astronomy

Lou Kondic

Lou Kondic is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Lou Kondic rather than just read about it. In short: Lou Kondic is an applied mathematician and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). His research focuses on thin film fluid dynamics, complex flows and granular media.

Key takeaways

Lou Kondic belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Lou Kondic to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Lou Kondic from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Lou Kondic is an applied mathematician and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). His research focuses on thin film fluid dynamics, complex flows and granular media.

Academic career Kondic graduated with a BSc in physics from the University of Zagreb, Croatia in 1989. Following a brief period at the Institute Rudjer Boskovic, he began his PhD studies in physics at the City College of the City University of New York. After graduating in 1995, he spent two years at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of New York University working with Michael Shelley. Subsequently, he spent two years at Duke University working with Robert P. Behringer in the Department of Physics and Andrea Bertozzi in the Department of Mathematics. In 1999, he joined the faculty of the Department of Mathematical Sciences at New Jersey Institute of Technology, where he has held the title of Distinguished Professor since 2019.

Research contributions Kondic has contributed extensively to research progress in the fields of fluid mechanics and granular matter. His PhD Thesis "Theory of sonoluminescence" was one of the early works that helped understand the intriguing effect of light emerging from bubbles. His later work included extensive studies of stability of thin films in a variety of contexts ranging from gravitationally-driven flow on surfaces to instabilities of liquid metals on the nanoscale. He has also worked extensively on applications of computational topology, in particular persistence homology, to the analysis of interaction fields in granular systems. He uses his research to engage undergraduate students through various projects in NJIT's Capstone Laboratory, and is a co-founder of the Complex Flows and Soft Matter group. According to Google Scholar, his publications have received over 4,500 citations, and his h-index is 37.

Selected publications Kondic, L., Gonzalez, A. G., Diez J. A., Fowlkes, J. D., Rack, P., Liqud-State Dewetting of Pulsed-Laser-Heated Nanoscale Metal Films and Other Geometries, Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics 52, 23 (2020). Kondic, L., Goullet, A., O'Hern, C.S., Kramar, M., Mischaikow, K., Behringer, R.P., Topology of force networks in compressed granular media, Europhysics Letters 97, 54001 (2012). Kondic, L., Instabilities in gravity driven flow of thin fluid films, SIAM Review, 45, pages 95–115 (2003). Kondic, L., Shelley, M.J., Palffy-Muhoray, P., Non-Newtonian Hele-Shaw flow and the Saffman-Taylor instability, Physical Review Lett. 80, pages 1433–1436 (1998). Kondic, L., Gersten, J.I., Yuan, C., Theoretical studies of sonoluminescence radiation: Radiative transfer and parametric dependence, Physical Review E 52, pages 4976–4990 (1995).

Professional service

Crystals, editor, associate editor, 2021 Nanomaterials, editor, associate editor, 2021 Frontiers in Physics, editor, associate editor, 2021 Journal of Engineering Mathematics, editor, associate editor, 2020 Papers in Physics, editor, associate editor, 2019

Honors & awards Fulbright Scholar (2005) Leloir Award for International Cooperation by Argentina Ministry of Science and Technology (2017) Elected Fellow of the American Physical Society (2017) ("For understanding of complex fluid dynamics, from thin films to granular flows") Excellence in Research Prize and Medal (NJIT) (2020)

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Lou Kondic

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Lou Kondic claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Lou Kondic before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Lou Kondic ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Lou Kondic

In research: Lou Kondic appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Lou Kondic in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Lou Kondic is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics City College of New York alumni, Duke University faculty, Fellows of the American Physical Society, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Lou Kondic outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Lou Kondic in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Lou Kondic means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Lou Kondic out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Lou Kondic in simple terms?

Why does Lou Kondic matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Lou Kondic?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Lou Kondic.