December 2011

Where are you from, originally?
Tolosa!!! That is Toulouse, in Occitan, in the dialect from the area.  Toulouse is a wonderful city in the South West of France, located one hour from Spain and the Pyrenées Mountains, one hour from the Mediterranean and two hours from the Atlantic Ocean. This is a great place to live, very lively as many students live there but Toulouse has also a lot of industries, the most famous being Airbus.  Several ICLers know Toulouse from the CERFACS, a European research organization that develops advanced methods for the numerical simulation and the algorithmic solution of large scientific and technological problems of interest for both research and industry.  CERFACS algo team leader Iain Duff is an old friend of Jack, and two ICLers—Julien Langou and Azzam Haidar—were at CERFACS before joining ICL.

Can you summarize your educational background?
My educational background is somewhat special. I earned my Bachelor’s degree in Applied Mathematics from Toulouse Science University, and after I integrated a “grande école”: SUPAERO (Grande écoles are those very special elitist graduate schools that we have in France).  SUPAERO is an aeronautic and space school, as I did not know anything in those fields I decided to major in Computer Science and get an extra degree in Business.  Three years ago, I went back to school and earned an MBA with an option in Finance from UC Denver.  This was fun to have again classes and homework!

Where did you work before joining ICL?
Before Joining ICL, I was working as a Software Engineer in Paris at the Caisse des Dépots and Consignation.  This, again very French, entity is a company that is supposed to make money for the Country, and take care of most of the French Asseta.  Over there, I worked on a huge computer science project related to life insurance.  It was the biggest IT project in France at that time: 300 people for 5 years developing software that never actually went live!

Tell us how you first learned about ICL.
I first learned about ICL at Julien’s PhD defense that took place in Saint-Girons, in the Pyrenées.  Most of the linear algebra community was present, Jack included.  From what I remember, Jack was the only one typing on his computer during Julien’s presentation, that first struck me, because I was not addicted to my computer at that time.  After having setup a plot to throw Julien in his suit in the pool before the final dinner, that ”Jack” came to our table and asked Julien if he wanted to come to TN for a post-doc.  Julien said yes and the interview was over!

What made you want to work for ICL?
At the beginning, I actually did not want to go into the HPC world.  Once I had my authorization to work, I had two opportunities: work for Myricom or work at the UT College of Social Work.  I decided to take the job at UT to work on a homeless management system project.  This was a great experience; I had to do everything from installing computers in homeless shelters, training people, administrating the system, and so on.  Unfortunately, once Julien changed his J1 visa to H1-B, I was not allowed to work anymore and the UT College of Social Work couldn’t get me my own visa.  At the very same time, Julien told me there was a software engineer position at ICL.  At the beginning we were not so sure, but I finally applied and got the job.  I have been working for ICL for almost 6.5 years now, since February 2005.

What are you working on at ICL?
I mostly work on LAPACK and ScaLAPACK, mostly on the software engineering side: bugs, testing, maintenance, user support, etc.  In recent years, we brought LAPACK under Windows, adding the CMAKE build system along with a nightly build dashboard.  Since the last release, we integrated Doxygen documentation.  I am really trying to understand the need of our users and answer it.

Some folks may wonder why they don’t see you around the halls of Claxton.  Where are you, exactly?
Good question again!  I spent more than a year at ICL, but when Julien got his assistant professor position at Denver, we had to move.  I went to Jack’s office to actually resign from my position, but he offered to let me work remotely from Denver.  So since summer 2006, this is what I have been doing.

Until recently I was wandering between France and Denver, but since (Today!) I moved to California in the desert side between Death Valley and the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  And yes, Jack, they have Internet over there!

If you weren’t working at ICL, where would you like to be working and why?
I honestly don’t know, but surely not in the HPC world.  I am somebody who follows her instinct, I have plans but I am staying very flexible to any opportunities.  I actually got several other offers from the IT industry since I have been at ICL, but I always turned them down.  I really like my job at ICL, especially the people—that is what matters most to me.  It is easy to find a good job, but not to find great people.  Jack is a wonderful and very fair manager, I learn a lot from him, how he handles situations, how he manages to forge that wonderful team spirit.  The research teams are very open minded, and each member has their very own personality.  How could you find a replacement for a Piotr, a Jakub, or a George?  Those guys are really unique!  Lastly, the support staff is great.  I know I have been really annoying form time to time, but they have always been very helpful and very patient with me.  What I like is that ICL is just more than a lab, it is a real community.

What are your interests/hobbies outside work?
My main hobby is clearly Judo.  I have been practicing Judo since I was 9 years old.  I enjoyed the competition, being part of the French National Team, but I also enjoy teaching Judo to the kids.  Judo is a very small sport in the US and it is hard to find people to practice with, so I am not practicing it in the US.  But I found other ways to stay active in Judo.  I am using my Judo network to create an exchange between France and the US.  Last summer, I trained two US girls that were going to the World Championship at my Judo Club in Toulouse.  It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun as I enjoy seeing the girls discovering the cultural differences between France and the US.

I love sports and being active, so I enjoy any outdoor sport: Tennis, Mountain Biking, Hiking, Skiing, etc.

I also enjoy a lot of music. When I was sharing my office with Don, we enjoyed talking and listening to music in the office.

Tell us something about yourself that might surprise people.
I am the one who created the newsletter.  Shortly after I moved to Denver, I went back to TN and asked Jack why the lab does not have a newsletter.  Now that I am away, I am not aware of all the happenings at ICL.  He replied to me with his favorite answer: “Great! Do it!”  This is how this started with David, Don and me.  But being away from ICL, it was hard for me to get the news and update and so on, so Scott, and now Sam, joined the team.  Now when I see the professionalism of the ICL newsletter, I am very impressed.  You guys are doing awesome work.  And I believe ICL-alumni are asking for it!  Keep up the good work.