About me

Currently, I am working as a research fellow in theoretical (space) plasma physics at the Centre for mathematical Plasma Astrophysics at KU Leuven (Belgium). Here, the main focus of my work is on the application of spectroscopic methods for multifluid plasma models to the process of magnetic reconnection.

My research interests include, but are not limited to

• multifluid plasma descriptions. In an ideal, two-fluid ion-electron plasma, my work revealed an intricate web of crossings and avoided crossings between the six wave types in the frequency-wavenumber diagram, which led to a theoretical investigation of oblique whistler waves. In our most recent work, these results were extended to a collisional plasma.
• magnetohydrodynamic spectroscopy with the Legolas code. For any Cartesian or cylindrical, one-dimensionally varying magnetohydrodynamic equilibrium, this code quantifies the natural oscillations and instabilities for any selection of non-ideal effects. Current efforts are focused on connecting Legolas to the non-linear simulation code MPI-AMRVAC. The Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO) recently granted me funding to develop a multifluid code using the same approach.
• magnetic reconnection. Recently, I have studied the influence of flow on the resistive tearing instability using the Legolas code. My current efforts are focused on the competition between tearing and thermal instability in coronal current sheets.
• machine learning. As the parameter space in my parametric investigations with Legolas grew, I became increasingly interested in ways of automated classification of data. Consequently, I set up a collaboration to label Legolas data with the use of neural networks.

If any of these topics piqued your interest, please check out my publications or reach out to me.

This website was last updated on 19 February 2025.