SCIENCE

Aydın Buluç, 2010 Alvarez Fellow

In April, Aydın Buluç joined the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's (Berkeley Lab) High Performance Computing Research Department (HPCRD) as a Luis W. Alvarez Fellow.

Under the direction of Juan Meza, who heads HPCRD, Buluç will apply his expertise in combinational scientific computing to increase the reliability of the electrical grid and improve the nation's ability to respond to energy disruptions, as well as other ongoing Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley projects. His research interests include parallel computing, combinatorial scientific computing, high performance graph analysis and sparse matrix computations.

"Berkeley Lab always seemed like a special place to me because it offered a unique combination of excellence in research, cultural diversity, and proximity to a leading university. I first learned about the Luis W. Alvarez fellowship in 2008, and it was always in my plans to apply," says Buluç, who earned a doctorate in Computer Science from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 2010.

Originally from the Aegean region of Turkey, Buluç did not own a personal computer until he was in college. He was introduced to computer science in an undergraduate data structures course at Sabanci University in Istanbul. Shortly after he decided to major in computer science and minor in mathematics, and has "never looked back."

"I was fascinated by the combined elegance and practicality of computer science, it was a secret way of doing mathematics with more relevance to practical issues," says Buluç.

Though Buluç is a new to the Bay Area, he has admired the region's bridges and "beautiful landscapes in an urban setting." A self-described tango addict, Buluç spends much of his spare time dancing, taking portraits of people, eating good food and watching good cinema.

Jinoh Kim, Scientific Data Management Research Group

Jinoh Kim

As a postdoctoral fellow in CRD's Scientific Data Management Research Group, Jinoh Kim will be developing solutions for energy-smart and performance-efficient data access in large-scale distributed computing settings.

"My doctoral research was about performance-efficient data access for distributed computing in large-scale settings, in which communication cost would be highly variable depending on which computational resource or data server are chosen for a job. As part of this research, I explored a variety of system and network parameters that will be valuable to the SDM group," says Kim.

He earned a doctorate in computer science from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities in February 2010. While pursuing his PhD, Kim also developed new scheduling algorithms for track-based clinical automation systems as an intern at a biomedical company , Beckman Coulter Inc. As part of this work Kim also developed a simulator for evaluation as well as performance-optimized scheduling algorithms. He completed his undergraduate and master degrees in computer science at Inha Univeristy in Incheon, Korea, before arriving in the United States to pursue his doctorate.

Originally from Korea, Kim enjoys spending his spare time outdoors jogging, hiking, barbecuing and visiting state and regional parks. He also likes to read books and relax with his family.

Kirsten Fagnan, NERSC Petascale Postdoctoral Fellow

Kirsten Fagnan

As the newest postdoctoral fellow in the NERSC Petascale Initiative, Kirsten Fagnan will use the ALE-AMR code to investigate the mechanisms for droplet formation in heavy ion beam experiments. Developed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, this code combines the efficiency of adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) techniques and the arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) hydrodynamics methods to create a powerful technique for solving complex hydrodynamic systems.

Although she always enjoyed mathematics and computer science, Fagnan says that she was inspired to pursue a career in applied math after attending a talk by Mayya Tokman of CRD’s Applied Mathematics Group while she was an undergraduate student at the University of California, Berkeley.

"The talk helped me realize that numerical methods could be used to investigate physical phenomena, like the generation of solar flare activity, that would otherwise be intractable," says Fagnan.

In 2010, Fagnan earned a doctorate in applied math with an emphasis in numerical analysis and partial differential equations at the University of Washington at Seattle, under the guidance of Professor Randall J. LeVeque. Her thesis project involved developing numerical methods to model shock wave propagation in idealized bone and soft tissue using a Lagrangian formulation of the Euler equations. This is similar to what is done in ALE methods, but the computational grid did not move with the flow. Fagnan also has experience working with AMR codes, most notably the Chombo and AMRCLAW software packages.

A native of Northern California, Fagnan enjoys spending her time away from work rock climbing, bicycling, playing tennis, backpacking and hiking. She also enjoys volunteering in schools by helping out with math teams and science fairs.

Orianna DeMasi, Future Technologies Group

Orianna DeMasi

This month, Orianna DeMasi joins CRD's Future Technologies Group as a computer systems engineer who will be working on mathematical techniques to detect intrusions into high-performance computer networks.

Like many, DeMasi was exposed to computational research through her interests and research in applied mathematics. Some of her student projects included a summer fellowship modeling tidal heights and velocities in the portion of the New England shelf south of Martha's Vineyard. She also received an undergraduate research award at McGill University to work under the tutelage of professor Tony Humphries and study differential equations with state-dependent delays.

Originally from Connecticut, DeMasi migrated north to Montreal, Canada to attend McGill University. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics last year and is currently delaying graduate school to work in the Berkeley Lab's Future Technologies Group.

While she is living on the West Coast, DeMasi hopes to spend her spare time exploring California and learning flamenco. She will also be sewing and cooking on her free time.