Ryan Golant is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Astronomy at Columbia University. He attended Princeton University for undergrad, majoring in Astrophysical Sciences and minoring in Computer Science. Ryan is broadly interested in computational astrophysics, especially the applications of computing to plasma astrophysics. For his thesis, Ryan is combining small-scale particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations with large-scale cosmological MHD simulations to probe the origins of the magnetic fields in cosmic voids. Ryan has also done work on the growth of magnetic fields around gamma-ray burst shocks, the impact of stellar feedback on the ISM, the growth of instabilities in the solar wind, and the application of machine learning to galaxy cluster identification. Outside of astronomy, Ryan enjoys playing violin and video games, learning about art history, and spending time with his cat, Alfvie.
Advisors
Greg Bryan & Lorenzo Sironi