Prof. Dr. Sven Van Loo

Sven Van Loo obtained his MSc degree in Mathematics in 1999 and his PhD in Astrophysics in 2005, both at KU Leuven (Belgium).  For his PhD research, conducted at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, he worked on modelling radio emission of single O-stars in effect showing that these high-mass stars are binary stars. As a postdoctoral research assistant at the University of Leeds (UK) from 2005 to 2010 he studied wave and shock processes in multifluid hydromagnetic media relevant to star formation and dusty plasmas. Then, he was a UF theory postdoctoral fellow (2010-2011) at the University of Florida (US) where he investigated the effect of magnetic fields on the formation and evolution of molecular clouds in galactic discs. From 2011 to 2014 he was the first theorist to hold a Submillimeter Array Postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (US) where he investigated how magneto-gravitational instabilities produce filamentary molecular clouds and dense cores therein.

In 2014, Sven became lecturer of Astrophysical and Computational Flows at the University of Leeds where he continued to work on nonlinear wave and shock processes in multicomponent hydromagnetic flows relevant to star formation and dusty plasmas and to develop numerical codes in order to study these problems. He further extended his research beyond astrophysics including carbon-sequestration relevant numerical simulations of multiphase CO2 outflows from punctured pipes and related work on cryogenic cooling in machining, ammonia-aerosol combustion modelling and studies of flows in fusion devices.

In September 2022, Sven joined the department of Applied Physics at UGent as an assistant professor. His research focuses on the development of a numerical kinetic code to be applied in laser-plasma interactions and magnetically-confined fusion plasmas, and on astrophysical plasmas as well.