To get a detailed version of my past and current activities please click on the resume button.  

 

I am currently a Senior Research Scientist in the Applied and Computational Mathematics Division of NIST.   I came to NIST after 22 years as a Program Director at the National Science Foundation (NSF),  first in the Physics Division and then in the Office of Cyberinfrastructure.  Before moving to NSF, I spent 20 years in the Theoretical Division of Los Alamos National Laboratory. 

 

At the NSF my portfolio encompassed high performance computing (hardware) and software.  I had responsibility for most of the capacity computing resources that the NSF provides for the open science community via the XSEDE project as well responsibility for a number of cross disciplinary activities in computational and data science and engineering (CDS&E) within my home division, the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastrure in the Computer and Information Sciences Directorate. 

 

My background is in theoretical chemistry and atomic and molecular physics.  Before coming to the NSF in 1991, I spent 20 years in the Theoretical Division of Los Alamos National Laboratory where I was engaged in research in electron and photon collisions with atoms and molecules, and problems in electronic structure of molecules.  My first position at NSF was in the Physics Division where I was responsible for the Theoretical Atomic and Molecular Physics program.  I also developed a new program, the Physics at the Information Frontier to respond to challenges in computational physics, grid computing and quantum information science.  In addition I was for some number of years the cognizant Program Director for the Plasma Physics Program, where I worked with colleagues in the Department of Energy/Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, to revitalize basic plasma science and engineering (PS&E) at the NSF and DoE via a partnership/interagency program in PS&E.  I have served on numerous committees of the American Physiclal Society, have organized a number of topical conferences, been both a reviewer and editor of a variety of professional journals and have written 133 journal articles and chapters in books.  My papers have been cited well over 6000 times and I have an H index of 40.

 

II spend a significant fraction of mt time as the General Editor of the NIST Digital Library of Mathematical Functions (DLMF).  The rest of my time is spent pursuing research in the interaction of ultra-short, intense laser pulses with atoms and simple molecules.  This work involves the numerical solution of the time dependent Schroedinger equation and is extremely computationally intensive.  I have been fortunate to have a number of colleagues at Drake University, University of Central Florida, Aarhus UNiversity, and Kennesaw State University who have made significant contributions to this research.  The group currently has a large allocation of computer time on the NSF resources via the XSEDE program.