COALESCE HIRING: Computational Science, Applied Math, and Nanoscience Ananth Grama Computer 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?