William French

Information

• Email: will@accre.vanderbilt.edu
• Work Phone: 615-343-4134
• Office: Hill Center 201
• Teaching: Scientific Computing 3260/5260: High-Performance Computing

Experience

• Director of Research Computing Operations, Advanced Computing Center for Research and Education (ACCRE), Vanderbilt University, current.
• Adjunct Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Vanderbilt University, current.
• Post Doctoral Scholar, Tabb Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University, 2013-2014.
• PhD student, Cummings Laboratory, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Vanderbilt University, 2008-2013. Dissertation: Computer Simulations for Improved Atomic-Level Control and Understanding of Molecular Electronic Devices

Research Interests

My research interests revolve around computational methods that enable better and more realistic types of analysis, modeling, and simulation of scientific problems. Often this comes in the form of high-performance computing (HPC) tools that leverage many-core processors and graphics processing units (GPUs), e.g. POSIX threads, OpenMP, message passing interface (MPI), and CUDA. I am also interested in applying and developing high-level HPC APIs (e.g. in Python and Matlab) that allow researchers to take advantage of many-core processors with minimal programming effort.

I have research experience in the following areas: molecular electronics (e.g. single- and few-molecule devices; see below), molecular modeling, computational nanoscience, solid state physics, electronic structure calculations, signal processing, mass spectrometry, and proteomics.