Robert J. Harrison

About

Prof. Robert J. Harrison is a theoretical chemist and expert in high-performance computing. He is a professor in the Applied Mathematics and Statistics department and the founding Director of the Institute for Advanced Computational Science (IACS) at Stony Brook University. Dr. Harrison's research interests focus on accurate calculations on large systems and heavy elements using advanced numerical and computational techniques. His academic background includes undergraduate and postgraduate degrees obtained at Cambridge University, England. He has worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Quantum Theory Project, University of Florida, and the Daresbury Laboratory, England, before joining the staff of the theoretical chemistry group at Argonne National Laboratory in 1988. In 1992, he moved to the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, where he led the development of NWChem, a computational chemistry code for massively parallel computers. He has held joint faculty appointments with UT/ORNL since 2002 and became director of JICS in 2011. Dr. Harrison has received several awards, including the 2002 IEEE Computer Society Sidney Fernbach Award, and his work on NWChem and MADNESS has been recognized by R&D Magazine R&D100 awards in 1999 and 2011. He also co-chaired the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committee on Future Directions for NSF Advanced Computing Infrastructure to Support U.S. Science from 2017…

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Programming language
• Operating system
• Political Science
• Medicine
• Demography
• Sociology
• Environmental health
• Geography
• Parallel computing

Selected publications

• NWChem: Past, present, and future

  The Journal of Chemical Physics · 2020 · 671 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Specialized computational chemistry packages have permanently reshaped the landscape of chemical and materials science by providing tools to support and guide experimental efforts and for the prediction of atomistic and electronic properties. In this regard, electronic structure packages have played a special role by using first-principle-driven methodologies to model complex chemical and materials processes. Over the past few decades, the rapid development of computing technologies and the trem…

  DOI

• First Impressions of the Sapphire Rapids Processor with HBM for Scientific Workloads

  SN Computer Science · 2024-06-07 · 9 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract The landscape of high performance computing (HPC) has witnessed exponential growth in processor diversity, architectural complexity, and performance scalability. With an ever-increasing demand for faster and more efficient computing solutions to address an array of scientific, engineering, and societal challenges, the selection of processors for specific applications becomes paramount. Achieving optimal performance requires a deep understanding of how diverse processors interact with di…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Deriving parametric multi-way recursive divide-and-conquer dynamic programming algorithms using polyhedral compilers

  2020 · 9 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  We present a novel framework to automatically derive highly efficient parametric multi-way recursive divide&conquer algorithms for a class of dynamic programming (DP) problems. Standard two-way or any fixed R-way recursive divide&conquer algorithms may not fully exploit many-core processors. To run efficiently on a given machine, the value of R may need to be different for every level of recursion based on the number of processors available and the sizes of memory/caches at different levels of t…

  DOI

• Experiences with Porting the FLASH Code to Ookami, an HPE Apollo 80 A64FX Platform

  2022 · 7 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  We present initial experiences with running the community simulation code FLASH, developed at the University of Chicago for multi-scale multi-physics applications, on Ookami, a technology testbed featuring the A64FX processor developed by Fujitsu. Our effort focused largely on running FLASH “right out of the box” to see which combinations of compilers and software implementations (e.g. MPI) allowed the code to run with minimal modification. FLASH was one application in a larger effort to deploy…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• On Using Linux Kernel Huge Pages with FLASH, an Astrophysical Simulation Code

  2022 · 3 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  We present efforts at improving the performance of FLASH, a multi-scale, multi-physics simulation code principally for astrophysical applications, by using huge pages on Ookami, an HPE Apollo 80 A64FX platform. FLASH is written principally in modern Fortran and makes use of the PARAMESH library to manage a block-structured adaptive mesh. We explored options for enabling the use of huge pages with several compilers, but we were only able to successfully use huge pages when compiling with the Fuji…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Cyber-infrastructure and Research Facilities: Chemical Computations on Future High-end Computers

  NSF · $887k · 2006–2012

• MRI: Acquisition of a computer system for Research and Education – Seawulf

  NSF · $485k · 2022–2025

• MRI: Acquisition of SeaWulf - A Reconfigurable Computer System for Research and Education

  NSF · $1.4M · 2015–2018

Frequent coauthors

• Jennifer Flattery

  61 shared

• George I. Fann

  Oak Ridge National Laboratory

  47 shared

• Kenneth D. Rosenman

  Michigan State University

  44 shared

• Mary Jo Reilly

  Michigan State University

  42 shared

• Elise Pechter

  38 shared

• Jeffrey A. Nichols

  36 shared

• David Valiante

  New Jersey Department of Health

  35 shared

• David A. Dixon

  University of Alabama

  35 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Computer Science

  University of California, Berkeley

  1990

• M.S., Computer Science

  University of California, Berkeley

  1985

• B.S., Computer Science

  University of California, Berkeley

  1983

Awards & honors

• 2002 IEEE Computer Society Sidney Fernbach Award
• R&D Magazine R&D100 awards in 1999 and 2011

Similar researchers at Stony Brook University

• Marat Khairoutdinovh-51
• Owen Rambowh-47
• Benjamin Levineh-40