Alex Pothen

Alex Pothen is a Professor of Computer Science at Purdue University, affiliated with the Department of Computer Science within the College of Science. He joined Purdue in Fall 2008 and is a distinguished academic with fellowships from SIAM (2018), ACM (2022), and AMS (2024), as well as the George Pólya Prize in Applied Combinatorics (2021). His research focuses on combinatorial scientific computing (CSC), parallel algorithms, graph theory, and bioinformatics, with applications in computational surgery, power grid modeling, and quantum computing.

Education:

• Ph.D., Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, Cornell University (1984)
• Master's Degree in Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi (1978)

Research Interests:
Alex's work bridges discrete mathematics and computational science. Key areas include:
- CSC: Applying combinatorial methods to solve engineering and scientific problems.
- Graph Algorithms: Developing efficient parallel algorithms for matching, coloring, and partitioning.
- Bioinformatics: Analyzing flow cytometry data and immunophenotyping.
- Algorithmic Differentiation: Innovations in Jacobian/Hessian computation.
- Quantum Computing: Exploring quantum annealing for optimization problems.

Awards and Recognition:

• SIAM Fellow (2018)
• ACM Fellow (2022)
• AMS Fellow (2024)
• George Pólya Prize in Applied Combinatorics (2021)
• Graduate Mentoring Award (Purdue University)
• Named 'Most Inspiring Teacher' by students

Grants and Leadership:
- Directed the CSCAPES Institute (2006–2012), a DOE-funded initiative enabling petascale simulations.
- Co-PI on the ExaGraph Project, funded by the DOE's Exascale Computing Program.
- Editor of journals including the SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing and the Journal of the ACM.