NASA FINNEST Grant
Congratulations to Shangjia Zhang for being awarded a Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINNEST) Grant in the Planetary Science Division as a Future Investigator (FI).
Shangjia’s proposal is titled “Self-consistent Dust and Thermal Structure in 3-D Protoplanetary Disk Models: Constraints on Disk and Young Planet Properties”. He will build models with consistent thermal structure of protoplanetary disks using Monte Carlo radiative transfer code RADMC-3D and radiation hydrodyanmics code Athena++. These simulations will help explain diverse structures recently discovered by ALMA and ground-base observations. Since the thermal structure affects dynamics, a realistic implementation of radiation will improve our understanding of the disk dynamics too.
The grant provides up to $135,000 in three years covering the student’s tuition and stipend. 34 proposals were selected among 341 proposals reviewed in the Planetary Science division this year.