Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Annville, Pennsylvania – a small town in central PA, near Hershey (chocolate).
What’s your field of study and how did you get into that field?
My work focuses on high-performance scientific computing, where I collaborate in teams who are working on various aspects of large-scale computational science. I have a PhD in Applied Math from the Univ of Virginia, and also a BS in math and physics from Muhlenberg College. I have always enjoyed math, and during summer internships at NASA and Argonne, I learned about the fun of multidisciplinary projects, where people with diverse backgrounds and skills collaborate to advance scientific understanding. I began working at Argonne as a postdoc after grad school.
What fascinates you about HPC?
I enjoy team collaboration on high-performance computational science projects. I have become increasingly interested in community work to advance software (which encapsulates the expertise of different people/topics) as a primary means of scientific collaboration. There are many exciting HPC career opportunities across disciplines, including scientific domains, math, computer science, research software engineering, and more. Collaborating among these diverse people is incredibly fun and rewarding.
What’s your current title and what do you do?
I am a computational scientist at Argonne. I focus on scalable numerical libraries and community collaboration toward productive and sustainable software ecosystems.
What energy justice topic is most important to you and why?
All topics are important to me; it’s impossible to choose just one. Advancing energy justice is a fundamental need for our world, and each topic addresses important aspects of complex, multifaceted challenges.