Name:
Ronald F. Boisvert
Title:
Chief, Mathematical and Computational Sciences Division
Company:
National Institute of Standards and Technology
How I arrived at my present job (academic and other influences): I started a math major in a small state college in New Hampshire in the early 1970s. I took two courses in computing there (all that were offered), and a course in numerical analysis. I was intrigued with the possibility of solving difficult mathematical problems with computers. To explore this further I enrolled in the Applied Science Program at the College of William and Mary where I took graduate-level courses in math and computer science. During that time I landed a part-time job as a scientific programmer at the Institute for Computer Applications in Science and Engineering at NASA's Langley Research Center. This was a big turning-point for me. I was surrounded by very smart people doing research on difficult problems, and it was fun. This is what I wanted to do. I followed through by enrolling in the PhD program in Computer Science at Purdue University. Armed with my PhD I turned down several offers to join university departments in favor of work in a government research laboratory, where I remain today.
How I organize my day: Up at 6:30 am, some early morning reading and walking, and into work at 9 am. I return home at about 6:30 pm for dinner and family time. In bed by 10 pm.
Amount of time spent working daily (at home and office): I am in the office for at least nine hours each day. I spend a few hours on my laptop at home nights and weekends when deadlines are imminent.
What I do to get myself thinking creatively: Leave my office, in which there are too many distractions. Some of my best ideas come during cross-country airplane flights or on the train to New York.
My problem-solving strategy: Experiment with particular cases to learn what the answer probably should be. Eliminate extraneous variables to find the core problem.
What I do to relieve stress: Volleyball (I mean serious volleyball) twice a week, walking when I can, and an hour or so each day lost in historical novels or mysteries.
My hero, mentor, or person I most admire and why: Cornelius Lyle (Keene State College), a journalism professor and student newpaper advisor, who taught me the importance of writing well, and how to thrive under tight deadlines. John Rice and Bob Lynch (Purdue University) who showed me how to do research and to be active professionally.
What I do to mentor those who work for me: I try to maintain an open door policy, encouraging anyone who wants advice to come in and talk. We hire a number of student workers each summer. I try to give them assignments which will demonstrate both the joys and frustrations of research. Typically these are just beyond what I expect them to be able to do; I'm often pleasantly surprised by the outcome.
How a negative event changed my life in a positive way: I didn't get into my first choice of undergraduate or graduate schools. If I had then my career would have been quite different. I have no regrets. I've had great fun doing what I do.
One event or decision in my life I wish I could go back and change: I should have spent more time taking courses in applied (as opposed to pure) mathematics courses and more physics. These would have saved me alot of backpeddling in learning things I have needed to do work in computational science.
What values are the most important to me and what I value in others: Integrity, diligence, ability to learn new things, respect, and cooperation.
What inspires, motivates, or gets me excited about my job on a daily basis: The people I work with here at NIST, and the opportunity that we have to affect many people by making contributions to the development of infrasturcture for doing computational science.
Biography: Ronald F. Boisvert leads the Mathematical and Computational Sciences Division of the Information Technology Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). He received his Ph.D. in computer science from Purdue University in 1979 and has been at NIST (formerly the National Bureau of Standards) since then. His research interests include numerical solution of partial differential equations, mathematical software, and information services that support computational science. He contributed to the development of the original ELLPACK system for elliptic boundary value problems, the NBS Core Math Library, VFFTPACK (for vectorized FFTs), VFNLIB (for vectorized Bessel functions), the Guide to Available Mathematical Software, and the Matrix Market. He is one of the principal editors of the NIST Digital Library of Mathematical Functions, now under development. He is Editor-in-Chief of the ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software and a member of the ACM Publications Board, where he played a key role in the development of the ACM Digital Library. He is also a member of the IFIP Working Group 2.5 (Numerical Software), and co-chair of the Numerics Working Group of the Java Grande Forum. He is a member of the IEEE Computer Society, ACM and SIAM. In 1992 he was awarded a Silver Medal from the US Department of Commerce for meritorius federal service. His Web page is accessible at http://math.nist.gov/mcsd/Staff/RBoisvert/.
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