I originally joined EPCC in July 2008 as a member of the User Support and Liaison Team. My work is centred around helping researchers get the most from computing facilities hosted by EPCC and elsewhere. I do this through porting and optimising code to various HPC facilities; providing consultancy to commercial organisations; teaching undergraduates and postgraduates; and collaborating with academics on research proposals.

I am currently working on the following projects:

• ARCHER - UK National Supercomputing Service: Team Leader for ARCHER Computational Science and Engineering Support
• PRACE - pan-European Supercomputing Initiative: Primarily in the PRACE Operations Group
• DiRAC - STFC National Supercomputing Service: Manage the DiRAC Helpdesk, support on the BG/Q and sit on the Technical Working Group

Background

My honours degree was in chemistry at the University of Wales, Bangor where I carried on to complete an M.Phil. in Monte Carlo simulation under the supervision of Nick Quirke. I obtained my doctorate in astrophysical chemistry in 2002 under David Cooper at the University of Liverpool. From there I headed North to a postdoctoral research position with David Rankin at the University of Edinburgh. In this post I used ab initio quantum chemical calculations to help interpret and understand gas-phase electron diffraction data. In 2004 I took up a position as a Research Fellow in the School of Physics at the University of Strathclyde under Klaas Wynne. I was using classical molecular dynamics simulations to help understand the results of terahertz spectroscopy experiments on polar liquids and solutions. In 2006 I returned to the School of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh as the EaStCHEM Research Computing Officer where my brief was to enable the use of HPC and computational chemistry by experimental researchers.

Outside Interests

In my spare time I particularly enjoy mountain biking, squash and badminton. I also go caving whenever I get the chance and spend a lot of time walking our dog. If there is any time left over I try to grow my own vegetables.