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EAC FOCUS
Paul R. Woodward
Astronomy Professor, Supercomputer Institute Fellow, and
Laboratory for Computational Science and Engineering Director, University
of Minnesota
For nearly three decades, Paul R. Woodward has used computation to
explore nonlinear phenomena in fluid dynamics in fields as diverse as
astrophysics, meteorology, high-speed aerodynamic flows,
magnetohydrodynamics, plasma physics, laser fusion, and shear flows. His
research has taken him from developing physical models of numerical
algorithms to creating numerical schemes for approximating differential
equations, handling and visualizing the resulting data, and compiling
governing code to quickly and accurately simulate fluid dynamics through
computation.
"Each of these areas of focus has resulted in powerful problem-solving
capabilities," says Woodward. "My work continues to bring me ever closer
to the dream of the numerical laboratory, in which scientific problems
can be posed, numerical algorithms brought to bear, numerical
simulations performed, and the results visualized interactively, all
within a day's work."
Woodward received his B.A. in mathematics and physics in 1967 from
Cornell University and his Ph.D. in physics in 1973 from the University
of California at Berkeley. He worked as a physicist for Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California until 1975 and spent
three years as a research associate at Leiden University Observatory in
The Netherlands before returning to LLNL. In 1985, he joined the faculty
at the University of Minnesota as an astronomy professor. He founded and
became director of the university's Laboratory for Computational Science
and Engineering in 1995.
Woodward's early work concentrated on numerical algorithms, which were
at that time the limiting factor in obtaining accurate results in
numerical experiments. He collaborated on the design of a numerical
scheme for fluid dynamics called the Piecewise-Parabolic Method (PPM), a
code that extracts a high degree of accuracy from cell-averaged data on
a given grid. In the mid-1980s, Woodward took advantage of the new
powerful computers like the Cray-2 at the Minnesota Supercomputer
Institute and began to experiment with scientific visualization. He ran
his PPM code on the Cray-2 and generated movies of fluid dynamic
experiments directly for display on a Gould graphics system. By making
minor enhancements and extensions to the PPM code, he made significant
advances in high-speed flow visualization.
By 1990, Woodward determined that the power of massively parallel
computers was needed to make the important transition from 2-D to 3-D
fluid flow simulations. Since then, he has adapted the PPM code to
parallel machines and is working on program transformation technology
and a parallelizing precompiler for his codes. "The plethora of parallel
machines and the absence of standard programming language extensions
drove me to delve into compiler issues which had never before seemed
necessary," he says. "With the continual advance in technology, it has,
ironically, seemed to me the most rewarding to concentrate my efforts on
increasingly lower level concerns."
A member of the CRPC External Advisory Committee since 1989, Woodward
has many professional affiliations, including the American Astronomical
Society, the New York Academy of Sciences, the Minnesota Supercomputer
Institute Advisory Committee, the LLNL Physics and Space Techology
Advisory Committee, the NCAR Climate Simulation Laboratory Allocation
Panel, IEEE, and SIAM. His honors and awards include the Woodrow Wilson
Fellowship, Whiting Fellowship, Minnesota Supercomputer Institute
Fellow, and the Sidney Fernbach Award in High Performance Computing from
the IEEE Computer Society. He is the author or co-author of more than 30
articles and papers.
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