User:Revolving Doormat/Abigail Polin
Abigail Polin | |
|---|---|
| Alma mater |
|
| Awards | NERSC Early Career Award for High Impact Scientific Achievement |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astrophysics |
| Institutions | |
| Thesis | Pushing the Helium Envelope: Signatures of Normal and Unusual Supernovae from Sub-Chandrasekhar Mass White Dwarf Explosions (2020) |
| Peter E. Nugent, Daniel Kasen | |
| Website | https://abigailpolin.com/ |
Abigail Polin is an American theoretical and computational astrophysicist and assistant professor at Purdue University.
Education
[edit]Polin earned a Bachelor of Science in Physics from New York University (NYU) in 2012,[1] where she was a member of Sigma Pi Sigma.[2] She then joined the University of California, Berkeley as a NSF Graduate Research Fellow. She graduated with a Master of Science in 2015 and a Doctor of Philosophy in 2020, both in Physics.[3][4][1]
Research and teaching
[edit]Polin participated in summer undergraduate research experiences studying gravitational waves at Louisiana State University and Franklin & Marshall College.[5][6] She also worked as an adjunct instructor at NYU in 2013 and at Berkeley in 2020.[4][5]
At Berkeley, as a graduate student, Polin researched how white dwarfs explode as Type Ia supernovae under the advisement of Peter E. Nugent and Daniel Kasen. Using high-performance simulations, she investigated the double-detonation mechanism, where ignition of a helium shell triggers a secondary core explosion. Her models reproduced ultraviolet flashes and spectral signatures seen in observed supernovae, helping explain their origins and refine how these events are used to measure cosmic distances.[7][8]
In 2020, Polin became a joint postdoctoral researcher at the California Institute of Technology as a Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics Fellow and the Carnegie Observatories as a Carnegie Theoretical Astrophysics Center Fellow.[1][4] While there, in 2021, she was awarded the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center Early Career Award for High Impact Scientific Achievement.[9][1]
In 2024, Polin became an Assistant professor at Purdue University.[1] She was also awarded a Scialog fellowship.[10][1]
Awards
[edit]- SPS Leadership Scholarship, Society of Physics Students, 2012[11]
- NERSC Early Career Award for High Impact Scientific Achievement, 2021[9]
- Scialog Fellow, 2024[10]
Outreach and science communication
[edit]In 2025, Polin was a faculty organizer for American Physical Society (APS) Conference for Undergraduate Gender Minorities in Physics.[12][4] She has done radio interviews,[13] Astronomy on Tap talks,[14][15] and gave a talk at the Huntington Library.[16]
Selected publications
[edit]- Polin, Abigail; Nugent, Peter; Kasen, Daniel (2021-01-01). "Nebular Models of Sub-Chandrasekhar Mass Type Ia Supernovae: Clues to the Origin of Ca-rich Transients". The Astrophysical Journal. 906 (1): 65. arXiv:1910.12434. Bibcode:2021ApJ...906...65P. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/abcccc. ISSN 0004-637X.
- Polin, Abigail; Duffell, Paul; Milisavljevic, Dan (2022-12-01). "Using Anisotropies as a Forensic Tool for Decoding Supernova Remnants". The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 940 (2): L28. arXiv:2209.02134. Bibcode:2022ApJ...940L..28P. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/aca28b. ISSN 2041-8205.
- Simon, Joseph; Polin, Abigail; Lommen, Andrea; Stappers, Ben; Finn, Lee Samuel; Jenet, F. A.; Christy, B (2014-03-04). "Gravitational Wave Hotspots: Ranking Potential Locations of Single-Source Gravitational Wave Emission". The Astrophysical Journal. 784 (1): 60. arXiv:1402.1140. Bibcode:2014ApJ...784...60S. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/784/1/60. ISSN 0004-637X.
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f "Abigail Polin joins the faculty of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Purdue University: Department of Physics and Astronomy: Purdue University". www.physics.purdue.edu. Retrieved 2025-11-09.
- ^ "Prizes and Awards". as.nyu.edu. Retrieved 2025-11-09.
- ^ "Abigail Polin – Wonderfest – Bay Area Beacon of Science". 2019-09-01. Retrieved 2025-11-09.
- ^ a b c d "Abigail Polin" (PDF).
- ^ a b "Abigail Polin". LinkedIn.
- ^ Simon, Joseph; Polin, Abigail; Lommen, Andrea; Stappers, Ben; Finn, Lee Samuel; Jenet, F. A.; Christy, B (2014-03-04). "Gravitational Wave Hotspots: Ranking Potential Locations of Single-Source Gravitational Wave Emission". The Astrophysical Journal. 784 (1): 60. arXiv:1402.1140. Bibcode:2014ApJ...784...60S. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/784/1/60. ISSN 0004-637X.
- ^ Troutman, Keri (2022-03-23). "Berkeley Lab Computing Resources Enable Deeper Understanding of Supernovae Explosions". Computing Sciences. Retrieved 2025-11-09.
- ^ Vu, Linda (2020-07-23). "Spectacular Ultraviolet Flash May Finally Explain How White Dwarfs Explode". Computing Sciences News Archive. Retrieved 2025-11-09.
- ^ a b "NERSC honours eight early career scientists with annual HPC achievement awards | Scientific Computing World". www.scientific-computing.com. Retrieved 2025-11-09.
- ^ a b "Early Science with the LSST". Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA). 2025-03-18. Retrieved 2025-11-09.
- ^ "Prizes and Awards". as.nyu.edu. Retrieved 2025-11-09.
- ^ "CU*iP at PUWL - LOC". sites.google.com. Retrieved 2025-11-09.
- ^ "Let Me Touch Your Mind: DJ Marilynn's Archives 2020". www.vicesbyproxy.com. Retrieved 2025-11-09.
- ^ "Past Astronomy on Tap Events". Caltech Astro Outreach. Retrieved 2025-11-09.
- ^ "AoT Cradle of Astronauts: Timeless Methods in Planetary Science and Physics – Astronomy On Tap". Retrieved 2025-11-09.
- ^ "Carnegie Observatories Lecture Series: A Century of Distance Measures | The Huntington". www.huntington.org. Retrieved 2025-11-09.
[[Category:Year of birth missing (living people)]] [[Category:Purdue University faculty]] [[Category:New York University alumni]] [[Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni]] [[Category:California Institute of Technology people]] [[Category:American astrophysicists]] [[Category:21st-century American women scientists]] [[Category:Place of birth missing (living people)]] [[Category:Living people]]