COALESCE HIRING: Computational Science, Applied Math, and Nanoscience

1
COALESCE HIRINGComputational Science, Applied
Math, and Nanoscience

• Ananth Grama
• Computer Sciences, Purdue University.

2
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

3
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

4
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

5
Search Committee

• Committee Chair Agee (EAS)
• Members
• Math Lipshitz, Douglas, Shen, Lucier
• EAS Agee, Cushman, King, Vardhan
• CS Grama, Hambrusch, Hoffmann, Sameh
• Stat Bock

6
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.

7
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.

8
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

9
Committee Recommendations

• Hiring Recommendations
• 1.0 in applied math
• 0.75 in EAS
• 0.25 in CS.

10
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?

11
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?

12
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.

13
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.

14
2004 Candidate Pool

• 175 applicants
• 4 (approximately) with significant computing
  background (two of these overlap with CSE).
• Pool dominated by physicists and chemists.

15
Search Committee

• Committee Chair Giordano (Physics)
• CS represented by Ahmed Sameh

16
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.

17
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?

18
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?