Currently deputy associate director for Science and Technology in the Computation Directorate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), USA, David Brown has been named as the new director for the Computational Research Division (CRD) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA. In his new position, Brown will provide scientific leadership for CRD research and development programs in mathematics, computer science and computational science, and serve as chief spokesperson for CRD in interactions with external agencies, including the US Department of Energy (DOE).
Brown earned his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from the California Institute of Technology in 1982. He also holds a B.S. in Physics and an M.S. in Geophysics from Stanford University, where his father was a professor. Following 14 years as a research staff member and manager at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Brown joined LLNL’s Computation Directorate in 1998. He was the first Computational Mathematics group leader in the Center for Applied Scientific Computing and later became the Deputy Department Head for Science & Technology in the Computing Applications and Research Department. He has been the Computation Directorate LDRD point of contact for six years and LLNL’s principal point of contact for ASCR for the past four years.
Brown's research expertise and interests lie in the development and analysis of algorithms for the solution of partial differential equations (PDEs). In particular, his research has focused on adaptive composite overlapping grid techniques for solving PDEs in complex moving geometries and in the analysis of difference approximations for PDEs. At LLNL, he led the Overture project, which in 2001 was named one of the 100 ‘most important discoveries in the past 25 years’ by the DOE Office of Science. Brown will join Berkeley Lab on 30 August 2011.
