Research Experience

1997-present: University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia.
Senior Lecturer and Senior Research Fellow with the Distributed and High-Performance Computing (DHPC) Group in the Computer Science Department.

• Currently leading the Distributed and High-Performance Computing Group.
• Working on reseach and development of cluster computing for scientific applications.
• Worked with the Special Research Centre for the Subatomic Structure of Matter (CSSM) in the Department of Physics on the procurement and management of a 160 processor Sun Technical Compute Farm, which was the fastest supercomputer in Australia when installed in June 2000.
• Working with CSSM physicists on the development, porting and optimization of computational physics programs for the compute cluster.
• Worked with computational chemists in the Department of Chemistry on designing, installing and benchmarking a 232 processor Beowulf PC cluster for molecular modeling applications.
• Working on the development and application of middleware for distributed high-performance computing.
• Leading a project on distributed Geographical Information Systems (GIS) applications that require access to high-performance compute resources and large on-line geospatial data sets such as satellite image archives.
• Leading a project to develop standard interfaces to geospatial image servers for online satellite and aerial photo data archives.
• Worked with the State Herbarium of South Australia Plant Biodiversity Centre to develop prototypes of the Virtual Australian Herbarium and the Electronic Flora of South Australia, which are Web-based systems for providing information on plant species. This work included generating real-time maps of herbarium specimen collection data from distributed databases throughout Australia.
• Developing Java Grande benchmarks and other software for using Java for high-performance computing.

1992-1997: Syracuse University, Syracuse, U.S.A.
Senior Research Scientist at the Northeast Parallel Architectures Center.

• Worked on the development of libraries of high-performance software, and information about high-performance computing, as part of the National High-Performance Software Exchange (NHSE) project.
• Developed a library of High Performance Fortran software for the HPF Applications and NHSE projects.
• Developed Web CGI programs for use in education, in collaboration with Community School Networks, Inc., as part of the InfoMall technology transfer program.
• Investigated and developed optimization methods that use Monte Carlo techniques, such as simulated annealing, and their application to problems such as scheduling and timetabling.
• In the early days of the World Wide Web (1994), helped set up a Web server for NPAC, and developed a popular educational Web site for children called Kids Web as part of a summer program for schoolkids.
• Led a project to investigate the use of parallel computing, the Internet, and VRML to do real-time rendering of digital terrain models, for an educational application involving an interactive flight simulation.
• Worked on other educational applications of the World Wide Web, including a Java-based interface to digital images of the human body for the NPAC Visible Human project.
• Helped run the NPAC Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program, a summer research internship program sponsored by the National Science Foundation.
• Introduced companies to the use of the Web for business as part of the InfoMall technology transfer program.
• Led a project on the use of parallel computing in the power utility industry. This involved porting existing code to parallel computers, and developing parallel algorithms for sparse matrix computations and differential-algebraic equation solvers.
• Developed parallel algorithms for graph coloring and connected component labeling, random number generators, and Monte Carlo simulation for various computational physics problems.

1990-92: Syracuse University, Syracuse, U.S.A.
Research Associate in the Physics Department, affiliated with the Northeast Parallel Architectures Center.

• Developed new algorithms for Monte Carlo simulation of spin models of magnetism, and an interactive graphics environment to visualize different spin models and algorithms.
• Developed and implemented new parallel connected component labeling algorithms that were applied to Monte Carlo simulations of spin models on high-performance parallel computers.
• Monte Carlo simulations of string theories of quantum gravity, using dynamically triangulated random surfaces.
• Wrote sequential and parallel Fortran programs for the NPAC Fortran 90D and High Performance Fortran test suite.
• Studied the the use of networks of workstations for parallel computing.

1988-90: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, U.S.A.
Research Fellow in the Physics Department, working in the Caltech Concurrent Computation Group.

• Studies of spin models of magnetism using Monte Carlo simulations on parallel computers.
• Developed parallel algorithms for non-local Monte Carlo cluster update algorithms for spin models, including parallel connected component labeling algorithms for both SIMD and MIMD distributed memory parallel computers.

1987-88: University of Southampton, Southampton, U.K.
Research Assistant in the Concurrent Computation Group of the Department of Electronics and Computer Science, provided training and consultancy at the Transputer Support Center.

• Implemented parallel matrix algorithms on transputer arrays.
• Ported a sequential Fortran code modeling ocean current flow to a transputer array.
• Wrote and modified demonstration parallel programs incorporating visualizations.
• Wrote programs and documentation for training courses.
• Helped set up and run the Transputer Support Center (now the Parallel Applications Center), a campus-affiliated training and consultancy center.

1986-87: University of Southampton, Southampton, U.K.
Research Assistant in the Physics Department.

• Used parallel computers (transputer arrays) to run simulations of lattice field theory and solid state physics problems, including the lattice Higgs model, the XY spin model, and the quantum Hall effect.

1983-88: University of Southampton, Southampton, U.K.
Ph.D candidate in the High Energy Physics Theory Group in the Physics Department.

• Numerical studies of phase transitions in lattice gauge theories using a massively parallel SIMD computer.

1982-83: Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
Summer undergraduate research program, in the Physics Department.

• Wrote graphics programs for the study of renormalization group transformations in solid state physics.

1981-82: Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
Summer undergraduate research program, in the Physics Department.

• Worked on the theory of mirror charges in metals.