| Edward Seidel | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 21, 1957 Bethesda, Maryland |
| Residence | United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | LSU |
| Alma mater | William and Mary, Yale |
| Doctoral advisor | Vincent Moncrief |
| Doctoral students | Steve Brandt Karen Camarda Frank Hermann Michael Koppitz Christian D. Ott Ryoji Takahashi Paul Walker |
| Known for | Numerical relativity and Scientific Computing |
Edward Seidel (born 1957) is currently Assistant Director for Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the National Science Foundation, was formerly Director of NSF's Office of Cyberinfrastructure[1] , and continues as the Floating Point Systems Professor in Louisiana State University's Departments of Physics and Astronomy and Computer Science[2] .
Before moving to NSF, Seidel was the founding director of the LSU Center for Computation & Technology, or CCT, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Seidel is a career computer scientist and physicist who has received a number of awards for his work. His most noted achievements are in the field of numerical relativity, which involves solving Einstein's equations on computers. Seidel's research groups are known for modeling black hole collisions and for work in scientific computing. Seidel is also a co-founder of the Cactus Framework.
In Louisiana, Seidel served as the first Chief Scientist for the Louisiana Optical Network Initiative, or LONI, which connects supercomputing resources throughout Louisiana to enable faster and more accurate research collaboration.
Seidel, who has a Ph.D. in astrophysics from Yale University, moved to Baton Rouge to lead the CCT in 2003. Prior to his work at CCT, he was with the Albert Einstein Institute in Potsdam, Germany and also worked as a research scientist and professor at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
In November 2006, Seidel received the Sidney Fernbach Award at the Supercomputing Conference in Tampa, Florida[3] . This award, which is one of the highest honors in computing, was awarded for his achievements in numerical relativity. He was also awarded the Heinz-Billing-Preis of the Max Planck Society in 1998, and shared the Gordon Bell Prize in 2001 with colleagues.
Seidel is related to Chicago artist Emory Seidel.