Tom Abel (cosmologist)

Tom Abel (born 1970) is a German cosmologist who first simulated the collapse of a metal-free massive star that belongs to the first generation of stars in the Universe. This work was done in collaboration with Greg L. Bryan and Michael L. Norman and was published in Science magazine (2002, 295, 93). He received his Doctor of Philosophy from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in 2000.

He is a Professor of Physics at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California and of Particle Physics and Astrophysics at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and from 2013 to 2018 served as Director of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology.

His work with visualization expert Ralf Kaehler has been seen in many planetaria shows including "The Dark Universe" (2013)

Background
Abel was born in rural Lower Bavaria, Germany.

Work
His primary interests are:
 * Primordial star formation
 * Cosmological structure formation and reionization
 * Astrophysical fluid dynamics
 * Radiative transfer