James Stone to Receive James Craig Watson Medal

James Stone's "leading contributions to computational astrophysics" are set to be recognized with an award from the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Stone, who has served as a Professor in the Institute's School of Natural Sciences since 2019, will be presented with the James Craig Watson Medal in honor of his "extraordinary scientific achievements" during the 161st NAS Annual Meeting, which will take place on April 28, 2024.

Broadly speaking, Stone's research is focused on fluid dynamics, in particular numerical solutions to the equations of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) in an astrophysical context. He was praised in the NAS award citation for leading the development of two of the most widely used codes in astrophysics: ZEUS and Athena. As well as playing a key role in the development of the codes, Stone has employed the ZEUS code in particular to better understand dynamics of protostellar disks, namely rotating disks of dust and gas that surround the core of a developing solar system. He also used it to investigate outflows, which can be defined as the mixture of wind or jet gas that will moves away from protostars.

In addition to Stone, two past Members in the School of Mathematics, Eshan Chattopadhyay (2016, 2017–18) and David Zuckerman (2011–12), will receive an award from NAS: the Michael and Sheila Held Prize for their "novel work on randomized algorithms."

Read more at the National Academy of Sciences.