char *about;

I am an astronomer who specializes in simulations of radiative transfer is star-forming molecular clouds, and in comparing those simulations with observations. I am interested in both the use of simple semi-analytic methods for investigating complex processes as well as developing clustered computational algorithms which move beyond the traditional message passing abstraction into a more accessible shared-memory abstraction for designing massively parallel heterogeneous clusters.

I also enjoy learning programming languages and messing around with web2.0 technologies.

char *projects;

• The Molecular Virtual Observatory: This project is an ongoing project to create a heterogeneous cluster of computers dedicated to performing radiative transfer simulations of rotovibrational molecular transitions in interstellar molecular clouds.
  
• Infopad: This project was a test to see how well the java swing user interfaces could adapt to be used on the Mac OS X platform as well as linux (windows was tested, but only in a limted sense). I tried to use this project as a repository for simple UI tricks I learned, but eventually I tired of working with user interfaces and especially with trying to figure out how to print. Still, the simplicity of the UI design is something I wish I saw more often.
• LVG Radiative Transfer Package: This project is a radiative transfer simulation of molecular emission using the LVG or Sobolev approximation. It includes data files for several linear molecules as well as hyperfine splitting under the assumption that hyperfine levels are in statistical equilibrium in each cell. The code can also perform line of sight integration on level populations produced by Hogerheijde and van der Tak's radiative transfer code. The code is discussed in detail in my doctoral dissertation.
• Analytic Infall Models: This code, written in C for speed, fits a five parameter model of molecular line emission from an infalling or expanding star-forming cloud to an observed spectral line profile. The program first uses a differential evolution genetic algorithm to differentiate between local and global minima, then uses a simplex algorithm to find the best-fit solution. The model is discussed in my Astrophysical Journal article.
• aoir9: A twitter feed designed for the Association of Internet Researchers 9^th conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. The tweets were rebroadcast from twitter users using the #ir9 tag to this one source all conference attendees and other interested parties could follow.
  

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