Scott supports researchers across Northwestern in using Quest and other computational resources. He uses his background in astrophysics and experience at Northwestern’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Exploration in Astrophysics (CIERA) to now assist and train researchers from all domains on how to effectively use high-performance computing resources. He leads the Computational Support Services Student Consultant Program [link TBD] where he mentors a team of PhD, master’s, and undergraduate students in providing support for Quest users and developing skills to further their professional development.
Scott has developed several series of training videos to support Quest users with on-demand resources for learning bash scripting and using containers. He also leads Quest documentation efforts, expanding materials on using Slurm and Quest’s GPUs, and developing a system to keep documentation on the software available on Quest up to date. He works with researchers to adapt their code and workflows to Quest’s HPC environment, such as developing a workflow for researchers to run AlphaFold on Quest.
At CIERA, Scott improved the reliability of their research software by implementing unit testing and continuous integration, automating the process of building documentation and releasing software on PyPi, Anaconda, and via Docker. He deployed web and database servers to provide researchers with access to shared data. His project portfolio included BRIGHT, GravitySpy, ClusterMonteCarlo, COSMIC, and POSYDON. Scott is a Northwestern alumnus, and his PhD in Gravitational Waves Astrophysics is from Cardiff University. He's always happy to talk about the Minnesota Vikings, the opera, or exploring Chicago.