Date: Thu, 21 Nov 1996 20:21:59 GMT
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Robert Skeel received his Ph.D. from the University of Alberta in 1974. He is a professor in the Department of Computer Science at UIUC and a part-time Beckman Institute faculty member in the Theoretical Biophysics Group. His fields of professional interest are scientific computing and numerical analysis: computational methods for biomolecular modeling.
Honors and awards: Profesor Visitante Iberdrola, Valladolid (1994-96); Member, Editorial Board, SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing (since 1985).
With M. Nelson, W. Humphrey, A. Gursoy, A. Dalke, L. Kale, K. Schulten, and R. Kufrin, "MDScope-A Visual Computing Environment for Structural Biology," Comput. Phys. Commun., 91 (1995), pp. 111-134.
With D. Okunbor, "Canonical Numerical Methods for Molecular Dynamics Simulations," J. Comput. Chem., 15 (1994), pp. 72-79.
With J. Biesiadecki, "Dangers of Multiple-time-step Methods," J. Comput. Phys., 109 (1993), pp. 318-328.
KEY WORDS: Molecular dynamics, macromolecular modeling, computational structural biology, numerical analysis, parallel algorithms.
Robert Skeel is interested in computational methods for biomolecular modeling, which is of great importance in structural biology and drug design and require the use of high-performance computers. The goal is to find faster ways to do the computations, especially through the application of advanced numerical techniques, and parallel algorithms.
Current work centers on further development of NAMD-an object-oriented parallel molecular dynamics program, which is part of MDScope-a computational environment for structural biology. This work is done in collaboration with L. V. Kale, Klaus Schulten, and other members of the Theoretical Biophysics Group.
In particular, this work involves a classical mechanics model of atomic interactions. In order to effect massive reductions in the computation requirements, it is necessary to find ways to take much larger time steps and ways to compute electrostatic interactions more quickly. In the future it is also hoped that a systematic way can be found to reduce the degrees of freedom.
Skeel's sources of research funding include NSF and NIH.
Contact Information
3161 Beckman Institute
University of Illinois
405 N. Mathews
Urbana, IL 61801
Tel.: 217-244-4361
or
Department of Computer Science
2316 Digital Computer Laboratory
University of Illinois
1304 W. Springfield
Urbana, IL 61801
Tel.: 217-333-2727
email: skeel@cs.uiuc.edu
Robert Skeel's Department of Computer Science homepage contains additional information.
This page was last updated on 2/5/96.
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