Fred Ciesla
Fred Ciesla
Phone: 773-702-8169
Email: fciesla at geosci.uchicago.edu
Office: HGS 401
Research interests
My research focuses on understanding how planetary systems form in the hopes of determining how common systems like our own are in the galaxy. I develop theoretical models to study the thermal, chemical, and dynamical evolution of materials in protoplanetary disks to understand the makeup of planetesimals and planets. I compare the predictions of my models to measurements of meteoritic and planetary materials in order to put constraints on how the processes operated in our own protoplanetary disk, the solar nebula. I also apply my models to investigate how extrasolar planets or protoplanetary disks developed their observed properties. Thus I am exploring ways to bring together the fields of meteoritics and astrophysics.Among the specific topics of research that I have been involved are: evaluating whether chondrules could have formed in shock waves that passed through the solar nebula, understanding how dust grains grow from sub-micron sized particles to planets that are thousands of kilometers across, how the dynamic evolution of a protoplanetary disk affects its chemical evolution, and how primitive materials may have formed close to the sun and then been transported outward large distances to be incorporated into comets. I have also recently begun a collaboration to investigate the role that planetesimal impacts had on the thermal and chemical evolution of planetary building blocks.
Articles in Peer Reviewed Journals
Davison, T. M., G. S. Collins, and F. J. Ciesla 2009. Numerical Modelling of Heating in Porous Planetesimal Collisions. Submitted to Icarus.
Ciesla, F. J. 2009. Dynamics of High-Temperature Materials Delivered by Jets to the Outer Solar Nebula. Meteoritics & Planetary Science. In Press.
Ouellette, N., S. J. Desch, M. Bizzarro, A. P. Boss, F. J. Ciesla, and B. Meyer 2009. Injection Mechanism of Short-Lived Radionuclides and Their Homogenization. Geochemica et Cosmochemica Acta 73, 4946-4962.
Krot, A. N., Y. Amelin, P. Bland, F. J. Ciesla, J. Connelly, A. M. Davis, G. R. Huss, I. D. Hutcheon, K. Makide, K. Nagashima, L. E. Nyquist, S. S. Russell, E. R. D. Scott, K. Thrane, H. Yurimoto, and Q.-Z. Yin 2009. Origin and Chronology of Chondritic Components: A Review. Geochemica et Cosmochemica Acta 73, 4963-4997.
Lyons, J. R., E. Bergin, F. J. Ciesla, A. M. Davis, S. J. Desch, K. Hashizume, T. Ireland. J.-E. Lee and R. A. Marcus 2009. Timescales for the Evolution of Oxygen Isotopic Compositions in the Solar Nebula. Geochemica et Cosmochemica Acta 73, 4998-5017.
Ciesla, F. J. 2009. Two-Dimensional Transport of Solids in Viscous Protoplanetary Disks. Icarus 200, 655-671.
Morris, M. A., S. J. Desch, and F. J. Ciesla 2009. The Effect of H2O Line Cooling in Chondrule-Forming Shocks. Astrophysical Journal 691, 320-331.
Ciesla, F. J. 2008. Radial Transport in the Solar Nebula: Implications for the Depletion of Moderately Volatile Elements in Chondritic Meteorites. Meteoritics & Planetary Science 43, 639-655.
Alexander, C. M. O'd., J. N. Grossman, D. Ebel, and F. J. Ciesla 2008. The Formation Conditions of Chondrules and Chondrites. Science 320, 1617-1619.
Ciesla, F. J. 2008. Observing Our Origins. Science 319, 1488-1489.
Ciesla, F. J. 2007. Outward Transport of High-Temperature Materials Around the Midplane of the Solar Nebula. Science 318, 613-615.
Ciesla, F. J. 2007. Dust Coagulation and Settling in Layered Protoplanetary Disks. Astrophysical Journal 654, L159-L162.
Ciesla, F. J. 2006. Chondrule Collisions in Shock Waves. Meteoritics & Planetary Science 41, 1347-1360.
Ciesla, F. J. and J. N. Cuzzi 2006. The Evolution of the Water Distribution in a Viscous Protoplanetary Disk. Icarus 181, 178-204.
Ciesla, F. J. and D. S. Lauretta 2005. Radial Migration and Dehydration of Phyllosilicates in the Solar Nebula. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 231, 1-8.
Pasek, M. A., J. A. Milsom, F. J. Ciesla, D. S. Lauretta, C. M. Sharp, and J. I. Lunine 2005. Sulfur Chemistry with Time-Varying Oxygen Abundance During Solar System Formation. Icarus 175, 1-14.
Ciesla, F. J., L. L. Hood, and S. J. Weidenschilling 2004. Evaluating Planetesimal Bow Shocks as Sites for Chondrule Formation. Meteoritics & Planetary Science 39, 1809-1821.
Ciesla, F. J., D. S. Lauretta, and L. L. Hood 2004. The Frequency of Compound Chondrules and Implications for Chondrule Formation. Meteoritics & Planetary Science 39, 531-544.
Ciesla, F. J., D. S. Lauretta, B. A. Cohen, and L. L. Hood 2003. A Nebular Origin for Fine-Grained Phyllosilicates. Science 299, 549-552.
Ciesla, F. J. and L. L. Hood 2002. The Nebular Shock Wave Model for Chondrule Formation: Shock Processing in a Particle-Gas Suspension. Icarus 158, 281-293.
Hood, L. L. and F. J. Ciesla 2001. The Scale Size of Chondrule Formation Regions: Constraints Imposed by Chondrule Cooling Rates. Meteoritics & Planetary Science 36, 1571-1585.
Book Chapters
Ciesla, F. J. and C. P. Dullemond 2009. The Evolution of Protoplanetary Disk Structures. In Protoplanetary Dust: The Astrochemical and Cosmochemical Perspectives (D. Apai and D. S. Lauretta, Eds.) Cambridge University Press. In Press.
Grossman, L., J. R. Beckett, A. V. Fedkin, S. B. Simon and F. J. Ciesla 2008. Redox Conditions in the Solar Nebula: Observational, Theoretical, and Experimental Constraints. In Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry Series: Oxygen in Earliest Solar System Materials and Processes (G. Macpherson, Ed.) Mineralogical Society of America, Chantilly. pp. 93-140.
Ciesla, F. J. and S. B. Charnley 2006. The Physics and Chemistry of Nebular Evolution. In Meteorites and the Early Solar System II (D. S. Lauretta and H. Y. McSween, Eds.) University of Arizona Press, Tucson. pp. 209-230.
Cuzzi, J. N., F. J. Ciesla, M. I. Petaev, A. N. Krot, E. R. D. Scott, and S. J. Weidenschilling 2005. Nebular Evolution of Thermally Processed Solids: Reconciling Models and Meteorites. In ASP Conference Series 341: Chondrites and the Protoplanetary Disk (A. N. Krot, E. R. D. Scott, and B. Reipurth, Eds.) Astronomical Society of the Pacific, San Francisco. pp. 732-773.
Ciesla, F. J. 2005. Chondrule-forming Processes--An Overview. In ASP Conference Series 341: Chondrites and the Protoplanetary Disk (A. N. Krot, E. R. D. Scott, and B. Reipurth, Eds.) Astronomical Society of the Pacific, San Francisco. pp. 811-820.
Desch, S. J., F. J. Ciesla, L. L. Hood, and T. Nakamoto 2005. Heating of Chondritic Materials in Solar Nebula Shocks. In ASP Conference Series 341: Chondrites and the Protoplanetary Disk (A. N. Krot, E. R. D. Scott, and B. Reipurth, Eds.) Astronomical Society of the Pacific, San Francisco. pp. 849-872.
Hood, L. L., F. J. Ciesla, and S. J. Weidenschilling 2005. Chondrule Formation in Planetesimal Bow Shocks: Heating and Cooling Rates. In ASP Conference Series 341: Chondrites and the Protoplanetary Disk (A. N. Krot, E. R. D. Scott, and B. Reipurth, Eds.) Astronomical Society of the Pacific, San Francisco. pp. 873-882.
Education
BA in Physics, cum laude, Cornell University, 1998
PhD in Planetary Sciences, University of Arizona, 2003
Employment
National Research Council Associate, NASA Ames, 2004-2005
Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington Fellow, 2006-2008
Honors
Kuiper Memorial Award for Graduate Achievement, Department of Planetary Sciences, University of Arizona 2003
NASA Group Achievement Award for role in NEAR Shoemaker Mission
