Italian food with his wife, Pamela, an art historian. After this week, you’ll find him back at @fisherastro on Twitter.