Suzanne Shontz

Suzanne Shontz received her Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Cornell University in 2005. She received her B.A. in mathematics and B.S. in chemistry from the University of Northern Iowa in 1999 and her M.S. degrees in computer science and applied mathematics from Cornell University in 2002. Prior to joining Penn State in August 2006, she was a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and a Minnesota Supercomputing Institute Research Scholar at the University of Minnesota.  

Professor Shontz's research interests lie in the area of parallel scientific computing.  In particular, her research focuses on the development of unstructured meshing and numerical optimization algorithms and their applications to computational medicine, computational materials science, and visual computing.  Recent projects have included the design of efficient algorithms for mesh optimization, mesh untangling, and dynamic mesh generation and mesh warping for cardiovascular and elasticity applications.  Other recent projects have involved the development of an optimization-based shape-matching algorithm, the design of efficient geometry optimization methods for electronic structure calculations, and the use of approximation models in parallel nonlinear optimization.  She has presented her research at several international and national venues. Selected recent presentations have included talks at the 2010 Tetrahedron III Workshop, the 2010 International Conference on Computational Science, the 2010 U.S. National Congress on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, the 2010 SIAM Annual Meeting, the 2009 International Conference on Computational Science, the 2009 SIAM Computational Science and Engineering Conference, the 2009 International Meshing Roundtable, the 2008 International Meshing Roundtable Conference, the 2008 Second Fields-MITACS Industrial Problem-Solving Workshop, the 2008 Ninth International Workshop on State-of-the-Art in Parallel and Scientific Computing, the 2008 SIAM Optimization Conference, and the 2008 SIAM Conference on Parallel Processing for Scientific Computing.

Professor Shontz received a National Physical Science Consortium Fellowship from 1999-2004 and an Honorable Mention for the Alice T. Schafer Prize for Women in Mathematics in 1999.  In 2007, she was selected as the Computer Engineering Faculty Marshall for the Spring Commencement exercises at Penn State.  In 2009, she received an Office of Naval Research Summer Faculty Fellowship.  She is serving as the chair of the 2010 International Meshing Roundtable Conference, as the chair of the 2010 SIAM Professional Development Evening Working Group, as a panelist on the CUBIT External Review Panel, and as a reviewer on the Scholarship Committee of the 2010 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.  She served on the Organizing Committee for the 2009 International Meshing Roundtable Conference, the Professional Development Committee for the 2009 SIAM Annual Meeting, the Doctoral Showcase Committee for the 2009 Supercomputing Conference, the Scholarship Committee for the 2009 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, on the 2009 CUBIT External Review Panel, on the Posters Committee for the Posters Committee for the 2007 Supercomputing Conference, and the Panels and Workshops Committee for the 2006 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women and Computing. She also served as a panelist for the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense since 2007.  She is a reviewer for the SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing, ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software, Engineering with Computers, Computational Materials Science, the Journal of Computational Physics, the Journal of Chemical Physics, Computer Physics Communications, the International Meshing Roundtable Conference, the International Conference on Parallel Processing, and the ACM Crossroads Magazine.  She participated in the 2008 and 2006 Field-Mitacs Industrial Problem-Solving Workshops held at the Fields Institute in Canada, as an academic expert.  She has served as a SIAM Visiting Lecturer since 2009 and as a mentor through the AWM Mentor Network since 2005.

Research Interests:

Parallel scientific computing with a focus on unstructured mesh and numerical optimization methods and their applications to computational medicine, materials science, and visual computing.

Selected Publications:

1. Shontz, S., S. Vavasis.  2010.  Analysis of and Workarounds for Element Reversal for a Finite Element-based Algorithm for Warping Triangular and Tetrahedral Meshes.  To appear in BIT, Numerical Mathematics.  23 pages.
   
2. Kim, J., S. Sastry, S. Shontz.  October  2010.  Efficient Solution of Elliptic Partial Differential Equations via Effective Combination of Mesh Quality Metrics, Preconditioners, and Sparse Linear Solvers.  Proceedings of the Nineteenth International Meshing Roundtable.  18 pages.  Chattanooga, TN.
   
3. Park, J., S. Shontz.  May 31-June 2, 2010.  Two Derivative-Free Optimization Algorithms for Mesh Quality Improvement.  Proceedings of the 2010 International Conference on Computational Science (ICCS 2010).  pp. 387-396.  Amsterdam, Netherlands. 
4. Saad Y., J.R. Chelikowsky, S. Shontz. March  2010.  Numerical Methods for Electronic Structure Calculations of Materials. SIAM Review 52(1):3-54.
5. Shontz, S., P. Knupp.  October 2008.  The Effect of Vertex Reordering on 2D Local Mesh Optimization Efficiency.  Proceedings of the Seventeenth International Meshing Roundtable Conference.  pp. 107-124.  Pittsburgh, PA.