Newswise — Dr. Martin Ossowski has been named director of the Center for Computationally Assisted Science & Technology (CCAST) at North Dakota State University, Fargo. The appointment was announced by Philip Boudjouk, NDSU vice president for research, creative activities & technology transfer.
At NDSU, Ossowski will work to enhance the capabilities of CCAST to provide scientific computational resources to researchers. Additional goals include partnering with the private, government, and university sectors in support of research opportunities. NDSU researchers use CCAST’s computing power to make discoveries in nanotechnology, agriculture, computer science, biotechnology and other fields.
“Computation has come of age as a critical tool for scientific discovery across all disciplines,” said Ossowski. “CCAST will continue to play an integral part in the already impressive portfolio of computationally assisted R&D at NDSU while becoming a catalyst for creation of new and novel directions in scientific inquiry, engineering, technology transfer, and teaching in areas vital to the betterment of the state, the region, and the nation.”
“The two pillars of science have always been experimentation and theory,” said Philip Boudjouk, NDSU vice president for research, creative activities and technology transfer. “For the 21st century, we have a third pillar, which is computation. At NDSU, we expect to be fully engaged in all three areas.”
Ossowski most recently served in the Research Computing Support Group at Rice University, Houston, Texas. In that position, he strengthened computational infrastructure and helped obtain funding for computing services for research. Ossowski previously served as a science consultant and coordinated multidisciplinary grant proposals at the Research Computing Core of the University of South Florida in Tampa, Fla., where he also served as a courtesy assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering.
In 2000, Ossowski received the National Research Council Resident Research Associateship Award and joined the Naval Research Laboratory’s (NRL) Center for Computational Materials Science. He worked to develop methods and algorithms for the efficient (linear-scaling) application of density functional theory. The methods developed at NRL were successfully used to study electronic, structural, elastic, and vibrational properties of complex oxides and other materials.
As a co-principal investigator and senior research personnel, Ossowski has secured approximately $10.7 million in funding for research from the National Science Foundation, Department of Defense and National Institutes of Health.
Martin Ossowski received his Ph.D. in theoretical condensed matter physics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). He worked as a post-doctoral research associate in the UNL Department of Physics and Astronomy on the first-principles computational extensions to the Gordon-Kim rigid-ion electron-gas model. Ossowski, a condensed matter physicist and quantum chemist, has authored or contributed more than 30 scientific articles and conference papers. He continues to work on algorithms toward greater efficiency of density functional theory methods.
The Center for Computationally Assisted Science & Technology supports NDSU faculty, staff and student researchers. The Center provides computing cycles which are used in research projects at NDSU that include developing materials that mimic bone, data mining, plant and soil science, multi-scale and 3-D modeling, quantum chemical calculations and calculations of enzyme structures, among others. The Center provides scientific computational resources to the NDSU research community and its partners to enable new discovery.
About NDSU - North Dakota State University, Fargo, is notably listed among the nation’s top 108 public and private universities in the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education’s category of “Research Universities/Very High Research Activity.” With a reputation for excellence in teaching and multidisciplinary research, NDSU links academics to opportunities. As a student-focused, land grant, research institution with more than 14,000 students, NDSU is listed in the top 40 research universities without a medical school in the U.S., based on research expenditures reported to the National Science Foundation. www.ndsu.edu/research
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