Sarom Leang Email & Phone Number

Washington D.C. Metro Area

Ames, Iowa

System administration/maintenance and multi-disciplinary scientific application support of NSF-funded research computing cluster, CRUNCH.(Department of Chemistry)

Ames, Iowa

My role as assistant scientist at Ames Laboratory extends my research tutelage under Dr. Mark S. Gordon at Iowa State University. My work continues to focus on performance analysis of emerging hardware and technologies and how we can leverage these advances into the GAMESS quantum chemistry package as it move towards exascale computing. I am currently exploring the use of open-source deep-learning frameworks such as TensorFlow to predict molecular properties.I have taken on the responsibilities of development lead for GAMESS which consist of the following roles and responsibilities:►Assist developers with understanding coding policies and practices.►Coordinate development efforts among graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and scientists to minimize potential code conflicts.►Improve code usability, maintenance, and quality assurance.►Coordinate public release deployment with project deadlines and milestone deliverables.►Manage code review of new features and address code issues are they arise.►Serve as a liaison between developers and principle stakeholders.Software Development/Engineering/Maintenance:►Assisted in the transfer of GAMESS to a private organizational repository on GitHub.►Developed a Python-based validation suite to improve code quality assurance.►Integrated Travis-CI with GAMESS’ s GitHub repository.►Containerized GAMESS using Docker.(Division of Chemical and Biological Sciences)

Ames, Iowa

My postdoctoral work at Iowa State University gave me exposure to emerging hardware that disrupted the high performance computing and computational science community in the years to come, e.g. General Purpose Graphical Processing Units (GPGPUs), Intel Many Integrated Cores (MIC), and ARM. The process of adapting existing code in GAMESS to leverage new computing hardware highlighted the need to update our software development process and integrate new software engineering practices such as GIT for version control and GERRIT for code review. I assisted with the code review process and the support of developers as the research group adopted new coding policies and practices.Performance Analysis:►Analyzed performance of compute-intensive kernels on accelerator hardware: NVIDIA Kepler GPGPU and Intel Xeon Phi coprocessor. Software Development/Engineering/Maintenance:►Investigated the acceleration of the Becke grid weights calculation in the DFT routine in GAMESS on NVIDIA GPUs using OpenACC and CUDA Fortran.►Served as a reviewer of new code submission to GAMESS.►Maintained the Microsoft Windows operating systems port of GAMESS.Research advisor: Dr. Mark S. Gordon (Department of Chemistry)

Ames, Iowa

My undergraduate summer research project with Dr. Kai-Ming Ho caught the attention of Dr. Mark S. Gordon, distinguished professor of chemistry at Iowa State University, who encouraged me to apply to the graduate program in chemistry. I accepted a graduate research assistantship and began my doctoral studies in quantum chemistry in the fall of 2004. The nature of my research exposed me to high performance computing, parallel algorithms, and software development. Quantum Chemistry:►Implemented the ability to perform ground-state meta-generalized gradient approximation (meta-GGA) calculations in the General Atomic and Molecular Electronic Structure System (GAMESS) quantum chemistry software package density functional theory (DFT) routine along with several new and popular ground-state density functionals.►Analyzed the performance of several popular and newly developed density functionals for the calculation of vertical excitation energies within the linear response time-dependent density functional theory formalism against a benchmark set consisting of experimental excited state energies.►Applied electronic structure theory methods to study the acid-catalyzed hydrolysis mechanism of 1-substituted silicon atranes and the solvent-induced shift of the singlet pi-pi* charge-transfer excited state of p-nitroaniline. Software Development/Maintenance: ►Ported GAMESS for use on Microsoft Windows operating systems and analyzed the performance of GAMESS on computing clusters running Microsoft Windows High Performance Computing Server. ►Maintained the Microsoft Windows operating systems port of GAMESS.Miscellaneous:►Acquisition of $25,000 in grant funding from Microsoft for GAMESS software development efforts.Research advisor: Dr. Mark S. Gordon (Department of Chemistry)

Fairfax, Virginia

Fresh off my summer research experience at Iowa State, I decided to take on more research opportunities during my senior year of undergraduate studies at George Mason University. I conducted fuel stability research under the guidance of Dr. George W. Mushrush. The stability of middle distillate fuel from Thailand was investigated by analyzing the organo-nitrogen compounds present using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Organo-nitrogen compounds are active participants in the sedimentation process. The research was published in the Journal of Undergraduate Chemistry Research (2004, Volume 3, Issue 1).Research advisor: Dr. George W. Mushrush (Department of Chemistry)

Ames, Iowa

During the Research Experience for Undergraduates summer program at Iowa State University in materials science, I worked with Dr. Kai-Ming Ho to investigate the stability of silicon-oxide clusters. The work involved coding pseudopotentials found in the literature and performing molecular dynamics simulations on various silicon-oxide clusters. Comparisons were made with plane-wave density functional theory calculations. The work made use of the Ames Lab Classical Molecular Dynamics (ALCMD) code and was presented at the 227th American Chemical Society National Meeting in Anaheim, CA.Research advisor: Dr. Kai-Ming Ho (Department of Physics and Astronomy)

Fairfax, Virginia

At the Early Identification Program (EIP) I took on many roles that leveraged my knowledge of the current computing, networking, and digital imaging technologies. During the academic year, I maintained the organization’s web presence and compliance with W3C accessibility guidelines. The organization won the University Life Best Web Site award in Fall 2000. I also assisted with computing hardware, networking, and software troubleshooting.In the 1-2 month(s) preceding the start of the EIP Summer Academy (a three-week summer enrichment program targeted at under-represented/first-generation high-school students), I was in charge of scheduling students and teachers at two campus locations. Prior to my employment, the task of scheduling involved the participation of two full-time staff members. During my employment I was able to accomplish the task of student course scheduling independently and efficiently with optimal class sizing. I also assisted in the streamlining of course schedule production using Microsoft Access.During the summer academy, I have taken on various roles such as tutor, math instructor (Algebra 2 and Trigonometry), and digital media project coordinator. The digital media project culminated with the production of a digital video showcased at the EIP Summer Academy’s Closing Ceremony.

Doctor Of Philosophy - Phd, Physical Chemistry, 3.58 Out Of 4.0

Bachelor Of Science - Bs, Chemistry, 3.75 Out Of 4.0

Activities and Societies: Phi Beta Delta (Epsilon Delta Chapter - Spring 2001), International Student Umbrella, Science & Technology.