Steven Bromley, PhD
Short Bio
I am Principal Research Scientist within the research department. My background is primarily experimental-physics-based, though I now work primarily on computational projects. In particular, I am interested in transient environments - such as cometary comae and kilonovae - where a variety of atomic collision processes such as recombination, electron impact ionization, photoionization, charge exchange, and more compete to determine the abundances of atoms, ions, and molecules, ions and their relative abundances. My research focuses on ensuring that atomic data (or lackthereof) does not lead astronomers to inaccurate conclusions or inferences in astrophysical spectroscopy.
Education
Bachelor of Science Millersville University 2015
PhD Clemson University 2020
Professional Experience
After graduating with a BS in Physics from Millersville University (Millersville, PA), I attended Clemson University in Clemson, SC. I graduated with a PhD in Physics, where my dissertation focused on developing methods for performing experiments with beams of ions. Following my PhD, I accepted a postdoc position at Auburn University where I continued to develop my PhD work. Now, I work as a Principal Research Scientist at Auburn, where I develop new atomic-data-based projects to generate and benchmark atomic and molecular data for a variety of astrophysical and laboratory plasma environments.
Innovation
My research is primarily computational in nature. For example, much of my work relies on calculations of atomic data (energy levels, radiative rates) and cross sections with the Flexible Atomic Code. At present I am using the FAC to produce and benchmark where possible (i.e. compare to experiment to test the level of accuracy of my calculations) electron impact data for kilonova applications. I am also involved in research for cometary environments, where I produce spectral models for atoms, ions, and molecules, by considering the breadth of relevant atomic collision processes.
