MT PEAKS Sponsored Talk - Dr. Aaron Luttman (Senior Technical Advisor, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)

02/11/2021  3:10-4:00pm  Zoom Meeting

Abstract:   The US Department of Energy (DOE) maintains 17 national laboratories, which employ hundreds of mathematicians, working on research from modeling of coastal ecosystems, to advanced energy solutions, to nuclear security. We build computational codes for modeling and simulation; we develop algorithms for analyzing scientific data; and we’re beginning to play an essential role in the advance of machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI/ML). In this presentation, we’ll highlight a few mathematical research programs that are currently underway in the DOE complex, including modeling of nuclear fusion devices, design of AI/ML models for characterizing the structure and performance of materials like uranium, and some of the graduate level mathematics that underwrites why some deep neural networks actually work. Each of these topics has important open problems, and we’ll also discuss how to get involved in research and get jobs in our community, as well as some of the details of the national lab ecosystem and work environments.