Blog

## Background...

I come from the glorious Kingdom of Fife on the East Coast of Scotland! Growing up next to the seaside and within reach of the stunning Scottish highlands, I have a passion for the outdoors and adventure. In particular, camping, road trips and kayaking are my favourite pursuits to clear the mind from the world of research!

I maintained my presence in Fife during the course of my undergraduate years, obtaining my Masters degree in Theoretical Physics and Applied Mathematics from the University of St Andrews. This small but lively coastal town shaped my interest in academia which subsequently led me to Christ's College Cambridge where I completed my PhD under the supervision of Prof Gordon Ogilvie.

I have since moved stateside to Princeton where I am a member of the School of Natural Sciences in the Institute for Advanced Study. This unique academic bubble is both a secluded retreat, sheltered from the rush of the outside world, whilst fostering an intensively stimulating learning environment!


I should begin by introducing myself...so here is me waving from the side of a mountain!

About Me

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Contact

Callum Fairbairn

Hello world and welcome to my small corner of the internet! As a theoretical astrophysicist I like to spend my days thinking about the fluid dynamics governing a variety of systems - from the energetic flows around Active Galactic Nuclei to the spinning discs where extra-solar planets are born.
I have just uptaken a postdoctoral membership at the Institute for Advanced Study where I am excited to pursue my research further and enjoy some adventures as a Scotsman abroad in the land of the free!


ABOUT

Home

Exploring Yellowstone

## The smell of pine and running of the river...

My family and I have loved the opportunity to escape up north as long as I can remember.  So with the easing of lockdown restrictions we spontaneously set off to the Cairngorms National park for a long weekend. The three dimensional landscape is certainly something which is unfamiliar to the inhabitants of Edwin Abbott Abbott's Flatland or Cambridge for that matter - munros scrubbed with heather and piney woods clustered around lochs. It feels like home.

I've recently become interested in kayaking and was keen to explore the landscape by water...of which there is no shortage! Loch Ness contains more water than all the lakes in England combined whilst the winter melt water, draining from the hillside, feeds rivers which thread the park. The Spey meanders inexorably towards the sea and offered some fantastic paddling adventures downstream, and even more challenging upstream journeys for the salmon returning to spawn.

Turning to saltier waters, we also launched our craft at Chanonry point, jutting out from the end of the Black Isle peninsula - squeezing the Moray Firth into a narrow stretch commanded on the other side by the imposing Fort George. This geographical pincer movement, combined with the action of the tides, offers a natural bottleneck which bottle-nosed dolphins use to great effect in their hunt for fish. We paddled out to meet them but they swiftly moved on. Instead we were inspected cautiously by some grey seal who popped their head up when they thought we weren't looking!

Some gentle walks through the Caledonian pine forests took us to favourite locations near Glenmore and Loch Morlich. We wandered up by the Sugarbowl trail overlooking Cairngorm itself - an impressive ridge running alongside the Larig Ghru mountain pass. The hillside is home to a herd of reindeer but they seemed to be off rambling on the wilder parts of the slope. 

On the road back home we stopped off near Pitlochry and kayaked up the river Tummel from Loch Faskally. Although initially nervous about the flow through the dam, the water was perfectly calm!


Kayaking in the Cairngorms

Highland Adventure

After a busy summer of research in Cambridge, it was lovely to escape back home to Scotland for a bit and enjoy a wee vacation on the beautiful West coast island of Mull. A short ferry ride carried us from Oban to our little cottage by Craignure -- a perfect base in the middle of the island which allowed us to explore both the rugged south and the cultural hotspots in the north. The island is host to some dramatic topography as evidenced most prominently by Ben More, the only island munro not belonging to Skye. The wildlife was spectacular too with a couple of highlights being the briefest glimpse of a shy sea otter and the vast wings of a white tailed sea eagle swooping over Calgary bay.

Tobermory, a pilgrimage for big kids with nostalgic memories of early noughties kids TV, is a brightly coloured, traditional fishing village with lots to see and do. Meanwhile, on the other end of the island, Fidden bay is a hidden gem with islands dotted around the bay. This proved a prime kayaking location which claimed both the clearest and coldest waters, making for an invigorating snorkel. Nearby, the small island of Iona is a truly spiritual retreat, centred upon the ancient Abbey founded by St Columba (of Nessie fighting fame). According to an old Gaelic proverb it is said that "Those who come to Iona will come, not once, but three times". Given this was my second trip I look forward to when the waves will take me back for the final time...


A long weekend away in the West Coast

Mulling things Over

## School of Natural Sciences

![](/\_static/app-assets/images/warped_disc.jpeg)

I work at the [Institute for Advanced Study](https://www.ias.edu/scholars/callum-w-fairbairn) in Princeton, New Jersey. My research specialises in exploring the rich hydrodynamic behaviour of warped astrophysical discs. These structures are everywhere in the universe!

As gravitationally bound material falls inwards, it tends to flatten out into a rotating disc, acting as a vast reservoir of angular momentum. However, any misalignment in the system may distort the coplanar disc into a warped configuration. For example, when the accretion flow onto the disc is misaligned or external torques are enacted by a tilted, spinning black hole or companion planet on an inclined orbit. The effect of this warp on the long term evolution of the disc is very important. Numerical simulations suggest in some cases the warp presents an anti-diffusive instability causing the disc to break. In other systems the external torques might tear the disc into separately precessing planes. Furthermore, the warped geometry is susceptible to a parametric instability which may drive turbulence affecting the warp evolution and mass accretion. All these processes feed into crucial questions about the planet forming environment in protoplanetary discs and the accretion processes driving energetic events around compact objects.

Observationally there is growing evidence for the ubiquity of these systems as shadows cast in the outer regions of protoplanetary discs are often explained by warped inner regions. Direct MASER imaging has also revealed the warped mid-plane in galactic centres. This problem spans all scales and demands careful analysis and numerical investigation. Check out my work to learn more and see how we are tackling these questions!

## Publications

*   **Linear bending wave propagation in laminar and turbulent discs** | CW Fairbairn - The Astrophysical Journal (2025) (DOI: [10.3847/1538-4357/ad9c73](https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad9c73))

*   **Eccentric planet-disc interactions: orbital migration and eccentricity evolution** | CW Fairbairn, RR Rafikov - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2025) (DOI: [10.1093/mnras/staf117](https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staf117))

*   **Parametric instability in warped astrophysical discs: growth, saturation and feedback** | CW Fairbairn, GI Ogilvie - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2023) (DOI: [10.1093/mnras/stad211](https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad211))

*   **Density waves in protoplanetary discs excited by eccentric planets: linear theory** | CW Fairbairn, RR Rafikov - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2022) (DOI: [10.1093/mnras/stac2802](https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac2802))

*   **Nonlinear resonant torus oscillations as a model of Keplerian disc warp dynamics** | CW Fairbairn, GI Ogilvie – Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2021) (DOI: [10.1093/mnras/stab2717](https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab2717))

*   **Nonlinear dynamics of hydrodynamic tori as a model of oscillations and bending waves in astrophysical discs** | CW Fairbairn, GI Ogilvie – Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society **(2021)** (DOI: [10.1093/mnras/stab1554](https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab1554))

*   **Eruptions and flaring activity in emerging quadrupolar regions** | P Syntelis, EJ Lee, CW Fairbairn, V Archontis, AW Hood – Astronomy & Astrophysics **(2019)** *630, a134* (DOI: [10.1051/0004-6361/201936246](http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201936246))

*   **Effects of hole-transport layer homogeneity in organic solar cells - A multi-length scale study**   HT Chien, M Pölzl, G Koller, S Challinger, C Fairbairn, I Baikie, M Kratzer, C Teichert, B Friedel – Surfaces and Interfaces **(2017)** *6, 72* (DOI: [10.1016/j.surfin.2016.11.008](http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.surfin.2016.11.008))

## Conferences and Talks

<div class="responsive-table">
<table> <caption></caption>
<thead><tr>
    <th>Year</th>
    <th>Location</th>
    <th>Contribution</th>
</tr> </thead>
<tbody>

<tr>
    <td>2025</td>
    <td>Planet Formation Meeting | CCA Flatiron</td>
    <td>Talk</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td></td>
    <td>IAStrophsyical Waves | IAS</td>
    <td>Talk and Organiser</td>
</tr>

<tr>
    <td>2024</td>
    <td>New Heights in Planet Formation | ESO Garching</td>
    <td>Talk</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td></td>
    <td>Lubow@75 Conference | UNLV</td>
    <td>Talk</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td></td>
    <td>Yale Exoplanet Seminar | Yale</td>
    <td>Talk</td>
</tr>

<tr>
    <td>2023</td>
    <td>TACC Meeting | University of Arizona</td>
    <td>Talk</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td></td>
    <td>Thursday Seminar | IAS</td>
    <td>Talk</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td></td>
    <td>Bachall Lunch | IAS</td>
    <td>Talk</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td></td>
    <td>Planet Formation Meeting | CCA Flatiron</td>
    <td>Talk</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td></td>
    <td>LCLU Science Day | University of Cambridge</td>
    <td>Talk</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td></td>
    <td>LCLU Streaming instability and planet formation | University of Cambridge</td>
    <td>Coffee Morning</td>
</tr>

<tr>
    <td>2022</td>
    <td>Emerging Research Seminar Series | Christ's College</td>
    <td>Seminar</td>
</tr>
    <td></td>
    <td>Introduction to cosmochemistry and planet formation | University of Copenhagen</td>
    <td>Workshop</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td></td>
    <td> Dustbusters Protoplanetary Discs | Milan</td>
    <td>Summer School</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td></td>
    <td> Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems | CPT - T&#252bingen</td>
    <td>Talk and Poster</td>
</tr>

<tr>
    <td>2021</td>
    <td>St Andrews Solar Magnetospheric Theory Group</td>
    <td>Invited seminar</td>
</tr>
    <td></td>
    <td>Distorted Astrophysical Discs | Kavli Cambridge</td>
    <td>Poster and LOC</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td>2020</td>
    <td>Summer School Protoplanetary discs | MPIA Heidelberg</td>
    <td>Student</td>
</tr>

</tbody> </table>
 </div>

## Teaching and Outreach Experience

*   2022 - Now  | Astrofluids Group Journal Club Organiser
*   2021 - Now  | Astrofluids Group Seminar Organising Committee
*   2021 - Now  | Cambridge Hands on Science (CHaOS) Public Outreach Volunteer
*   2019 - 2021 | Natural Sciences Mathematics 1A Supervisor
*   2018 - 2019 | Vector Calculus tutor


Postdoctoral Member at the Institute for Advanced Study

Research

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# This is an H1

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## Quoting

>Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Design is knowing which ones to keep. <cite>Scott Adams</cite>

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## Unordered Lists

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1. Donec non tortor in arcu mollis feugiat
2. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit
3. Donec id eros eget quam aliquam gravida
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## Code Blocks

Blocks of code are either fenced by lines with three back-ticks, or are indented with four spaces.

```

body {
  color: #333;
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  line-height: 1.5;
}
```

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## Tables

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Thank you for contacting me! I will get back in touch with you soon.

**Have a great day!**