Academic advisory board:
Dr. Joaquin Carbonara (Math and HIPERC, Buffalo State College), Dr. Tom Furlani (Director, Center for Computational Research at UB), Dr. Robert Panoff (Director, Shodor Education Foundation), Dr. Matt Jones (Staff Scientists, Center for Computational Research, UB), Dr. Bruce Pitman (Math, UB), Dr. Reneta Barneva (CS, SUNY Fredonia), Dr. Mark Gallo (Niagara University), Dr. William Wieczorek (Director, Center for Health and Social research at BSC), Dr. Valentin Brimkov (Math, Buffalo State College), Dr. David Ettestad and Dr. Dermot Coffey (Physics, Buffalo State College), Dr. Alexander Nazarenko (Chemistry, Buffalo State College), Dr. Jill Singer (Director of Undergraduate Research, BSC)
Special guests:
- Introductory words by Dr. Larry Flood (Dean of BSC School of Natural and Social Sciences) and Voldemar Innus (CIO at Buffalo State College).
- Introduction to the scientific program: lecture by Nobel Laureate Dr. Herbert Hauptman, President of the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute (formerly the Medical Fourndation of Buffalo) since 1988. His presentation is titled "Unpredicted Applications of Mathematics" and will take place at about 9AM.
Herbert A. Hauptman
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1985
President of the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute
(From his Autobiography)
Born in New York City on February 14, 1917, his interest in most areas of science and mathematics began at an early age, as soon as he learned to read, and continues to this day. He obtained the B.S. degree in mathematics from the City College of New York (1937) and the M.A. degree in mathematics from Columbia University (1939). After the war he made the decision to obtain an advanced degree and pursue a career in basic scientific research. By 1954 he had received a Ph.D. degree and in joint work with Dr. Karle they laid the foundations of the direct methods in X-ray crystallography. Their 1953 monograph, "Solution of the Phase Problem I. The Centrosymmetric Crystal", contains the main ideas, the most important of which was the introduction of probabilistic methods, in particular the joint probability distributions of several structure factors, as the essential tool for phase determination.
In 1970 he joined the crystallographic group of the Medical Foundation of Buffalo of which he was Research Director in 1972. His work on the phase problem continues to this day. During the eighties he initiated work on the problem of combining the traditional techniques of direct methods with isomorphous replacement and anomalous dispersion in the attempt to facilitate the solution of macromolecular crystal structures. This work continues to the present time. More recently he has formulated the phase problem of X-ray crystallography as a minimal principle in the attempt to strengthen the existing direct methods techniques.
Speakers:
Dr. Reneta Barneva,
CS Department, SUNY Fredonia
Reneta P. Barneva is a professor at the Department of Computer Science at the State University of New York, Fredonia. Her interests span in several areas of applied and theoretical computer science, such as computational biology, design and analysis of algorithms, computer graphics and discrete geometry. Particularly, she has studied the genetic code evolution through computer simulation. She is a recipient of several national and international awards among which the Kasling Award, the most prestigious SUNY Fredonia research distinction. Dr. Barneva has published more than 60 refereed papers and has served as a program committee member of several international conferences. She has been an invited speaker for a number of conferences and workshops.
Dr. Valentin Brimkov,
Mathematics Department, Buffalo State College
Dr. Valentin E. Brimkov, from the Mathematics Department, Buffalo State College, State University of New York, is well-know for his numerous contributions to several research fields of discrete applied mathematics and theoretical computer science. Among these are discrete geometry, combinatorial optimization, combinatorial pattern matching, computational geometry, design and analysis of algorithms, and complexity theory. In particular, he has studied the structure of the information macromolecules by means of the theory of combinatorial pattern matching. Dr. Brimkov is the author of about a hundred of research papers. He has delivered many invited talks to conferences, workshops, and research seminars. He has chaired a number of international conferences and is the General Chair of the forthcoming 12th International Workshop on Combinatorial Image Analysis to be held in Buffalo, NY, in spring 2008. This year Dr. Brimkov has been awarded the prestigious Wilkes Award of the British Computer Society.
Dr. Matt Jones,
Center for Computational Research, University at Buffalo
Dr. Matthew Jones is a computational scientist at the Center for Computational Research at SUNY-Buffalo. Dr. Jones has a broad range of research interests ranging from strongly magnetized atoms and molecules to the electronic structure of complex materials. Dr. Jones has also participated in the development of a new class of tight-binding models for the simulation of transition metal compounds and actinides in collaboration with researchers in the Theoretical Division of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Dr. Jones has been utilizing high performance computing resources throughout his career in order to study these systems,and provides frequent training sessions and outreach in the application of scientific computing to cutting-edge research and development.
Dr. Clyde Metz
Chemistry and Biochemistry department, College at Charleston
Dr. Clyde Metz is professor emeritus of physical chemistry at the College of Charleston and a computational chemist with the Shodor Education Foundation, Inc. His research interests include molecular structure determination from x-ray crystallography and the application of molecular modeling to these structures. As one of the lead instructors for the Computational Chemistry for Chemical Educators program (National Computational Science Institute), he is involved in various programs, workshops, and sessions designed to illustrate the inclusion of computational chemistry and computational science into the undergraduate curriculum.
Dr. Shawn Sendlinger
Chemistry department , North Carolina Central University
Dr. Shawn Sendlinger is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at North Carolina Central University and a computational science consultant with the Shodor Education Foundation. Trained as a synthetic inorganic chemist, he has used electronic structure calculations to learn about metal-metal bonding in various molecular transition metal products that he and others have synthesized. His educational interests include the appropriate use of computer technology to enable discovery and learning in the undergraduate and graduate curriculum. He has been an instructor in a number of faculty and student workshops over the past several years teaching colleagues about how computational science can be an effective educational tool.
Dr. Peihong Zhang
Department of Physics, University at Buffalo
Dr. Peihong Zhang received his Ph.D. degree from Pennsylvania State University in 2001 and joined the Physics Department,University at Buffalo, in 2005 as an assistant professor.Dr. Zhang's long-term research objectives are unified around the theme of understanding and predicting materials properties from first principles, with emphases on nanostructured and other novel materials, computational materials design, and development of new theoretical and computational techniques.
Keynote Speaker
Dr. Jose Castillo, Director, Computational Science Research Center at San Diego State University. http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~castillo/
Dr. Castillo is director of the San Diego State University Computational Science Research Center. This center facilitates cooperation between the University and Industry as well as National Laboratories. The center involves participation of researchers from applied mathematics, computer science, astronomy, physics, geophysics, and engineering.Dr. Castillo has a wide range of interests in applied mathematics with emphasis in numerical solution of partial differential equations, scientific computing, and modeling. His numerical interests are mainly in the solution of partial differential equations in irregular geometries with emphasis on grid generation for both geometry and solution adaption. He has developed new grid generation algorithms based on intuitive discrete geometric notions and has built codes to implement these ideas. He has studied the underlying mathematics including existence and uniqueness, and smoothness properties of the variational problems. He has an ongoing cooperation with the CNLS and the T7 group at Los Alamos National Laboratory with research projects involving High Order Finite Difference Schemes, Error analysis and Adaptive Grid Generation methods. DOE via Summer Fellowships has funded this research at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Abstract of presentation:
Case Study: Training the Scientific Work Force of the 21th Century at San Diego State University
San Diego State University is now expanding its multidisciplinary research and training programs in the Colleges of Sciences and Engineering through its MDRTP project ("Multidisciplinary Research and Training Program"). Students at the baccalaureate, pre-doctoral and post-doctoral levels would be skilled in collaborative team approaches to problem solving in the biomedical sciences. The University's Computational Science Research Center (CSRC) serves as the program's core group for developing new curriculum and coordinating student internships in research laboratories. The project involves members of the Departments of Biology (Cell and Molecular Biology program), Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering and Mathematics. The program provides laboratory opportunities in multiple disciplines, courses, and research experiences designed to train students across academic divisions to address interdisciplinary approaches for solving complex problems in the biomedical sciences. A key feature of the training program is the Discovery Team in which vertically integrated student groups are assembled for real-world problem solving offered to regional technology sector businesses and National Laboratories. Teams are managed by an interdisciplinary scientist/engineer panel meeting regularly with the students. Discovery Team participation is offered at three levels: undergraduate and pre-doctoral (for course credit), and postdoctoral. An overview of this program will be presented including some description of some key courses that we use to foster interdisciplinary research.