Geophysical Sciences

Dorian AbbotAssociate Professor

Research Focus:: Climate, paleoclimate, ice, habitability, and exoplanets

Email:: abbot@uchicago.edu
Office:: Hinds 571

Biography

I have an undergraduate degree in physics (2004, Harvard) and a PhD in applied math (2008, Harvard). I came to the University of Chicago as a Chamberlin Fellow and stayed on as a faculty member.

Research Interests

I use mathematical and computational models to understand and explain fundamental problems in Earth and Planetary Sciences. I have worked on problems related to climate, paleoclimate, the cryosphere, planetary habitability, and exoplanets, but I'm always excited to think about new things. I work best with students who have strong mathematical skills that they want to apply to cool problems. Recently I've been focusing a lot of effort on terrestrial exoplanets and habitability. We have a really great community with three faculty in our department and three in astronomy working on exoplanets. Here is a list of our recent PhD graduates in the area.

Selected Publications

Komacek, T.D. and D.S. Abbot (2019), The Atmospheric Circulation and Climate of Terrestrial Planets Orbiting Sun-like and M Dwarf Stars over a Broad Range of Planetary Parameters, Astrophysical Journal, 871:245. PDF
Yang, H., T.D. Komacek, and D.S. Abbot (2019), Effects of Radius and Gravity on the Inner Edge of the Habitable Zone, Astrophysical Journal Letters, 876 (2), L27. PDF
Plotkin, D.A., R.J. Webber, M.E. O'Neill, J. Weare, and D.S. Abbot (2019), Maximizing simulated tropical cyclone intensity with action minimization, Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 11(4), 863-891. PDF
Webber, R.J., D.A. Plotkin, M.E. O'Neill, D.S. Abbot, and J. Weare (2019), Practical rare event sampling for extreme mesoscale weather, Chaos, 29 (5), 053109. PDF