John M. Blondin

Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Professor
Associate Dean for Research
Biography
Professor Blondin received his PhD in 1987 from The University of Chicago and did postdoctoral work at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the University of Virginia, and UNC-CH. He joined NC State University in 1993 as an Assistant Professor. He was the Director of Undergraduate Programs in Physics from 2007 to 2011, Head of the Physics Department from 2012 to 2016, and was named Associate Dean of Research in the College of Sciences in 2016. He is the recipient of an NSF CAREER award a Sigma Xi Research Award, and has been named a Cottrell Scholar, an NC State Outstanding Teacher, a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science , and an NC State Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Professor.
His research focuses on computational gas dynamics, with applications to interacting binary stars, accretion disks around compact objects, planetary nebulae, supernovae and supernova remnants. His research places a strong emphasis on the dynamics of shock waves; He discovered the Non-linear Thin-Shell Instability and the Spherical Accretion Shock Instability, the later of which may aid in driving supernova explosions. He co-authored the hydrodynamics code VH-1, which is widely used in the astrophysics community.
Select Publications | Complete List Of Publications
Blondin, J. M., Gipson, E., Harris, S., & Mezzacappa, A., 2017, ApJ, 835, 170
The Standing Accretion Shock Instability: Enhanced Growth in Rotating Progenitors
Williams, B. J., Chomiuk, L., Hewitt, J. W., Blondin, J. M., Borkowski, K. J., 2016, ApJL, 823, 2
An X-ray and Radio Study of the Varying Expansion Velocities in Tycho’s Supernova Remnant
Bruenn, S. W. et al., 2016, ApJ, 818, 123
The development of explosions in axisymmetric ab initio core-collapse supernova simulations of 12-25 m-circle dot stars
Lentz, E. J., Bruenn, S. W., Hix, W. R., Mezzacappa, A., Messer, OE B., Endeve, E., Blondin, J. M., Harris, J. A., Marronetti, P., Yakunin, K. N., 2015, ApJL, 807, 2
Three-Dimensional Core-collapse Supernova Simulated using a 15 M Progenitor
Bruenn, S. W. et al., 2013, ApJL, 767L, 6
Axisymmetric Ab Initio Core-collapse Supernova Simulations of 12-25 Solar-Mass Stars
Blondin, J. M. 2013, ApJ, 767, 135
Accretion Disks in Two-Dimensional Hoyle-Lyttleton Flow
Warren, D. C. & Blondin, J. M. 2013, MNRAS, 429, 3099
Three-Dimensional Numerical Investigations of the Morphology of Type Ia SNRs
X-Ray Emission from Strongly Asymmetric Circumstellar Material in the Remnant of Kepler's Supernova
Manousakis, A., Walter, R. & Blondin, J. M. 2012, A&A, 547, 20
Neutron Star Masses from Hydrodynamical Effects in Obscured sgHMXBs
Honors & Awards
- 2016 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
- 2011 Sigma Xi Service Award, NC State Chapter
- 2010 Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Professor
- 2009 Fellow of the American Physical Society
- 2000 Academy of Oustanding Teachers, NC State
- 1997 NSF CAREER Award
- 1996 Cottrell Scholar
- 1995 Sigma Xi Faculty Research Award, NC State Chapter
- 1992 Sigma Xi President's Research Prize, UVa Chapter