Science in Parallel
Science in Parallel focuses on people in computational science and their work simulating climate and the cosmos, understanding viral infections, building alternative energy strategies and more – using high-performance computing (HPC). Host Sarah Webb interviews researchers about their career paths and motivations. Our conversations cover topics such as artificial intelligence, integrating emerging hardware, the effects of remote work, promoting diversity and inclusion, and the role of creativity in computing. Our show is for curious, science-oriented listeners who like technology. You don’t need a deep background in science and computing to learn from our guests. Science in Parallel has been shortlisted twice for the Publisher Podcast Awards: for 2022 Best Technology Podcast and for 2023 Best Science and Medical Podcast. It is produced by the Krell Institute and is a media outreach project of the Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (DOE CSGF) program.
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Season 4, Episode 4 -- Anubhav Jain: Hacking Materials
11/08/2023
Season 4, Episode 4 -- Anubhav Jain: Hacking Materials
Artificial intelligence is reshaping research to discover new materials for a range of important applications. In this episode, meet of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a researcher who has been at the forefront of this transition. He uses machine learning and other computational tools as a materials scientist to discover compounds that could store and convert energy and solve other societal problems. Anubhav’s current research path started in graduate school at MIT, where he was supported by a . We discuss how computational tools including AI have moved from a novel idea to a central piece of materials discovery, how he applies machine learning tools to other tasks such as mining data from scientific papers, and the rewards that came from writing his blog called . This episode concludes our season 4 series on creativity in computing.
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Season 4, Episode 3 -- Danilo Pérez: Embracing Versatility
10/25/2023
Season 4, Episode 3 -- Danilo Pérez: Embracing Versatility
Sometimes extraordinary circumstances like the pandemic offer researchers unexpected opportunities to serve others. Danilo Pérez, now a Ph.D. student in computational neuroscience at New York University, found himself in this situation in Puerto Rico in 2020. He contributed his mathematical modeling expertise as part of a team that built and maintained Puerto Rico’s public health data during that intense period. Later he contributed to AI-based modeling of coronavirus variants that won major honors in the computing community: the 2022 Gordon Bell Special Prize for HPC-Based COVID-19 Research. These days Danilo is developing computational tools to understand value-based decision making at NYU, a process that can be applied in economics, medicine and public policy. We discuss how compelling science problems have propelled his training, how music and family support him, and his focus on citizen-facing science, especially in Puerto Rico. You’ll meet: Danilo Pérez, a Ph.D. student in computational neuroscientist jointly advised by and in NYU’s Center for Neural Science. He is a current recipient of a Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (). This conversation was recorded in July 2023 at the of the DOE CSGF in Washington, D.C. Read more about Danilo and his work .
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Season 4, Episode 2 -- Casey Berger: Choose Your Own Multidimensional Career
10/11/2023
Season 4, Episode 2 -- Casey Berger: Choose Your Own Multidimensional Career
Traditional science career advice often urges people to specialize and become the best at one activity. But that perspective can undervalue interdisciplinary researchers and other polymaths who can see connections between and beyond science and engineering fields. This episode’s guest, Casey Berger, describes how she has navigated this second approach, embracing her many interests, such as science, computing, teaching and storytelling, to make her mark as a physicist and data scientist and as a fiction author. In the second episode of our podcast series on creativity in computing, Casey talks about her path to physics and computing via Hollywood. She describes the challenges and opportunities of interdisciplinary work, how she pursues her many interests and her advice for building a sustainable, joyful life and career. You’ll meet: is an assistant professor of physics and data science at in Northampton, Massachusetts. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2020 and was supported by a (DOE CSGF). She earned bachelor’s degrees in physics from Ohio State University and in philosophy and film production from Boston University. Casey is also . Her latest novel , part of the Choose Your Own Adventure series, was published in October 2023. This conversation was recorded in July 2023 at the of the DOE CSGF in Washington, D.C.
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Season 4, Episode 1 -- Creativity in Climate Modeling
09/27/2023
Season 4, Episode 1 -- Creativity in Climate Modeling
Season 4 of Science in Parallel centers around creativity and computing, starting with an interview about climate modeling. At this nexus of physics, earth science, mathematics and computing, researchers are also racing against the clock to accurately predict how global climate is shifting before the changes happen. Pulling all the scientific pieces together and communicating those results so that others can use them are significant creative challenges—ones that both Tapio Schneider and Emily de Jong of California Institute of Technology have embraced. In our conversation, Tapio and Emily describe how both the science and societal impact of climate modeling motivate them, how outdoor activities and music shape their perspectives, and how they view creativity both inside and outside the lab. Later in the episode, Tapio shares his experience as a science advisor to —an artists’ collaboration that’s producing music and video pieces that explore climate change and solutions to the climate crisis. You’ll meet: is a professor of environmental science and engineering at Caltech. He’s a member of the a team of scientists, engineers and applied mathematicians from Caltech, MIT and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory working on a new earth system model that uses computatational and data-science tools to harness Earth observations and make more accurate climate predictions. He at the 2023 Annual Program Review of the (DOE CSGF) program in July. is a Ph.D. student in mechanical engineering at Caltech working in Tapio’s research group. She is a DOE CSGF recipient, who completed her undergraduate degree at Princeton University in 2019.
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Season 3, Episode 5 -- Beyond Exascale: Exploring Emerging Hardware
06/21/2023
Season 3, Episode 5 -- Beyond Exascale: Exploring Emerging Hardware
The exascale era in computing has arrived, and that brings up the question of what’s next. We’ll discuss some emerging processor technologies-- molecular storage and computing, quantum computing and neuromorphic chips—with an expert from each of those fields. Learn more about these technologies’ strengths and challenges and how they might be incorporated into tomorrow’s systems. You’ll meet: , professor of and CEO of the AI startup . , senior scientist and department head for computational sciences at and deputy director of the . , is a neuromorphic computing researcher and an assistant professor of computer science at the .
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Season 3, Episode 4 -- Gabriel Casabona: It All Comes Down to Gravity
06/07/2023
Season 3, Episode 4 -- Gabriel Casabona: It All Comes Down to Gravity
Although he’s always loved space, Gabriel Casabona pursued other fields, including medicine and religion, before landing in astrophysics. We discussed how his passion for physics motivated him to deepen his knowledge of math and computing, how gravity’s mysteries define his work and other big challenges he hopes to work on during his career. You’ll meet: is a Ph.D. student in computational and theoretical astrophysics at Northwestern University. His work is supported by a Department of Energy Computational Science graduate fellowship. This conversation was recorded in person in November 2022 at the SC22 meeting in Dallas, Texas.
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Season 3, Episode 3 -- Tammy Ma: Fusion Ignition and Beyond
05/24/2023
Season 3, Episode 3 -- Tammy Ma: Fusion Ignition and Beyond
In early December 2022, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced that the (NIF) had achieved fusion ignition—a reaction of merging hydrogen isotopes that produced more energy than the lasers put in. High-performance computing is an important part of designing, analyzing and refining these experiments, and this episode examines the connection between computing and fusion energy. You’ll meet: , a plasma physicist at Livermore, talks about how supercomputing supported fusion ignition. Tammy also leads the lab’s . Tammy’s scientific expertise is doing experiments rather than simulations, but in her current role she considers all parts of the fusion puzzle. She’s at the forefront of one of science and society’s grand challenges: Can we produce clean, sustainable fusion energy on the scale needed to power our planet? Tammy talks about computing’s role in understanding and optimizing fusion reactions and how computing’s crossroads could shape fusion’s future.
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Season 3, Episode 2 –- Margaret Lawson: Finding Her Place
05/10/2023
Season 3, Episode 2 –- Margaret Lawson: Finding Her Place
Even after enjoying her first computer science course, Margaret Lawson wasn’t convinced she’d have a place in the field. But today she works on cloud storage for Google after completing her Ph.D. at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where she was supported by a Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (DOE CSGF). This conversation was recorded at the Supercomputing meeting (SC22) in Dallas in November 2022, where Margaret co-led a on Ethics in High Performance Computing. We talked about that session, her pursuit of challenging computer science problems and progress for women in computing. You’ll meet: Margaret Lawson is a software engineer based in Google’s Kirkland, Washington, office. There she primarily works on cloud storage platforms.
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Season 3, Episode 1 -- Joe Insley: Big Data to Beautiful Images
04/26/2023
Season 3, Episode 1 -- Joe Insley: Big Data to Beautiful Images
Making sense of computational science takes a multidisciplinary team, including science visualization experts who translate data into images that both parse information so that it’s comprehensible and render it into beautiful images and skillful animations. Joe Insley of Argonne Leadership Computing Facility and Northern Illinois University has been doing this work for more than 20 years, leveraging deep training in both digital art and computer science to build showstopping visualizations. We talked about his training, how he approaches this work and how in situ visualization—techniques that allow computational researchers to sift through data as it’s processed—is changing with ever larger supercomputers.
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Season 2, Episode 6 -- Pushing Limits in Computing and Biology
10/26/2022
Season 2, Episode 6 -- Pushing Limits in Computing and Biology
Science in Parallel’s season two concludes with a conversation about answering important questions in biology and medicine with leadership class supercomputers, including urgent issues that came up during the COVID-19 pandemic. You’ll hear from Anda Trifan of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and Amanda Randles of Duke University. Starting as a chemist, Anda is completing a Ph.D. in biophysics and quantitative biology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where she has studied molecular strategies that make certain cells turn cancerous. In early 2020, she joined an Argonne National Laboratory team that pivoted to working on the pandemic, and she modeled how SARS-CoV-2 infects cells, how it replicates and how it spreads through aerosols. Amanda is an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Duke University with roots in physics and computer science. Much of her work now focuses on large-scale simulations of how blood flows through a person’s unique network of vessels. During the pandemic, her team applied their expertise to calculations that could help physicians figure out how to split ventilators between patients who weren’t exact matches, a critical problem in early 2020 when these devices were in short supply. Both Anda and Amanda completed . Between them, they have worked on a total of five projects that have been finalists for either the ACM Gordon Bell Prize or the Special Prize for COVID-19 research. Adding to the excitement of their pandemic work: They both navigated the at-home adventure of raising very young children during lockdown. They talk about what drives them, the challenge of working at the cutting edge of HPC and biology and medicine, and their advice for other researchers, particularly other women in science.
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Season 2, Episode 5 -- Improving Computing Performance and Workforce Diversity
10/05/2022
Season 2, Episode 5 -- Improving Computing Performance and Workforce Diversity
Valerie Taylor doesn’t shy away from challenging problems with multiple layers. At Argonne National Laboratory, she manages teams that develop algorithms, data management strategies, software and hardware to support scientific simulations, including those on the Department of Energy’s leadership-class supercomputers. Her research focuses on performance analysis—the factors involved in making computations efficient. On top of that, she maintains a parallel line of work supporting computer scientists from historically marginalized communities toward building a more diverse computing workforce. You’ll hear Valerie talk about her career path, what excites her about computing, and the sustained commitment needed to boost diversity, equity and inclusion in this field. You’ll meet: is the director of the mathematics and computer science division at Argonne National Laboratory. She moved to Argonne in 2017 after more than 25 years in academia at both Northwestern University and at Texas A&M University. She also is the president and chief executive officer of the Center for Minorities and People with Disabilities in IT (), a non-profit dedicated to supporting historically marginalized communities in computing. She has been recognized with numerous awards, both for her research and her work to increase diversity, equity and inclusion in computing.
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Season 2, Episode 4 -- You're Moving to Finland?
07/06/2022
Season 2, Episode 4 -- You're Moving to Finland?
After COVID-19 lockdowns and 2020 wildfires near his Oregon home, computational scientist Jeff Hammond decided to make big moves. In 2021, his family of five emigrated from Portland to Finland, and Jeff changed positions, leaving Intel and taking a new job with NVIDIA. Even before 2020, he had worked primarily remotely and discusses the lessons he hopes technology companies learn from pandemic work. You’ll meet: a principal engineer with NVIDIA, is affiliated with the company’s office in Helsinki, Finland. From 2014 to 2021, Jeff worked for Intel, and was based in Portland, Oregon. Prior to that he worked at Argonne National Laboratory. Jeff was a Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship recipient from 2005 to 2009 at the University of Chicago and focused on developing open-source chemistry simulation software, , with Karol Kowalski at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
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Season 2, Episode 3 -- Two PhDs + Pandemic + Baby
06/22/2022
Season 2, Episode 3 -- Two PhDs + Pandemic + Baby
Pandemic work was especially challenging for computational scientist parents, who often juggled new work arrangements while balancing their children's care. In this episode you’ll hear from a couple who were Ph.D. students and had a 10-month-old baby when lockdowns sent them all home in March 2020. The situation challenged their work and their mental health. As they adapted to these experiences, they changed career paths and their perspectives on life and work. You’ll meet: is a nuclear engineer in the nuclear science and engineering division at Argonne National Laboratory. Her work focuses on the development of computational tools used to design the next generation of nuclear reactors. Prior to joining Argonne, Kalin earned her Ph.D., M.S., and B.S. in nuclear engineering and engineering physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. is a member of technical staff at Advanced Micro Devices. He works on porting and performance optimization of scientific applications targeting AMD platforms, such as Frontier at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the upcoming El Capitan at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Brian was a DOE CSGF recipient from 2016 to 2020 and completed both a B.S. and Ph.D. in nuclear engineering and engineering physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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Season 2, Episode 2 -- Future of Work (part 2): Adapting to Change
06/08/2022
Season 2, Episode 2 -- Future of Work (part 2): Adapting to Change
In Season 2 of Science in Parallel, we’re examining how pandemic shutdowns have reshaped computational science workplaces. In our last episode we focused on the effects of virtual work and how the Exascale Computing Project’s Strategies for Working Remotely panel series fostered communication and creativity. This episode brings in additional stories from graduate students, a professor and an early career researcher at a DOE national lab about the challenges and benefits of remote work. You’ll meet: Episode one guests of Sandia National Laboratories and of Carnegie Mellon University. is a Ph.D. student in applied mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a third-year DOE CSGF recipient. They work on methods for applying parallel computing in climate models, particularly integrating disparate models to simulate the Madden-Julian Oscillation, an area of high and low moisture that moves around the Earth’s atmosphere every 30 to 60 days. joined the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Computational Science Center as a data scientist in June 2020. Hilary completed her Ph.D. in astrophysics and planetary science at the University of Colorado Boulder and was a DOE CSGF recipient from 2014 to 2018. Hilary works on AI for scientific computing across applications including materials science, data center efficiency, and building retrofits. is a second-year DOE CSGF recipient and a Ph.D. student in computational solid-state physics at Vanderbilt University. She uses quantum mechanics to model how defects in semiconductor devices are activated and lead to degradation. Laura is incorporating that model into her group’s code that describes defect-related processes such as scattering and electron capture.
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Season 2, Episode 1 -- Future of Work (part 1): Communication Conundrum
06/01/2022
Season 2, Episode 1 -- Future of Work (part 1): Communication Conundrum
In our first two episodes of ’s Season 2, we’ll be talking about how the pandemic pivot to remote work marks a turning point in workplace structure for many computational scientists. We talk with computational scientists who worked remotely about what they struggled with, what functioned well and the lessons they’ll take into the future. In this first part, we’ll also focus on the social science of how people experienced remote work. In part one, you’ll meet: is an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. He was a recipient from 2014 to 2018 while pursuing his Ph.D. at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Jerry works on particle-based simulations to study soft and active matter, for applications ranging from nanoscale devices to pedestrian mobility. is a social scientist in Sandia National Laboratories’ Applied Information Sciences Center. She is also an institutional principal investigator for one of the DOE many individual research teams: Sandia’s team. IDEAS focuses on team of teams, software developer productivity and software sustainability. From the episode: Elaine has organized the since 2020. Check out their slides and videos about topics such as setting up a home office space, parenting, working with interns and hybrid work. The increased use of video conferencing during pandemic lockdowns highlighted the problem of degraded communication, You can also read more from Elaine about and how they . A version of the interview with Elaine Raybourn is also available as .
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Season 1, Episode 6 -- Aurora Pribram-Jones
10/27/2021
Season 1, Episode 6 -- Aurora Pribram-Jones
Aurora Pribram-Jones works on hot, dense electrons – simulating extreme chemistry that can happen within giant planets like Jupiter or nuclear fusion experiments. Aurora’s career included many initial detours, but the flexibility of community college classes and a job at a technical bookstore paved their path toward research. Now a chemistry professor at the UC Merced, Aurora finds purpose in teaching students and supporting the whole scientist, especially those from marginalized communities.
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Season 1, Episode 5 -- Alternative Energy
10/13/2021
Season 1, Episode 5 -- Alternative Energy
Avoiding the changing climate’s most extreme impacts will require a technological revolution to power daily life from renewable sources. Leslie Dewan, Asegun Henry and Brandon Wood – all DOE CSGF and MIT alumni – discuss technical challenges from nuclear energy to heat transfer to hydrogen generation and the importance of choosing high-impact research problems. In addition, they highlight the need for a strong social and political movement to drive a complete overhaul of our energy infrastructure.
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Season 1, Episode 4 -- Alicia Magann
09/29/2021
Season 1, Episode 4 -- Alicia Magann
Alicia Magann got her start in control systems engineering research, exploring tools for directing large-scale chemical processes. As a Ph.D. student, she turned the dials of quantum chemistry in Herschel Rabitz’s research group at Princeton University with support from the DOE CSGF. She talks about her work on quantum algorithms, her cross-country road trip from New Jersey to her practicum in California and how her dad is her scientific hero.
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Season 1, Episode 3 -- Quentarius Moore
09/15/2021
Season 1, Episode 3 -- Quentarius Moore
Curiosity, mentors and a summer working in concrete with his grandfather shaped Quentarius Moore’s science career studying 2-D materials. He recently completed his fourth year as a DOE CSGF recipient, while pursuing a chemistry Ph.D. at Texas A&M University. He completed both his bachelor's and master's degrees in chemistry at Jackson State University in Mississippi.
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Science in Parallel -- Season One Trailer
09/02/2021
Science in Parallel -- Season One Trailer
Welcome to , a new podcast about people and projects in computational science. Science in Parallel is produced by the Krell Institute, and season one celebrates the 30th anniversary of the Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship Program.
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Season 1, Episode 2 -- Artificial Intelligence and Climate Change
07/15/2021
Season 1, Episode 2 -- Artificial Intelligence and Climate Change
One of today’s hottest areas of computational research could help build better solutions for one of global society’s steepest challenges. Priya Donti, Kelly Kochanski and Ben Toms talk about AI’s potential for understanding and predicting climate shifts, supporting strategies for incorporating renewable energy, and engineering other approaches that reduce carbon emissions. They also describe how AI can be misused or can perpetuate existing biases.
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Season 1, Episode 1 -- Jeff Hittinger
07/15/2021
Season 1, Episode 1 -- Jeff Hittinger
Jeff Hittinger of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory embodies the term scientist-chimera. He talks about the many scientific hats he’s worn simultaneously – computer scientist, applied mathematician and physicist. As director for the Center for Applied Computing (CASC) and as co-principal investigator for the DOE CSGF, he wears many more. He talks about scientific success, leadership and strategies for communicating science to broader audiences through the Livermore Ambassador Lecture series.
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