I am a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff in the Discrete Algorithms and Mathematics Department, which is in the Computation, Computers, Information and Mathematics Center.
I have been involved in a wide range of projects at Sandia. My research interests have focused on optimization techniques, such as: parallel branch-and-bound, heuristic global optimization, derivative-free local search and optimization modeling tools. I have focused on optimization methods that can be flexibly applied on both workstations and on DOE's large-scale parallel computing resources.
Related to these research efforts, I have been a key contributor to a variety of software development efforts. I have been a member of the DAKOTA project for many years. More recently, I have focused on developing Acro, a framework for developing complex optimization libraries. Acro integrates a variety of software packages to support optimization library development, and I am the lead developer of several of these packages: UTILIB, COLIN, Coliny and GNLP.
Finally, I have worked on a variety of applications for which we have deployed this technology, including
- computational biology problems like protein folding and protein-protein alignment,
- flexible ligand docking and protein-protein docking,
- engineering design problems like levitron stabilization and robust canister design, and
- logistics planning and resource allocation.
Most recently, I am leading a team of Sandians that is developing computational technologies that protect municipal water supplies. Specifically, we are developing methods to designing and deploying early warning systems that can rapidly detect contaminants in municipal water supply networks. This project is funded by the EPA/NHSRC in collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Cincinatti.
