People

• LI Faculty

  • 	Baggag, Dr. Abdelkader Computer Science Department Louisiana Tech University Start Date: September 2008 people.mcgill.ca/abdelkader.baggag/
    Dr. Abdelkader Baggag will join the LONI Institute on September 2008. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota on Computer Science. Dr. Baggag's research interests are parallel numerical algorithms for large scale engineering applications, and their efficient implementation on massively parallel computers.
    	Genov, Dr. Dentcho Departments of Physics and Electrical Engineering Louisiana Tech University Start date: September 2008
    Dr. Dentcho Genov will join the LONI Institute on September of 2008. He obtained his Ph.D. from Purdue University in Electrical and Computer Engineering. Dr. Genov's background spans different areas of research in Physics and Engineering. His major interests are in electromagnetic theory and its applications in a wide variety of systems, including nanoscale complex media, novel type of metamaterials, nano-, and mesoscopic particles and their optical properties, plasmonics and nanophotonics, nonlinear optical effects, and applications. He has extensive experience in modeling actual devices ranging from nano-sized optical elements, to large-scale plasma focus discharge machinery.
    	Jarrell, Dr. Mark Center for Computation & Technology Louisiana State University Start date: January 2009 www.physics.uc.edu/~jarrell
    Dr. Mark Jarrell will join the LONI Institute on January 2009. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of California at Santa Barbara in Physics. Dr. Jarrell's main area of interest lies in the physics of strongly correlated electronic materials, which include many nanostructures, high Tc superconductors, and heavy Fermion and magnetic materials.
    	Khismatullin, Dr. Damir Biomedical Engineering Department Tulane Univesity Start Date: August 2008 damir AT tulane.edu www.duke.edu/~damir
    Dr. Damir Khismatullin will join the LONI Institute on August 2008. He obtained his Ph.D. from Bashkir State University in Physics and Mathematics. Dr. Khismatullin's research is connected to computational fluid mechanics and cell-tissue engineering, and his interests include computational and theoretical studies of receptor-mediated leukocyte adhesion to endothelium. More generally, he has expertise in cellular biomechanics, biophysics, bio-fluid mechanics, medical ultrasound, multiphase and non-Newtonian flow.
    	Mobley, Dr. David Chemistry Department University of New Orleans Start Date: July 2008 www.dillgroup.ucsf.edu/~dmobley
    Dr. David Mobley joins the LONI Institute this July of 2008. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of California at Davis in Physics. Dr. Mobley's research interests are in the areas of computational drug design and lead optimization, and modeling of biomolecular interactions and solvation. He is developing and applying new techniques to accurately predict the strength of biomolecular interactions, especially in the context of pharmaceutical drug discovery. He is also interested in molecular simulations generally, and in force fields and solvation models for these simulations.
    	Taylor, Dr. Christopher Department of Computer Science University of New Orleans Start Date: August 2008 taylor AT cs.uno.edu www.cs.uno.edu/~taylor
    Dr. Christopher Taylor joins the LONI Institute this August of 2008. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in Computer Science in the area of Computational Biology. Dr. Taylor's primary research involves designing algorithms to analyze genomic data where he focuses on DNA replication, new sequencing technologies, and developmental cancer. He collaborates directly with molecular biologists to investigate biological phenomena using genomic tools such as DNA microarrays and high-throughput sequencing systems.

• LI Computational Scientists

  • 	Fujioka, Dr. Hideki Center for Computational Science Tulane University Phone: +1 504 862 8380 Fax: +1 504 862 8392 fuji AT tulane.edu
    Dr. Hideky Fujioka obtained his Ph.D. from Keio University in Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Fujioka's research interests are computationally efficient simulations of fluids in channels in a variety of settings including surfactants, pulsatile blood flows, mass transport, and gas transport. Dr. Fujioka has substantial experience developing complex codes (e.g. CFD) in serial and parallel platforms using MPI as well as developing tools to analyze data such as CT-images. At the CCS, his primary focus will be to improve the overall efficiency of the work done on all projects by increasing computational speed, parallelizing codes that are currently serial, working with postdoctoral and senior researchers on improved programming and post-processing practices.
    	Gottumukkala, Dr. Raju N. Center for Business and Technology (CBIT)/National Incident Management Systems and Advanced Technologies (NIMSAT). University of Louisiana at Lafayette +1 337 482 0632 Fax: +1 337 482 0621 raju AT louisiana.edu
    Dr. Gottumukkala obtained his Ph.D. from Louisiana Tech in Computational Analysis and Modeling. Dr. Gottumukkala research interests include providing on-demand access to cyberinfrastructure for disaster management, parallel algorithms, reliability modeling of distributed systems, and workflow modeling and analysis of distributed systems. He is currently working on HPC related projects for disaster management with the National Incident Management Systems and Advanced Technologies (NIMSAT).
    	Khaliq, Mr. Abdul Interim Computational Scientist Summer 2008 - Summer 2009 Louisiana Tech University +1 318 257 4483 Fax: +1 318 257 5104 khaliq AT latech.edu www2.latech.edu/~khaliq
    Mr. Khaliq obtained his MS in Engineering with concentration in Electrical Engineering at Louisiana Tech University. He specializes on TCAD/polymer TCAD, micro-electronic process/device design and simulation, design and simulation of microfluidic Devices, MEMS/MEMS CAD and semiconductor device fabrication and characterization.
    	Yang, Dr. Shizhong Computer Science Department and College of Engineering Southern University Phone: +1 225 771 2060 Ext. 26 Fax: +1 225 771 4223 yangsz AT cmps.subr.edu www.engr.subr.edu/coe/LONI%20Institute/yang/yang.htm
    Dr. Shizhong Yang obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in Computational Physics, with a co-discipline in Electrical Engineering. Dr. Yang's research interests are high performance computation algorithms, software design, ab initio plane wave and full potential material simulation: doped C60 and CNT, ab initio MD code design and simulation on nano-materials: Au, Co, Fe and Ni, computational surface physics: physisorption and chemisorption, GW and quantum Monte-Carlo method and application in material simulation, STM, SEM, AFM, XPS, ESR, DLTS material testing. Dr. Yang is currently working on two projects: (1) LaSPACE sponsored ZrO2 thermobarrier coating (CoPI with Dr. Shengmin Guo at LSU June, 2008-May, 2009); (2) Collaborate with Dr. Shuju Bai and Dr. K. Gus Kousoulas in LBRN sponsored 2nd order gK and UL20 protein structure prediction (2008-2009).
    	Zhao, Dr. Zhiyu College of Sciences University of New Orleans +1 504 280 7076 sylvia AT cs.uno.edu www.cs.uno.edu/~sylvia/
    Dr. Zhiyu Zhao's graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of New Orleans in Engineering and Applied Science. Her research field is Bioinformatics and her current research topics include protein 3-D structure alignment, protein structure searching from the Protein Data Bank, haplotype reconstruction from SNP matrices with incomplete and inconsistent errors, and genome comparison based on non-breaking similarity.

• LI Graduate Fellows

  • 2008

    • 	Dewar, Mr. Jeremy Mathematics Department Tulane University Advisor: Dr. Alexander Kurganov jdewar AT math.tulane.edu
      Mr. Jeremy Dewar's research interest is on numerical solutions to conservative hyperbolic equations. The central-upwind scheme has been successfully applied to compressible and incompressible Euler and Navier-Stokes equations, including multi-fluid and multi-phase models, Hamilton-Jacobi equations, convection diffusion equations, shallow water equations including models with non-flat, discontinuous and even moving bottom topographies, stiff detonation waves, polymer systems that describe polymer flooding processing in enhanced oil recovery, and chemotaxis and haptotaxis models. For time-dependent PDEs, adaption indicators that measure the smoothness of the computed solution have been recently developed. In addition to measuring smoothness, its quality is also measured so that no expensive adaption is applied in non-smooth, yet well-resolved areas. Bringing these techniques to a high performance parallel environment is a must for practical use of numerical methods for solutions of PDEs in dimensions higher than 1-D. The numerical method he is working on is very powerful as it can be used as a near black-box solver for hyperbolic systems of equations. He is currently writing generalized 2-D Fortran90 code using OMP on his mac Mini that could be extended to a massively parallelized environment such as LONI.
      	Eren, Mr. A. Murat Computer Science Department University of New Orleans Advisor: Dr. Stephen Winters-Hilt a.murat.eren AT gmail.com
      Mr. Murat Eren's current research project in Dr. Winters-Hilt's Lab focuses on pattern recognition informed feedback server which is designed to increase the efficiency of nanopore experiments. The server relies on HMM for feature extraction and SVM for classification of every blockade signal and then gives an accurate, real-time feedback to the client about the molecule in the nanopore.
      	Jack, Mr. John Institute for Micromanufacturing Louisiana Tech University Advisor: Dr. Andrei Paun johnjack AT latech.edu
      Mr. John Jack's primary research interest is in Computational Biology (or Systems Biology). He has worked with his advisor to develop nondeterministic discrete methods for simulating molecular signaling cascades. Specifically, we have focused on modeling the Fas-induced apoptotic pathway. Apoptosis, or programmed cell death, is a form of cellular suicide. It is a normal way for the organism to remove unhealthy or unwanted cells. Fas-induced apoptosis has been shown to play a role in various cancers and autoimmune disorders -- such as HIV/AIDS. Exact stochastic methods for biochemical modeling -- e.g., Gillespie or Gibson-Bruck algorithms -- become computationally intensive as the number of reactions and proteins being modeled increases. I plan to use the computational power of LONI to develop/investigate new techniques for modeling biochemical pathways, such as Fas-mediated apoptosis, in a discrete, stochastic and parallel manner
      	Lao, Mr. Jijun Mechanical Engineering Louisiana State University Advisor: Dr. Dorel Moldovan jlao1 AT lsu.edu
      Mr. Jijun Lao's area of research focuses on the simulation of nanostructures and polycrystalline materials. The main emphasis of his current research is on large-scale, massively parallel atomistic simulations of nanocrystalline metals aimed at elucidating the fundamental effects of materials microstructure (i.e., grain size and grain size distribution, nature of grain boundaries, etc.) on their mechanical properties and structural stability. Over the last two years he has been using extensively parallel computers at LSU, LONI Institute and in Dr. Moldovan's research lab. During the last two years he has been studying the novel structural instability and shape memory effect in metallic nanowires using molecular dynamics simulations on the massively parallel computers of LONI Institute. His immediate goals are to continue to utilize the high performance computing resources from LONI Institute and to expand my research expertise in the area of modeling and simulation of nanostructured materials.
      	Southern University at Baton Rouge In progress.
      	University of Louisiana at Lafayette In progress

  • 2007

    • 	Chen, Mr. Jin-Feng Computer Science Department University of Louisiana at Lafayette Advisor: Dr. Xiaoduan Sun
      The objective of Mr. Jin-Feng Chen's proposed work was to develop a methodology of constructing 3D models that can be used as engineering analysis tools for highway infrastructure systems. His plan was to analyze the image and video data collected from a driver's perspective and to extract information pertinent to the roadway, including the road surface, the shoulder areas, guardrails, traffic control devices, and all roadside elements. The information will be integrated into a 3D environment that will give engineers new tools to examine and identify highway features such as the degree of curvature, superelevation, sight distance, and pavement edge lines. This tool will enable highway engineers to design and evaluate highway infrastructures from new perspectives, which are not feasible with the currently available technologies. The specific technical objectives for the first year were to identify the road lanes and the shoulder area from the video data, to map the identified image features into a 3D model, and to render the 3D road model as a virtual reality playback on a workstation, such as through a Web browser plug-in.
      	Dathara, Mr. Phani Institute for Micromanufacturing Louisiana Tech University Advisor: Dr. Daniela Mainardi gkd003 AT latech.edu
      In his dissertation research, Mr. Phani Dathara investigates complex metal hydrides as potential materials for solid state hydrogen storage, he employs computational chemistry tools to model and analyze the nanomaterials which require high performance computing facilities. Continuing research in this area resulted in one invited paper accepted for publication in a peer reviewed journal, one paper in conference proceedings, two oral presentations at the AIChE national conference annual meetings and an oral presentation at AIChE spring national meeting.
      	DeTiege, Mr. Frank Mechanical Engineering Department Southern University Advisers: Dr. Samuel Ibekwe and Dr. Dwayne Jerro
      Mr. Frank DeTiege's research encompasses the study of enhancing heat transfer in pressurized water reactors. The goal of this research is to determine if heat transfer can be enhanced by modifying plain surfaces with extended surfaces. Fluent, CFD, software will be used to simulate the heat transfer from the extended surfaces' models.
      	Lao, Mr. Jijun Mechanical Engineering Louisiana State University Advisor: Dr. Dorel Moldovan jlao1 AT lsu.edu
      During the last year, Mr. Jijun Lao studied the novel structural instability and shape memory effect in metallic nanowires using molecular dynamics simulations on the massively parallel computers of LONI Institute. In this study, he investigated the fundamentals of surface stress-induced phase transformation and pseudoelastic deformation processes in palladium nanowires using molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. The results of his research were presented in the proceeding of TMS 2008 Annual Meeting and recently were submitted to the journal of Applied Physics Letters (currently under review). His immediate goals are to continue to utilize the high performance computing resources from LONI Institute and to expand his research expertise in the area of modeling and simulation of nanostructured materials.
      	Pham, Mr. Huy Advanced Materials Research Institute University of New Orleans Advisor: Dr. Leonard Spinu hnpham3 AT uno.edu fs.uno.edu/lspinu/personnel/Huy_PHAM/Huy_Pham.html
      Mr. Huy Pham's research interests mainly concern theoretical work in the domain of simulation of magnetization dynamics in nanostructured materials. The dynamic switching behavior of magnetization was investigated based on the Landau-Lifschitz-Gilbert equation and Stoner-Wohlfarth model. The main goal of the study was to reduce the switching time of magnetization as well as to increase the recording density of the magnetoresistive random access memories (MRAM) and other data storage devices. Current interest is investigating the influence of spin transfer torque on switching behavior of magnetization.
      	Zhou, Ms. Xiaolan Physics Department Tulane University Advisor: Dr. John P. Perdew xzhou1 AT tulane.edu
      Ms. Xiaolan Zhou's research is on computing the formation of energy of an atomic vacancy in metals (aluminum) and semiconductors (silicon) using standard density functional approximations as well as new density functional developed by their group. The goal is to improve results using the new approximations compared with experimental values and shed new light on properties of materials. The computations using DFT often need to include a large number of atoms and are extremely intensive. For this, the LONI systems have been indispensable. One of the difficulties is that experimental values contain errors and their exact accuracy is unknown. The energies computed by the new approach include surface energy and curvature energy. This research project is on-going. Ms. Xiaolan Zhou gave a presentation on this work at the March meeting of the American Physical Society in New Orleans in 2008. She also presented posters with preliminary results at the Tulane University Research Day in April of 2008 and the Engineering Forum at Tulane in May of 2008.

• Faculty from Partner Sites

  • Louisiana State University

    • 	Seidel, Dr. Edward Principal Investigator Director, LSU Center for Computation & Technology Floating Point Systems Professor of Physics and Computer Science +1 225 578 7877 eseidel AT cct.lsu.edu director.cct.lsu.edu
      Dr. Edward Seidel is the Director of the Center for Computation & Technology at Louisiana State University and the Floating Point Systems Professor in LSU's Departments of Physics and Astronomy, and Computer Science. He earned his Ph.D. from Yale University in relativistic astrophysics. Seidel's research interests are in the field of numerical relativity including modeling astrophysics black holes and neutron stars, perturbation theory and boson stars. Seidel has also been an innovator in the fields of grid computing and high performance computing, and in 2006 was awarded the IEEE Sidney Fernbach Prize. Seidel is the Chief Scientist for LONI, and the PI for the LONI Institute. Dr. Seidel co-leads the CyberTools research and development area of the RII.
      	Keel, Dr. Brooks Administrative Co-Principal Investigator Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development +1 225 578 6910 bkeel AT lsu.edu www.biology.lsu.edu/faculty_listings/fac_pages/bkeel.html
      Dr. Brooks Keel's primary clinical research interests are centered on understanding the changes that occur in the semen parameters in men as a function of time and season, and the within and between subject variation in these semen parameters. Understanding these basic aspects of semen profiles in men will significantly assist physicians in accurately diagnosing infertility and in planning treatment modalities in infertile men. He is also interested in defining proper quality control procedures for andrology laboratories to ensure more accurate semen analyses.
      	Acharya, Dr. Sumanta Scientific Investigator CCT/ Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering +1 225 578 5809 acharya AT me.lsu.edu me.lsu.edu/~acharya
      Dr. Sumanta Acharya is an L.R. Daniel Professor in LSU's Mechanical Engineering Department. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota. His research interests include computational and experimental heat transfer, fluid mechanics and combustion.
      	Allen, Dr. Gabrielle Scientific Investigator CCT Assistant Director for Computing Applications/Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science +1 225 578 6955 gallen AT cct.lsu.edu www.cct.lsu.edu/~gallen//a>
      Dr. Gabrielle Allen is an Associate Professor in Computer Science at LSU, and focus area head of the core computational science focus area at CCT. She received her Ph.D. in Computational Astrophysics from Cardiff University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics and led its efforts in computational science for a number of years before joining CCT.
      	Iyengar, Dr. Sitharama Computer Science Scientific Investigator Chair and Roy Daniels Professor, Department of Computer Science +1 225 578 1495 siyengar AT cct.lsu.edu csc.lsu.edu/~iyengar
      Dr. S.S. Iyengar is currently the Roy Paul Daniels Professor and Chairman of the Computer Science Department at Louisiana State University. He heads the Wireless Sensor Networks Laboratory and the Robotics Research Laboratory at LSU. He has been involved with research in high-performance algorithms, data structures, sensor fusion, data mining, and intelligent systems since receiving his Ph.D. degree in 1974 from MSU, USA..
      	Jha, Dr. Shantenu Scientific Investigator CCT Senior Research Scientist Assistant Research Professor, Department of Computer Science +1 225 578 8772 sjha AT cct.lsu.edu www.cct.lsu.edu/~sjha
      Dr. Jha is an Assistant Research Professor (CS) at LSU, and a Senior Research Scientist at CCT. Jha's research interests are in Computational Science and High-Performance and Distributed Computing.
      	Karki, Dr. Bijaya Scientific Investigator Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science +1 225 578 3197 karki AT bit.csc.lsu.edu csc.lsu.edu/~karki
      Dr. Karki is an Assistant Professor in LSU's Computer Science Department. He received his doctorate from the University of Edinburgh, UK. Before joining the Department of Computer Science at LSU in 2003, he worked as a research scholar at the University of Minnesota (Supercomputing Institute for Digital Simulation and Advanced Computation), and also at LSU (Biological Computation and Visualization Center).
      	Katz, Dr. Daniel S. Cyberinfrastructure Development Scientific Investigator Director for Cyberinfrastructure Development, CCT Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computing Engineering +1 225 578 2750 dsk AT cct.lsu.edu www.cct.lsu.edu/~dsk
      Dr. Daniel S. Katz is the Director for Cyberinfrastructure Development (CyD) at CCT, and an Adjunct Associate Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at LSU. He received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University, then spent 3 years as a computational scientist for Cray Research. He came to LSU after 9 1/2 years at JPL. His research focuses on large-scale applications.
      	Kosar, Dr. Tevfik Co-Principal Investigator CCT/ Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science +1 225 578 8983 kosar AT cct.lsu.edu www.cct.lsu.edu/~kosar
      Dr. Tevfik Kosar is an Assistant Professor in computer science at LSU. He received his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research interests include distributed systems, grid and collaborative computing; data intensive distributed computing; resource allocation and management; fault tolerance; coordination of computation and I/O in distributed systems.
      	McMahon, Dr. Charlie Scientific Investigator LONI Executive Director +1 225 578 4956 cmcmaho AT lsu.edu
      Description Here.
      	Soper, Dr. Steven Materials Co-Principal Investigator CCT/ William L. & Patricia Senn, Jr., Professor, Department of Chemistry Director, Center for BioModular Multi-Scale Systems Louisiana State University +1 225 578 1527 chsope AT lsu.edu chemistry.lsu.edu/chem/facultypages/Faculty.php?chemID=90
      Dr. Steven Soper is a William L. and Patricia Senn, Jr. Professor at Louisiana State University. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Kansas in 1989, and pursued a postdoc at Los Alamos National Lab. His work is focused on developing new tools for analyzing biological macromolecules, including DNA and proteins. Specifically, he is interested in fabricating miniaturized systems for mutation analysis (diagnostics), isolating cells from mixed populations, developing systems for high throughput protein analyses and evolving new technologies for DNA sequencing as part of the Human Genome Initiative.
      	Sterling, Dr. Thomas Scientific Investigator CCT Chief Scientist/Arnaud & Edwards Professor of Computer Science, Department of Computer Science +1 225 578 8982 tron AT cct.lsu.edu www.cct.lsu.edu/~tron
      Dr. Sterling's research objectives have been to devise 1) execution models that expose myriad forms of parallelism, 2) architecture structures that minimize these sources of performance degradation, 3) dynamic adaptive resource and task management mechanisms that further mitigate or hide the effects of such factors, and 4) software strategies that supervise application to system interfaces. To this end, he has engaged in research of a diversity of physical and abstract structures, often of his own devising. In addition, he am interested in the exploitation of highly replicated structures to provide dramatic reliability advances through dynamic graceful degradation.
      	Ullmer, Dr. Brygg Scientific Investigator CCT/ Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science +1 225 578 0813 ullmer AT cct.lsu.edu csc.lsu.edu/~ullmer
      Dr. Brygg Ullmer is an Assistant Professor, jointly at CCT and at the Computer Science Department at LSU. He received his Ph.D. in Media Arts and Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT Media Laboratory). He leads visualization and human-computer interaction efforts at CCT, including the Tangible Visualization group (jointly in CCT and CS).

  • Louisiana Tech University

    • 	Guice, Dr. Les Administrative Co-Principal Investigator Vice President for Research and Development/Professor Chairman LONI Management Council +1 318 257 3056 Fax: +1 318 257 3142 guice AT latech.edu www2.latech.edu/~guice
      Description Here.
      	Dua, Dr. Sumeet IT/ Biology Scientific Investigator Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science/Upchurch Endowed Professor +1 318 257 2830 sdua AT coes.latech.edu www2.latech.edu/~sdua
      Dr. Sumeet Dua is an Upchurch Endowed Associate Professor of Computer Science in the College of Engineering and Science at Louisiana Tech University (LATech). He is also an Adjunct Professor of Research in the School of Medicine, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans. He is the Coordinator of Information Technology Research in the College of Engineering and Science since September 2005. He is also the Director of Data Mining Research Laboratory (DMRL) at LATech.
      	Greenwood, Dr. Zeno Physics/IT Scientific Investigator Associate Professor, Physics/Center for Applied Physics +1 318 257 2302 greenw AT phys.latech.edu www.phys.latech.edu/~greenw
      Zeno D. (Dick) Greenwood is the W. W. Chew professor of physics. For several years, Dr. Greenwood has been involved in applications of grid computing for high energy physics experiments at Fermilab (DZERO) and at CERN (ATLAS). He is a founding member and convener of the DOSAR grid organization and a member of the Opens Science Grid (OSG) Council. He currently directs Monte Carlo and physics analysis production for DZERO and ATLAS on the LONI sites.
      	Leangsuksun "Box", Dr. Chokchai IT Co-Principal Investigator Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science Center for Entrepreneurship and Information Technology +1 318 257 4922 Fax: +1 318 257 4922 box AT latech.edu www2.latech.edu/~box
      Dr. Box is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at LATech. He received the Ph.D. and M.S. in computer science from Kent State University, Kent, Ohio in 1989 and 1995 respectively. His research interests include highly reliable and high performance computing, intelligent component based software engineering, parallel & distributed computing, service-oriented architecture, service engineering and management.
      	Mainardi, Dr. Daniela Biology/Materials Scientific Investigator Assistant Professor, Chemical Engineering +1 318 257 5126 Fax: +1 318 257 5104 mainardi AT latech.edu www2.latech.edu/~mainardi
      Dr. Mainardi's research interests are biocompatibility, focusing on the interaction of water and polymers with hydrophilic characteristics, towards coating improvement for medical implants using Molecular Mechanics and Dynamics simulations; study and development of Biosensors for environmental and biomedical high-priority applications using Density Functional Theory, Molecular Dynamics, and Molecular Mechanics simulations; research on new power sources, such as bio-fuel cells, focusing on the problems of enzyme immobilization and efficiency enhancement using mainly Molecular Mechanics and Dynamics simulations; study of small cluster properties of the components found in living organisms using Density Functional Theory.
      	Paun, Dr. Andrei IT/ Biology Scientific Investigator Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Institute for Micromanufacturing +1 318 257 5135 Fax: +1 318 257 5104 apaun AT latech.edu www2.latech.edu/~apaun
      Dr. Paun's research interests lie in the area of bioinformatics, in particular, in the theoretical study of membrane computing and DNA computing. As a secondary research interest, it is worth mentioning his work in the area of Deterministic Cover Automata leading to several algorithms for DFCA. He is now working towards \"merging\" these research interests together: using his expertise in bioinformatics and applying his algorithms and ideas from the area of finite automata to solve problems in bioinformatics.
      	Ramachandran, Dr. Bala "Ramu" Materials Co-Principal Investigator Associate Dean for Research, College of Engineering and Science, Hazel Stewart Garner Professor fo Chemistry +1 318 257 4314 Fax: +1 318 257 4339 ramu AT latech.edu www2.latech.edu/~ramu
      Dr. Ramachandran's research interests are in the general area of computational chemistry. In the past decade, his work has dealt with structure, energetics, and reactivity of organolithium compounds and gas phase reaction dynamics including the development of potential energy surfaces. He also has an active interest in exploring the role of correlation energy in DFT and wavefunction-based ab initio methods. Most of this work tends to be intensely computational in nature, and requires the use of high-performance computing platforms. Projects currently in progress include the study of the reaction mechanisms of organolithium and organomercury compounds in gas phase as well as condensed phases, the calculation of electrostatic surface potentials of aromatic thiols adsorbed on gold surfaces, and the development of computationally efficient methods for the propagation of quantum wavepackets.
      	Simicevic, Dr. Neven Biology Co-Principal Investigator Associate Professor of Physics, Director of the Center of Applied Physics Studies +1 318 257 3591 Fax: +1 318 257 4228 neven AT phys.latech.edu www.phys.latech.edu/~neven
      Dr. Simicevic's research areas and interests are experimental physics; researching, designing and prototyping instruments and developing new methods for experimental physics; discovering and understanding of new physical phenomena.

  • Southern University at Baton Rouge

    • 	Stubblefield, Dr. Michael Administrative Co-Principal Investigator Vice Chancellor Office of Research and Strategic Initiatives +1 225 771 3890 Fax: +1 318 257 5231 michael_stubblefield AT subr.edu www.engr.subr.edu/me/facultyPages/stubblefield/index.htm
      Professor Stubblefield's primary interests include fire and thermal material characterization of composite materials, as well as innovative joining and manufacturing techniques of composite materials. His other interests include undergraduate and pre-college outreach programs.
      	Jerro, Dr. Dwayne Materials Scientific Investigator Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering +1 225 771 4701 Fax: +1 318 257 4877 jerro AT engr.subr.edu www.engr.subr.edu/me/facultyPages/jerro/index.htm
      Dr. Jerro's research background is in the area of composite materials and the mechanics of materials. He has worked in the integration of design, manufacture, and affordability of marine composite structures utilizing knowledgebased software. Currently, his research also includes the development of the next generation of composite pipe that incorporates smart (i.e., sensing) capabilities. He is also actively involved in the improvement of engineering education focusing on the enhancing delivery of sophomore and junior level courses through the implementation of concept mapping and technology. He teaches MeEn 225 (Dynamics), MEEN 456 (Controls), and other mechanics and design related courses.
      	Khosravi, Dr. Ebrahim Computer Science Co-Principal Investigator Chair, Computer Science Department +1 225 771 2060 ext. 15 Fax: +1 318 771 4223 khosravi AT cmps.subr.edu www.cmps.subr.edu/capabilities.htm
      Professor Khosravi has many years experience with parallel computing, computer networks, electronics, nuclear and particle physics instrumentation. His primary research interests are data networks, electronics, theoretical computer science, as well as machine learning. His other interest are robotics and outreach program.
      	Mohamadian, Dr. Habib Materials Co-Principal Investigator Dean, College of Engineering +1 225 771 5296 Fax: +1 318 257 5721 mohamad AT engr.subr.edu www.engr.subr.edu/me/facultyPages/mohamadian/index.htm
      Dr. Mohamadian's areas of interest are experimental solid mechanics, thermal stresses; mechanics of composite materials: material properties, failure criteria, and strength analysis; solid modeling & finite element analysis; assessment of engineering education outcomes.
      	Muganda, Dr. Perpetua Biology Scientific Investigator Associate Professor, Biological Sciences +1 225 771 3606 Fax: +1 318 257 3622 perpetua_muganda AT cxs.subr.edu www.subr.edu/entox/Muganda.htm
      Dr. Muganda's current research interests involve the investigation of the biochemistry and molecular biology of viral-cellular interactions that lead to the understanding of human cytomegalovirus pathogenesis and oncogenesis. Current studies focus on the role of p53 in human cytomegalovirus infection and oncogenic transformation processes, as well as on the toxic effects of combined human cytomegalovirus and environmental chemicals exposure in human health.

  • Tulane University

    • 	McPherson, Dr. Gary Administrative Co-Principal Investigator Senior Associate Dean of Science and Engineering Professor, Department of Chemistry +1 504 862 3570 garym AT tulane.edu chem.tulane.edu/fac_mcpherson.html
      Dr. McPherson's current research activities fall into two areas. The first involves the spectroscopic characterization of self-organizing systems such as reversed micelles and organogels as well as the utilization of these systems for the synthesis of nanoparticles, polymers and novel composite materials. Spectroscopic techniques include IR, NMR, EPR, and fluorescence under steady state and time resolved conditions. The second area of interest involves the environment fate and transport of heavy metals, Pb in particular. The goal of this research is a basic understanding of chemical principals that control the absorption and release of heavy metals in a contaminated environment. Analytical methods include AA, ICP, X-ray fluorescence, and ICP mass spectrometry.
      	Bishop, Dr. Thomas Scientific Investigator Research Associate Professor, Center for Computational Sciences Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry +1 504 862 3370 bishop AT tulane.edu dna.ccs.tulane.edu
      Dr. Tom Bishop is a Computational Molecular Biologist. His primary research interests are the structure and dynamics of DNA and chromatin and how they relate to genetic function and disfunction (e.g. transcription, regulation, replication and repair). He studies molecular events in the hormone response mechanism as a model system for this research. He has developed a multiscale model of chromatin that bridges between atomic and continuum scales.
      	Cortez, Dr. Ricardo IT Co-Principal Investigator Associate Professor, Mathematics Department Director of the Center for Computational Science +1 504 862 3436 Fax: +1 504 865 5063 rcortez AT tulane.edu math.tulane.edu/~cortez
      Dr. Ricardo Cortez is the Director of the Center of Computational science at Tulane University and the Pendergraft William Larkin Duren Professor in Tulane's Mathematics Department. He earned his Ph.D. in applied mathematics at the University of California, Berkley. Cortez's research interests include computational fluid dynamics, numerical methods and scientific computing, and biological fluid flow applications.
      	Fauci, Dr. Lisa Materials Co-Principal Investigator Professor, Mathematics Department Associate Director of the Center for Computational Science Tulane University +1 504 862 3431 Fax: +1 504 865 5063 fauci AT tulane.edu math.tulane.edu/~ljf/
      Dr. Lisa Fauci is an Associate Director of the Center of Computational science at Tulane University and a professor in Tulane's Mathematics Department. She earned her Ph.D. at New York University in mathematics. Fauci's research interests include scientific computing, mathematical biology, and computational fluid dynamics.
      	Gaver, Dr. Donald Biology Co-Principal Investigator Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering +1 504 865 5150 dpg AT tulane.edu www.bmen.tulane.edu/~dpg
      Dr. Donald Gaver is an Associate Director of the Center of Computational science at Tulane University and the Alden J. 'Doc' Laborde Professor and Department Chair of Biomedical Engineering at Tulane University. He earned his Ph.D. at Northwestern University in theoretical and applied mechanics. Gaver's research interests include biofluid mechanics, pulmonary mechanics, interfacial flows, and cell mechanics.
      	Perdew, Dr. John Scientific Investigator Professor, Department of Physics +1 504 862 3180 perdew AT tulane.edu www.physics.tulane.edu/Faculty/PerdewInfo.shtml
      Dr. Perdew's research is primarily directed toward understanding the density functional and improving the approximations to it. The density functional theory of Kohn and Sham 1965 has emerged as the most widely-used method of electronic structure calculation in both quantum chemistry and condensed matter physics. In this theory, one solves an exact-in-principle problem of noninteracting electrons in a selfconsistent effective potential. In practice, only the exchange-correlation energy has to be a approximated.

  • University of Louisiana at Lafayette

    • 	Kolluru, Dr. Ramesh Administrative/IT Co-Principal Investigator Executive Director, National Incident Management Systems & Advanced Technologies (NIMSAT) Institute Director, Center for Business and Information Technologies (CBIT) AAMA/BORSF Professorship in Manufacturing +1 337 482 0611 Fax: +1 337 482 0621 kolluru AT louisiana.edu apfd.louisiana.edu/endowed/Kolluru-Ramesh.shtml
      Dr. Kolluru's
      	Bayoumi, Dr. Magdy IT Scientific Investigator Director, The Center for Advanced Computer Studies Chairman and Hardy Edmiston Professor, Computer Science Department +1 337 482 6147 Fax: +1 337 482 5791 mab AT cacs.louisiana.edu www.cacs.louisiana.edu/cas/Bio/bayoumi.htm
      Dr. Magdy A. Bayoumi research interests include VLSI design methods and architectures, low-power circuits and systems, digital signal processing architectures, parallel algorithm design, computer arithmetic, image and video signal processing, neural networks and wideband network architectures.
      	Cruz-Neira, Dr. Carolina Scientific Investigator Executive Director and Chief Scientist, Louisiana Immersive Technologies Enterprise (LITE) Professor, Computer Science Department +1 337 735 1352 research AT lite3d.com www.lite3d.com
      Dr. Carolina Cruz-Neira is the Executive Director and Chief Scientist of the Louisiana Immersive Technologies Enterprise (LITE). She is also a William Hansen Hall Endowed Chair in Computer Engineering at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Dr. Cruz-Neira's work in virtual reality started with her Ph.D. dissertation, the design of the CAVE Virtual Reality Environment, the CAVE Library software specifications and implementation, and preliminary research on CAVE Supercomputing integration.
      	Misra, Dr. Devesh Materials Co-Principal Investigator Director, Center for Structural and Functional Materials Professor ans Stuller Chair, Department of Chemical Engineering +1 337 482 6430 Fax: +1 337 482 1220 dmisra AT louisiana.edu chemical.louisiana.edu/facultyandstaff/misra.shtml
      Dr. Misra's research areas include deformation and fracture of engineering materials, nanostructured materials (nanocrystalline ferrites and polymer nanocomposites), high strength structural steels, application of atomic force microscopy and electron microscopy techniques to materials science. His current research is on micro- and nanoscale deformation of micro- and nanoparticle reinforced polymer nanocomposites; superparamagnetic behavior and biocompatibility of nanocrystalline ferrites and magnetic polymer nanocomposites; formability of high strength structural steels; and dynamic embrittlement of structural alloys
      	Neigel, Dr. Joe Biology Co-Principal Investigator Professor, Department of Biology +1 337 482 5661 jneigel AT louisiana.edu biology.louisiana.edu/neigel.html
      Dr. Neigel is interested in how genetic variation is shaped by natural processes on both microevolutionary and macroevolutionary scales. He uses a combination of field, laboratory, and theoretical approaches. Although much of his research is focused on basic questions, he is also interested in applications to conservation biology and biotechnology.

  • University of New Orleans

    • 	Whittenburg, Dr. Scott Administrative and Materials Co-Principal Investigator Research Professor, Physical, Theoretical Chemistry and Micromagnetics +1 504 280 6723 swhitten AT uno.edu www.chem.uno.edu/ChemistryDepartmentfolder/Whittenburg.html
      Professor Whittenburg's research involves application of modern computing methods such as distributed and parallel computing to problems of interest to chemists. Some of these areas include probabilistic methods, such as Bayesian analysis, ab initio calculations, molecular dynamics and micromagnetic simulations.
      	Roussev, Dr. Vassil IT Co-Principal Investigator Assistant Professor, Computer Science Department +1 504 280 6594 Fax: +1 504 280 7228 vassil AT uno.edu www.cs.uno.edu/~vassil
      Dr. Roussev's research is on distributed systems-- computer supported cooperative work (CSCW), on-the-spot digital forensics, mobile devices. Software engineering-- pattern-based techniques, component and service based models, agile development methods.
      	Winters-Hilt, Dr. Stephen Biology Co-Principal Investigator Assistant Professor, Computer Science Department +1 504 280 6594 winters AT uno.edu www.cs.uno.edu/~winters
      Professor Winters-Hilt's research interests include bioinformatics --- gene structure identification, genomics, expression analysis; cheminformatics --- channel current based molecular analysis methods for classification and kinetic feature extraction; machine learning --- scalable multiclass discrimination, efficient feature extraction; biophysics --- nanopore-based detection and single-molecule measurement and manipulation; and stochastic sequential analysis --- stock market analysis, power signal analysis, physics phenomenology.

  • Louisiana Community and Technical College System

    • 	Speyrer, Mr. Greg IT Scientific Investigator Director, Enterprise Information Systems +1 225 922 2800 Fax: +1 225 922 2576 gspeyrer AT lctcs.edu www.lctcs.edu
      Description here.

• LI Scientific Coordinator

  • 	Rodriguez-Milla, Dr. Bety Center for Computation & Technology Louisiana State University +1 225 578 8990 brodrig AT cct.lsu.edu
    Dr. Bety Rodriguez-Milla is the Scientific Coordinator of the LONI Institute. She earned her Ph.D. from Syracuse University in Physics. Dr. Rodriguez's research interests are in computational physics and condensed matter physics. More specifically, dynamics and statistical mechanics of disordered systems. At the LONI Institute (LI) her primary role is that of the LI Manager.

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"Louisiana has made great investments in IT through its Vision 2020 initiative and through the creation of LONI. Now that we have the resources in place, we need to develop research projects and find the staff who can use the advanced technology in Louisiana to further academics and create more opportunities for business and industry so we can fully capitalize on these investments."
-- CCT Director Ed Seidel, principal investigator for the PKSFI proposal