SUBASH ADHIKARI

Intro

I am a computational physicist with a Ph.D. in plasma physics. My research focuses on understanding the fundamental plasma processes such as magnetic reconnection and turbulence. I specialize in numerical simulations, working with both magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) and kinetic particle-in-cell (PIC) models.

I was born and raised in Nepal. In 2017, I moved to the United States to pursue a graduate degree in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Delaware. At the time, many people back home were unfamiliar with Delaware despite its distinction as the first state. I often found myself explaining its location to friends and relatives. Today, however, Delaware has gained wider recognition, thanks in large part to President Joe Biden.

I hold a B.S. in Physics and Mathematics, as well as an M.S. in Physics with a specialization in Gravitation and Cosmology, both from Tribhuvan University. As part of Master's thesis, I studied the geodesics around Schwarzschild–de Sitter spacetime. It feels like an entirely different world now that I’ve transitioned into plasma physics.

Research

Magnetic Reconnection (Ion-coupled, e-only)

Decaying Turbulence

Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability

Pressure-Strain Interaction in Kinetic Plasmas

Intermittency in Plasma Processes

Sub-Alfvenic Solar Wind (Parker Solar Probe)

Magnetic Reconnection

Ion-coupled, and Electron-only

Coming soon

Coming soon

Coming soon

Coming soon

Coming soon

Teaching Experience

Graduate Level Courses

(Guest Lecturer, University of Delaware)

1. PHYSICS 638, TURBULENT FLOWS, Spring 2025
2. PHYSICS 601, ELECTRODYNAMICS, Fall 2024
3. PHYSICS 660, COMPUTATIONAL METHODS OF PHYSICS, Spring 2022

Undergraduate Level Courses

(University of Delaware)

1. PHYSICS 202, INTRODUCTORY PHYSICS II, Spring 2019 (Guest Lecturer)
2. PHYSICS 201 & 202, INTRODUCTORY PHYSICS I & II, Fall 2017, SPRING 2018 (Teaching Assistant)
3. PHYSICS 207 & 208, FUNDAMENTALS OF PHYSICS I & II, FALL 2018, SPRING 2019 (Teaching Assistant)

High School Physics and Mathematics Teacher

(Lecturer)

1. Budhanilkantha School (Physics for GCSE A-levels), Kathmandu, Nepal (2016-2017)
2. Ed-Mark College (Physics & Maths), Kathmandu, Nepal (2014-2016)

Teaching Philosophy

Teaching is one of the most important professions in our daily life. Teaching carries profound potential for both good and harm. Human progress, in many ways, reflects our ability to teach and learn from one another. It is through education that we share not only knowledge, but also the tools for critical thinking, creativity, and ethical reasoning.

Teaching is hard if you don't weaken. It is not an easy task, it is a complex human-centered process that demands adaptability, reflection, and often empathy. I have always believed there is more than one way to learn. What works for one might not work for the other. I aim to foster an environment where all students can thrive and am deeply committed to helping them reach their full potential.

My teaching journey began immediately after high school when I tutored middle school students in mathematics and science. Since then, I’ve taught high school physics and mathematics, served as a teaching assistant for undergraduate physics labs and discussion sections, and had the opportunity to lecture in graduate-level courses. Across all these roles, I have remained committed to understand my students and help them grow, both intellectually and personally.

Students consistently tell me that my dedication and clarity have had a meaningful impact on their learning. Here are some of the feedback I received for my teaching assignments:

Subash was one of the best TAs I've had across all subjects. He explained everything so clearly and really helped the material click for me.

My favorite TA ever. I learned more in discussion than in lecture.

Subash was a lifesaver for this course. Even though he could only teach for 25 minutes a week, he was extremely efficient . Overall I rate him an A+.

If it wasn't for Subash, I would've failed the course. He was the only bright spot in it.

Perfect.

Subash was one of the best TAs I've had across all subjects. He explained everything so clearly, and really helped the material click for me. He was also willing to tutor me outside of discussion, which was super helpful and nice of him. I respect him so much and really appreciate how he teaches; I hope he's a physics professor one day because he would do an amazing job!

These comments, along with many other affirm the core of my teaching philosophy. Teaching is a relationship built on trust, clarity, and mutual respect. I strive to create a comfort space where students are not afraid to ask questions, explore new ideas, or admit when they don’t understand something. I have often incorporated in-course feedback to improve the experience in real time, and that has helped a lot. I am also not afraid to experiment new methods to better support student learning.

Ultimately, I see my role not just as an instructor, but as a mentor and facilitator. I am proud of the impact I’ve had on my students, and I remain committed to growing as a teacher with each course I teach. Education is a shared journey, and I am grateful every day for the opportunity to walk alongside my students.

Publications

Peer Reviewed

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2025

1. Characterization of the Turbulence Properties of the Solar Wind as Observed by Parker Solar Probe in Encounters 8-19, S. Adhikari, R. Bandyopadhyay, W. H. Matthaeus, D. Ruffalo, P. Thepthong, P. Pongkitiwanichakul, S. Roy, F. Pecora R. Chhiber, A. Usmanov, M. Stevens, S. Badman, O. Romeo, J. Wang, J. Goodwill, and Melvyn Goldstein, In Preparation, (2025).
2. Structure and Scaling of Electron Pressure-strain Interaction as a Function of Guide Field in Ion Coupled Reconnection, S. Adhikari, P. A. Cassak, M. H. Barbhuiya, M. A. Shay, A. Chasapis, Y. Yang, and W. H. Matthaeus, In preparation for submission to Physics of Plasmas (2025).
3. Energy Transfer and Conversion in Magnetic Reconnection: Observation and Simulation, S. Roy, R. Bandyopadhyay, S. Adhikari, Y. Yang, and W. H. Matthaeus, Under Review in Physics of Plasmas, (2025).
4. Does turbulence at the correlation scale regulate the statistics of magnetic reconnection?, M. B. Khan, M. A. Shay, S. Oughton, W. H. Matthaeus, C. C. Haggerty, S. Adhikari, P. A. Cassak, S. Fordin, D. O'Donnell, Y. Yang, R. Bandyopadhyay, S. Roy, Under Review in Physical Review Letters (2025).
5. Revisiting Compressible and Incompressible Pressure-Strain Interaction in Kinetic Plasma Turbulence, S. Adhikari, Y. Yang, and W. H. Matthaeus, Under review in Physics of Plasmas (2025). PDF
6. Simulation Models for Exploring Magnetic Reconnection, M. A. Shay, S. Adhikari, N. Beesho, J. Birn, J. B\"uchner, P. A. Cassak, L. J Chen, Y. Chen, G. Cozzani, J. Drake, F. Guo, M. Hesse, N. Jain, Y. Pfau-Kempf, Y. Lin, Y. H. Liu, M. Oka, Y. A. Omelchenko, M. Palmroth, O. Pezzi, P. H. Reiff, M. Swisdak, F. Toffoletto, G. Toth, R. A. Wolf, Under Review in Space Science Reviews (2025). PDF
7. Nonlinear Evolution and Energy Dissipation in Shear Driven Turbulence of Collisionless Plasma", J. Goodwill, S. Adhikari, X. Li, F. Pucci, Y. Yang, F. Guo, and W. H. Matthaeus, Physics of Plasmas 32, 052301 (2025). PDF

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2024

8. Electron Dissipation and Electromagnetic Work, Y. Yang, S. Adhikari, W. H. Matthaeus, Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 129, e2024JA033105 (2024). PDF
9. Scale Filtering Analysis of Collisionless Reconnection and its Associated Turbulence, S. Adhikari, Y. Yang, W. H. Matthaeus, P. A. Cassak, T. N. Parashar, and M. A. Shay, Physics of Plasmas, 31, 020701 (2024). PDF
10. Higher-order nonequilibrium term: Effective power density quantifying evolution towards or away from local thermodynamic equilibrium, M. H. Barbhuiya, P. A. Cassak, S. Adhikari, T. N. Parashar, H. Liang, M. R. Argall, Physical Review E 109, 015205 (2024). PDF

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2023

11. Using direct laboratory measurements of electron temperature anisotropy to identify the heating mechanism in electron-only magnetic reconnection, P. Shi, E. E. Scime, M. H. Barbhuiya, P. A. Cassak, S. Adhikari, M. Swisdak, and J. E. Stawarz, Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 155101 (2023). PDF
12. Statistics of Pressure Fluctuations in Turbulent Kinetic Plasmas, S. Adhikari, M. A. Shay, T. N. Parashar, W. H. Matthaeus, and P. A. Cassak, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 526, Issue 3, December (2023). PDF
13. Effect of a guide field on the turbulence like properties of magnetic reconnection, S. Adhikari, M. A. Shay, T. N. Parashar, W. H. Matthaeus, P. S. Pyakurel, J. E. Stawarz, and J. P. Eastwood, Physics of Plasmas, 30 082904 (2023). PDF

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2022

14. Turbulent Energy Transfer and Proton-Electron Heating in Collisionless Plasmas, S. Roy, R. Bandyopadhyay, Y. Yang, T. N. Parashar, W. H. Matthaeus, S. Adhikari, A. Chasapis, Hui Li, D. J. Gershman, B. L. Giles, and J. L. Burch, The Astrophysical Journal, 941 137 (2022). PDF
15. Strategies for determining the cascade rate in MHD turbulence: isotropy, anisotropy, and spacecraft sampling, Y. Wang, R. Chhiber, S. Adhikari, Y. Yang, R. Bandyopadhyay, M. A. Shay, S. Oughton, W. H. Matthaeus, and M. E. Cuesta, The Astrophysical Journal, 937 76 (2022). PDF

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2021

16. Energy Transfer in Reconnection and Turbulence, S. Adhikari, T. N. Parashar, M. A. Shay, W. H. Matthaeus, P. Sharma Pyakurel, S. Fordin, J. E. Stawarz, J. P. Eastwood, Physical Review E, 104, 065206 (2021) . PDF

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2020

17. Reconnection from a turbulence perspective, S. Adhikari, M. A. Shay, T. N. Parashar, P. Sharma Pyakurel, W. H. Matthaeus, D. Godzieba, J. E. Stawarz, J. P. Eastwood, J. T. Dahlin, Physics of Plasmas, 27, 042305 (2020). PDF

White Papers

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1. The Physics of Collisionless Dissipation in the Heliosphere, C. Haggerty, R. Bandyopadhyay, J. TenBarge, P. Cassak, A. Chasapis, J. Juno, L. B. Wilson, L. Sorriso-Valvo, M. Sitnov, I. Gingell, J. Shuster, K. Klein, W. H. Matthaeus, Y. Yang, S. Adhikari, M. Shay, M. Swisdak, L. Arzamasskiy, F. Guo, S. Wang, J. Verniero, S. Oughton, M. Kunz, M. Hasan Barbhuiya, J. Dahlin, N. Ahmadi, J. Drake, E. Lichko, D. Caprioli, J. Squire, H. Arnold, M. Wan, O. Pezzi, D. Trotta, A. Arya, G. G. Howes, T. Parashar, Bulletin of the AAS, vol. 55(3), 2023. PDF
2. Next Generation Machine to Study Heliophysics in the Laboratory, S. Dorfman, E. Lichko, J. Olson, J. Juno, E. Kostadinova, D. Schaffner, M. Abler, S. C. Thakur, P. Heuer, A. Mallet, F. Li, G. G. Howes, J. Squire, D. Endrizzi, R. Young, D. Schaeffer, K. Klein, R. Filwett, Y. Rivera, S. Guidoni, A. Timm, J. TenBarge, L. Matthews, L. Arzamasskiy, T. Du, L. Comisso, F. Effenberg, D. Fries, P. Shi, J. Verniero, L. Ofman, R. Meyrand, K. Moreland, L. Wang, S. Adhikari, V. Ledvina, S. Cranmer, C. Dong, C. R. Gilly, H. Ghadjari, S. Juie, C. Light, R. Sarkar, Y. H. Liu, M. Swisdak, B. J. Lynch, A. Maharana, X. Fu, J. Wanliss, P. Kumar, A. Kumari, L. Preisser, Bulletin of the AAS, vol. 55(3), (2023). PDF
3. Enabling Discoveries in Heliospheric Science through Laboratory Plasma Experiments, E. Lichko, D. Endrizzi, J. Juno, J. Olson, S. Dorfman, R. Young, S. C. Thakur, E. Kostadinova, M. Abler, F. Li, D. Schaeffer, K. Klein, R. Filwett, Y. Rivera, S. Guidoni, A. Timm, P. Heuer, J. TenBarge, L. Matthews, L. Arzamasskiy, T. Du, G. G. Howes, L. Comisso, F. Effenberg, D. Fries, J. Squire, P. Shi, A. Mallet, J. Verniero, L. Ofman, R. Meyrand, K. Moreland, L. Wang, S. Adhikari, V. Ledvina, C. Dong, C. R. Gilly, H. Ghadjari, C. Light, R. Sarkar, Y. H. Liu, M. Swisdak, B. J. Lynch, A. Maharana, X. Fu, J. Wanliss, P. Kumar, P. Cassak, A. Kumari, Bulletin of the AAS, vol. 55(3), (2023). PDF
4. The essential role of multi-point measurements in investigations of heliospheric turbulence, three-dimensional structure, and dynamics, Matthaeus W. H., Adhikari S., Bandyopadhyay R., Brown M. R., Bruno R., Borovsky J., Caprioli D., Carbone V., Chasapis A., Chhiber R., Dasso S., Del Zanna L., Dmitruk P. A., Franci L., Goldstein M. L., Greco A., Horbury T. S., Ji H., Kasper J. C., Klein K. G., Landi S., Lavraud B., Le Contel O., Li H., Malara F., Maruca B. A., Mininni P., Oughton S., Papini E., Parashar T. N., Pecora F., Petrosyan A., Pouquet A., Retinò A., Roberts O. W., Ruffolo D., Salem C. S., Servidio S., Shay M., Spence H. E., Smith C. W., Stawarz J. E., TenBarge J. M., Vasquez B. J., Vaivads A., Valentini F., Velli M., Verdini A., Verscharen D., Wicks R. T., and Yang Y., G. Zimbardo, Arxiv (2022). PDF

CV

Curriculum Vitae

Contact

Subash Adhikari, Ph.D.
सुवास अधिकारी, विद्यावारिधि
Postdoctoral Researcher
223 Sharp Lab
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Delaware, Newark, DE

Elements

i = 0;

while (!deck.isInOrder()) {
    print 'Iteration ' + i;
    deck.shuffle();
    i++;
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print 'It took ' + i + ' iterations to sort the deck.';