Truong Le
Sr Professorial Lecturer
Department of Physics
Bio
Truong Le received his Ph.D. in theoretical astrophysics from George Mason University in 2005. Here, he explored the possibility that the relativistic protons powering the jets that are created by supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the center of active galaxies, such M87 and SgrA* (at the center of the Milky Way), are accelerated at a standing, centrifugally-supported shock in the underlying accretion disk via the first-order Fermi mechanism. From 2005-2008, he was a National Research Council post-doctoral fellow at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, DC working on the linear analysis of unstable radiative shocks in Advection Dominated Accretion Disks, particle acceleration in high-energy radiation and cosmic-ray production in astrophysical environments, and Gamma-Ray-Bursts Cosmology. From 2008-2011, he joined the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, MD supporting NASA next-generation space telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to ready for launch in 2021 to study: the First Light in the Universe after the Big Bang, Assembly of Galaxies, Physics of Star Formation, and the Formation of Planetary Systems and the Conditions for Life. He spent the next eight years teaching physics and astronomy to students at the Governor's School for Science and Technology in Hampton - VA, College of Charleston in Charleston - SC, and Berry College in Rome – GA, and now at American University, where his research focuses on: (1) understanding the correlations between the mass accretion rate, jets launching radius, and the observed jets power in low-power radio-loud supermassive black holes sources (AGNs), (2) investigating the nature of the discrepancy between the Swift (a multi-wavelength observatory dedicated to the study of GRB science) and the pre-Swift redshift and jet opening angle distributions to answer the question whether or not GRB formation density rate follows the star-formation rate, and (3) developing solar trackers to gather solar energy. While he was at Berry College, he served as a member of the Natural Science and Mathematics Research Committee, a member of the Center for Teaching Excellent Advisory Committee, and a member of the Institutional Effectiveness Committee. Now, at American University, he served as a Deputy Director of the Integrated Space Science and Technology Institute (ISSTI), which supports cutting-edge research by over 20 AU research faculty together with external partners including NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
