Department of Physics and Astronomy
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
&
The Flatiron Institute Center for Computational Astrophysics
Simons Foundation
Blakesley Burkhart
I am an assistant professor at Rutgers in the Physics and Astronomy Department. I am also an associate research scientist at the Center for Computational Astrophysics in the Simons Foundation Flatiron Institute. I recently received the 2019 Annie Jump Cannon award from the American Astronomical Society and the 2022 Maria Goeppert Mayer award from the American Physical Society. I am very honored to be a 2020 Packard Fellow and 2021 Sloan Fellow.
Current Research
My research is focused on understanding the nature of magnetic turbulence at all scales in the universe. This includes the diffuse and star forming interstellar medium (ISM) and the turbulent nature of nearby galaxies.
I study how turbulence impacts many key aspects of galaxy evolution, including star formation, the transition of atomic to molecular gas, and disk stability. Towards cosmological scales, I'm fascinated by the effects of turbulence seen in ionized gas in galaxy clusters and diagnostics of the Lyman alpha forest that probe the state of gas in the intergalactic and circumgalactic media.
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