James Stone

Principal Investigator of Initiative for the Geometry of Flows. Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), Princeton.

Research topic 

My research program centers on the use of large-scale direct numerical simulations to study the gas dynamics of a wide range of astrophysical systems, from protostars to clusters of galaxies. Almost all of this work requires development of advanced numerical algorithms for astrophysical gas dynamics on modern parallel computer systems.  For example, I am one of the primary developers of the ZEUS code for astrophysical MHD, and more recently my collaborators and I have developed Athena, a high-order Godunov scheme for astrophysical MHD that uses adaptive mesh refinement (AMR).

Some of the research problems on which I work include: (1) hydrodynamic and MHD processes that can lead to outward angular momentum transport in accretion disks, (2) the production and propagation of highly supersonic, collimated jets from accretion disks around protostars and active galactic nuclei, (3) the properties of compressible MHD turbulence in cold molecular gas in the galaxy, (4) the time-dependent evolution of strong shocks in the interstellar medium, (5) the structure of radiatively driven winds and outflows from disks around hot stars and AGN, and (6) the effect of mergers and AGN feedback on the hot x-ray emitting gas in clusters of galaxies.
   
I am deeply involved in PICSciE, which provides access to high-performance computing systems on campus, and training and education in scientific computation and numerical analysis, and I have a joint appointment in the Program in Applied and Computation Mathematics (PACM).

Biography 

James M. Stone is a leading figure in computational astrophysics and a Professor in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey. Born in Cornwall, England, and raised in Canada, he earned his B.Sc. in Physics in 1984 and M.Sc. in 1986 from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. He received his Ph.D. in 1990 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he began developing numerical methods for astrophysical fluid dynamics. Stone went on to hold faculty positions at the University of Maryland and later at the University of Cambridge, before joining Princeton University in 2003 as the Lyman Spitzer Jr. Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics. In 2019, he transitioned to IAS, where he leads research in magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), turbulence, and accretion physics. He is best known for developing the ZEUS and Athena families of MHD codes, which have become standard tools in the field. Stone has received numerous honors, including the Aneesur Rahman Prize for Computational Physics from the American Physical Society, the Dirk Brouwer Award from the AAS Division on Dynamical Astronomy, and election to both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. His work continues to shape theoretical and computational approaches to high-energy astrophysical phenomena.

Publication and Awards

Publications

• ZEUS: A widely used MHD code for simulating astrophysical fluids (Stone & Norman, 1992).
• Athena: A higher-order Godunov MHD code for astrophysical applications (Stone et al., 2008).
• Athena++: A flexible and scalable code for MHD and relativistic hydrodynamics (Stone et al., 2020).
• Significant contributions to simulations of accretion disks, supersonic turbulence, and black hole accretion flows.
• https://inspirehep.net/authors/1031579 

Awards

• 2024 – James Craig Watson Medal, National Academy of Sciences.
• 2022 – Elected Member, National Academy of Sciences.
• 2020 – Elected Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
• 2018 – Dirk Brouwer Award, AAS Division on Dynamical Astronomy.
• 2011 – Aneesur Rahman Prize for Computational Physics, American Physical Society.
• 2019 – Inaugural Fellow of American Astronomical Society
• 2019 – Kavli Lecturer, University of Cambridge
• 2018 – Dirk Brouwer Career Award, American Astronomical Society
• 2013 – Fellow of American Physical Society
• 2011 – Aneesur Rahman Prize for Computational Physics, American Physical Society
• 1995 –  Graduate Research Board Award, University of Maryland
• 1990-1992 – NSF Prize Postdoctoral Fellowship