Minnesota Supercomputer Institute

MSI Researchers Notable Publications, Achievements, Awards, and Honors

This page lists the most recent news involving MSI researchers. Older listings are available in the news archive.

Arlington BioSMART HS Teachers Visit MSI

Teachers from Arlington BioSMART High School in St. Paul visited MSI on September 23. Arlington is a magnet school with a focus in science, math, and technology. Their program, BioSMART (Biology, Science, Math, Academic Rigor, and Technology), introduces students to careers in biotech industries.

The teachers saw a presentation about MSI and the research being done here and toured the LMVL and the machine room. They also gave a presentation to MSI staff members about the school and its programs. MSI staff members are working to establish working relationships with secondary schools in order to reach students and give them an understanding of the kinds of science and technology careers they can prepare for at the University of Minnesota.

Professor Wentzcovitch Awarded Fellowship

Professor Renata Wentzcovitch, Departmen t of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and MSI Fellow, has been awarded "The Invitation Fellowship for Research in Japan." The award is presented by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; Professor Wentzcovitch will be doing research at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Tokyo, Japan from October through December 2008. More information can be found on the CEMS department Web site.

MSI Researcher Awarded Regents Professorship

Professor Steven Ruggles, Minnesota Population Center and a Principal Investigator at MSI, has been elected a University of Minnesota Regents Professor, the University's highest rank. Professor Ruggles specializes in the history of populations, known as historical demography, and he has done considerable research on the American family. He uses MSI core resources to aid in his analyses of population data. More information can be found at the University News site.

New MSI Communications Coordinator

Ms. Cherie Christ joined MSI as Communications Coordinator on September 25. She comes to MSI from Augsburg College, where she has been Director of Electronic Communications. We are very happy to welcome Ms. Christ aboard. She will play a central role in ramping up our communications efforts in conjunction with our new and larger institutional role.

Virtual Reality Demonstration

MSI Principal Investigator Professor Arthur Erdman, Director of the Medical Devices Center, and Dr. H. Birali Runesha, MSI Director of Scientific Computing and Applications, gave a presentation about virtual reality on September 17. The talk was presented to the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA). They reviewed a project for a virtual reality design system to be used for medical devices. More information about the meeting and presentation can be found at the PDMA Web site.

Sticky Nanoparticles

A recent paper by MSI Associate Fellow Professor Traian Dumitrica and his graduate student Mayur Suri has received national attention. The paper publishes the results of computer simulations, performed at MSI, of nanoparticles crashing into a surface at hypersonic speeds. The paper was published in the August issue of Physical Review B (Phys Rev B, 78, 081405).

Above speeds of 3,300 miles per hour, nanoparticles stick to the surface instead of bouncing. The computer simulations helped the researchers explain the sticking phenomenon. Summaries of the paper have appeared in Physical Review Focus ("Nanoparticles Stick a Perfect Landing," M. Schirber, August 27, 2008) and the New York Times ("If Traveling Very Fast, the Very Small Just Stick," K. Chang, September 2, 2008). The PR Focus article also includes information from Professor Dumitrica's collaborator, MSI Fellow Professor Steven Girshick.

MSI to Exhibit at SC08

MSI will have a booth at SC08, the international conference for high-performance computing, networking, storage, and analysis. The conference will be held November 15 - 21, 2008, in Austin, Texas. This is the first year that MSI will be exhibiting at this annual conference. Information about SC08 can be found at their official Web site.

Regents Professor Truhlar receives Herschbach Award

Donald G. Truhlar, Regents Professor in the Department of Chemistry, MSI Fellow, and former MSI Director, has received the 2009 Dudley R. Herschbach Award for Excellence in Research in Collision Dynamics. The award, named after Harvard University Emeritus Professor and Nobel Prize winner Dudley R. Herschbach, is awarded for "bold and architectural works inspiring and empowering in the field of the dynamics of molecular collisions."

National Cancer Institute work by MSI

MSI has created extensions for the National Cancer Institute's caGrid system. caGrid supports caBIG, the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid initiative, which links cancer researchers and their data. caGrid provides researchers at different institutions tools that allow them to share and manage this information. The MSI extensions can be found here and here.

MSI Demos at Minnesota State Fair

On August 28, MSI participated in the Medical Devices Center booth in the University of Minnesota building at the 2008 Minnesota State Fair. Nancy Rowe, a Scientific Visualization Consultant on the MSI User Support staff, showed fair-goers three-dimensional visualizations of human skeletal and circulation systems and a fly-through of a human heart.

The MDC, a state-of-the-art facility for researchers designing, prototyping, and testing new medical devices, uses MSI resources to achieve its mission. The Center's Director, Professor Arthur Erdman (Department of Mechanical Engineering) is a Principal Investigator at MSI.

The University News Service has an item about the Center's Grand Opening and Open House, including a video. The video includes a clip of a simulation of a "fly-through" of a human heart, which was made using a three-dimensional virtual heart model created at MSI's Scientific Development and Visualization Laboratory. With further processing by User Support staff member Nancy Rowe, the fly-through simulation was created using software in the LCSE-MSI Visualization Laboratory (LMVL).

Researchers at the Medical Devices Center use software available at MSI and the virtual-reality environment at the LMVL. MSI also assists these researchers in turning MRI scans into three-dimensional virtual models.

Appointment of MSI Interim Director

On July 14, 2008, Tim Mulcahy, Vice President for Research, announced the appointment of Professor Tom Jones to the position of Interim Director position for MSI. A member of the astronomy department, Tom is familiar with MSI through his use of MSI's services in his research in theoretical and computational astrophysics.

We also thank Andrew Odlyzko for agreeing to temporarily postpone his retirement and serve as Interim Director until this decision was made. His willingness to serve in this capacity has allowed MSI to continue to provide services without interruption, and is greatly appreciated.

Netfinity Retirement

On June 30, 2008, MSI retired the Netfinity Linux cluster that was operational and in use for nearly eight years. During the first half of 2008, User Support has been assisting users to migrate their work off of the Netfinity. All software available on the Netfinity has already been migrated to other systems. The Netfinity is being replaced in the late summer/early fall of 2008 with a new system specifically designated to run loosely coupled parallel or serial jobs.

For more information about the Netfinity Linux cluster, please see the June 2008 Users Bulletin.