Snezhana I. Abarzhi (also known as Snejana I. Abarji)[1] is an applied mathematician and theoretical physicist specializing in the dynamics of fluids and plasmas and their applications in nature and technology. Her research has revealed that instabilities elucidate dynamics of supernova blasts, and that supernovae explode more slowly and less turbulently than previously thought, changing the understanding of the mechanisms by which heavy atomic nuclei are formed in these explosions. Her works have found the mechanism of interface stabilization, the special self-similar class in interfacial mixing, and the fundamentals of Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities.[2][3][4][1]
Snezhana I. Abarzhi
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| Known for | Research in fluid instabilities, interfaces, mixing and non-equilibrium dynamics |
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Abarzhi earned bachelor's degrees in physics and applied mathematics and in molecular biology in 1987 from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and earned a master's degree in physics and applied mathematics there, summa cum laude, in 1990. She completed her doctorate in 1994 through the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics and Kapitza Institute for Physical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, supervised by Sergei I. Anisimov.[5]
Abarzhi held a position as a researcher for the Russian Academy of Sciences from 1994 to 1997 (on leave in 1997-2004). She came to the US in 1997 as a visiting professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and then in 1998 became an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the University of Bayreuth in Germany. In 1999 she took a research position at Stony Brook University. In 2002 she briefly moved to a research professorship at Osaka University before returning to the US as a senior fellow in the Center for Turbulence Research at Stanford University. In 2005 she became a research faculty member at the University of Chicago and in 2006 she added a regular-rank faculty position as an associate professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology.[5] She also worked at Carnegie Mellon University from 2013 to 2016 before moving to the University of Western Australia as professor and chair of applied mathematics.[2][6]
Abarzhi is a member of the Committee on Scientific Publications of the American Physical Society, and an organizer of conferences and programs on non-equilibrium dynamics of interfaces and turbulent mixing and beyond.[7][8][9]
In 2020 Abarzhi was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), after a nomination from the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics, "for deep and abiding work on the Rayleigh-Taylor and related instabilities, and for sustained leadership in that community".[10][11]