COALESCE HIRING:

Computational Science, Applied Math, and Nanoscience

Ananth GramaComputer Sciences, Purdue University.

Computational Science and Applied Math

● Focuses on mathematical techniques and computational methods for simulating geophysical fluid dynamics:– Porous geological formations– Planetary Interior and Plate Tectonics– Turbulence and Numerical Prediction of Weather

and Climate

Cluster Participants

– Math: Cai, Chen, Cushman, Douglas, Ma, Santos, Shen

– Earth and Atm. Sc.: Agee, Freed, Gluhovsky, Huber, King, Leap, Smith, Sun

– Computer Science: Grama, Sameh– Statistics: Viens, Zhang

Hiring Priorities

● Modeling flow in porous media

● Stochastic modeling

● Numerical weather prediction

● Upscaling specialist

● Geophysical continuum modeling

● Large-scale scientific computing in GFD

● Parallel numerical methods in computational fluid dynamics

● Computational statistics for geoscientific modeling

● Stochastic modeling for spatial and temporal data for fluids and turbulence

● Melt migration/porous flow applications specialist

Search Committee

● Committee Chair: Agee (EAS)● Members:

– Math: Lipshitz, Douglas, Shen, Lucier– EAS: Agee, Cushman, King, Vardhan– CS: Grama, Hambrusch, Hoffmann, Sameh– Stat: Bock

2004 Candidate Pool

● 76 applicants– 7 (approximately) with significant computing

background.– Of these, only two applicants were from

universities comparable to, or ranked higher than Purdue.

– Pool dominated by applied math, geophysics, theoretical physics.

2004 Candidate Pool

● Applicants with strong computational background tended to have a broader focus than Geophysical Fluid Dynamics or focus on other areas.

● While there were a couple of outstanding (senior) applicants, the sentiment (outside of CS component of committee) was that they had little background in Geophysics.

2004 Hiring Process

● Six candidates were invited for interviews– One in computational science / home CS– One in Theoretical Physics / home EAS– One in Computational Geophysics / home EAS– Three in Applied Math / home Math

Committee Recommendations

● Hiring Recommendations– 1.0 in applied math– 0.75 in EAS– 0.25 in CS.

In Retrospect (hiring).

● Why was the applicant pool so small?– The area itself?– Misplaced advertising?– Need for targeted recruitment?

● And even if the applicant pool were bigger..– How likely is it that we would find an outstanding

candidate with considerable strengths in CS and geophysics?

– Is a marriage of geophysics, computational science and applied math the best way to attract outstanding talent in computational science?

In Retrospect (the area)

● Computational science and engineering is an extremely well-funded area – at Purdue, as well as nationally.

● There is considerable demand for expertise in this area across campus.

● Is it desirable to strengthen this group, especially, in view of Purdue's historic strength and attrition over the years? If so, how do we do this in the context of COALESCE?

COALESCE: Nanosciences

● Core research themes in this area include theoretical, experimental, and computational aspects of low dimensional quantum systems, molecular electronics, and molecular scale biophysics and biochemistry.

COALESCE: Nanosciences

● This is an important thrust area, nationally, and is an area of strategic growth within Purdue.

● The area is supported by a large grant from NASA on experimental activities and one from NSF on computational activities (both of these projects are led out of ECE). CS has participation in the NSF project.

● Birck Nanotechnology Center and Bindley Bioscience Center provide necessary experimental infrastructure.

2004 Candidate Pool

● 175 applicants– 4 (approximately) with significant computing

background (two of these overlap with CSE).– Pool dominated by physicists and chemists.

Search Committee

● Committee Chair: Giordano (Physics)● CS represented by Ahmed Sameh

2004 Hiring Process

● Thirteen candidates were invited for interviews– One in computational nanoscience / home CS

(same as the computational science candidate)– One other invitee was somewhat computational

in his approach.– Most of the other candidates would have Physics

as their primary home.

In Retrospect (hiring).● This is an area of considerable emerging

importance. Why was the applicant pool so small?– Perhaps, hiring in computational nanosciences is

premature?– Perhaps, we werent looking in the right places?– Perhaps, we need to broaden our perspective of

what computational nanosciences is?● Due to its relative youth, some resistance

was observed in committee towards hiring computational nanoscientists. What is the best way to address this?

In Retrospect (the area)

● There have been fruitful collaborations between CS and ECE in areas of modeling nano-scale phenomena.

● There are emerging collaborations between CS and material scientists in multiscale simulations of such phenomena as crack propagation, laser ablation, corrosion.

● Such collaborations are less forthcoming with other departments in science at Purdue. How do we address this?