Dr. Lile Wang
KIAA welcomes Dr. Lile Wang, an expert in numerical simulations of exoplanets and their formation, to PKU as a new faculty member. Dr. Wang earned his Ph.D. from Princeton University in September of 2018 and then became a Flatiron Research Fellow at the Center for Computational Astrophysics of the Flatiron Institute, funded by the Simons Foundation.
Dr. Wang’s research interests mainly reside in computational astrophysics, whose stack spans from the algorithm and code design through the applications of numerical simulations. He develops numerical codes for (magneto-)hydrodynamics, radiative transfer, and non-equilibrium co-evolved thermochemistry. These codes are highly optimized on contemporary heterogeneous architectures (especially GPUs) for maximum computation efficiency. Such top-performance numerical systems are applied in the following fields of research:
(1) Evolution and dispersal of exoplanet atmospheres, aiming at explaining and predicting the profiles of transmission spectra by conducting 3D thermochemical-hydrodynamic simulations;
(2) Accretion, wind-launching, and sub-structure formation processes of protoplanetary disks, using real-time thermochemistry to determine both the non-ideal MHD parameters and the observational characteristics consistently;
Dr. Wang is also actively investigating further applications of the numerical systems in new realms of research, including the interactions of binary stellar winds, the magnetized ISM, and the galactic feedback in cluster formation processes, emphasizing the consistency of theoretical modeling and the detectability by modern or future observational measures.
