Athol J Kemball

The exponential growth in contemporary advanced computing capability has profoundly influenced approaches to leading-edge scientific questions in data-and compute-intensive science and engineering. For example, the power of current extreme-scale computer systems allows telescopes to acquire and process data at an unprecedented rate, bringing transformative change to the practice of observational astronomy. I focus on the interdisciplinary use of advanced  computing in computational science and engineering including observational astronomy, in order to understand key astrophysical questions for which new avenues of scientific inquiry are enabled by these advances. I am a member of the Center for Extreme-Scale Computation at NCSA/IACAT and a faculty affiliate of the Computational Science and Engineering program at UIUC.

My main research areas lie at the intersection of advanced computing and astrophysics and include the following specific focus areas in astronomy: a) the theory of interferometry; b) astrophysical masers; c) late-type, evolved stars; and d) gravitational lensing.