Peter Z. Vaillancourt
Position
Scientist
Division
Modeling and Data Assimilation
Affiliation
About
Peter Vaillancourt started as a Reanalysis & Reforecast Associate Scientist in the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory (PSL) in December 2022. His research focuses on model development and data assimilation for coupled reanalysis and reforecasting using data-driven/machine learning methods and the Unified Forecast System. This includes multi-platform reproducible models at-scale on HPC systems and in the cloud, with a focus on optimization and scalability of both CPU and GPU computing. He also has a strong passion for increasing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in all areas of STEM education, academia, and in the professional workforce.
Prior to working at NOAA PSL, he was a Computational Scientist in the Center for Advanced Computing at Cornell University. While there, he developed an interdisciplinary expertise in computational science, physical modeling, applied mathematics, and statistics. A major focus of a few of his past projects was the optimization, scalability, portability, reproducibility, and automation of scientific computing and HPC applications in the cloud across a variety of scientific disciplines. At PSL, he is focusing on bringing this expertise to weather and climate models to advance our capabilities.
Prior to working at NOAA PSL, he was a Computational Scientist in the Center for Advanced Computing at Cornell University. While there, he developed an interdisciplinary expertise in computational science, physical modeling, applied mathematics, and statistics. A major focus of a few of his past projects was the optimization, scalability, portability, reproducibility, and automation of scientific computing and HPC applications in the cloud across a variety of scientific disciplines. At PSL, he is focusing on bringing this expertise to weather and climate models to advance our capabilities.
Research Interests
Education
- B.S., Physics / Applied Mathematics & Statistics, Clarkson University, Dec 2014
Selected Publications
- P. Z. Vaillancourt, B. Wineholt, T. J. Shepherd, S. C. Pryor, J. Lantz, R. Knepper, R. Wolski, C. R. Myers, B. Trumbore, R. Reynolds, J. Sprouse, and D. Lifka. “Aristotle Cloud Federation: Container Runtimes Technical Report,” Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA, 2021, DOI: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2109.12186.
- P. Z. Vaillancourt, J. E. Coulter, R. Knepper, and B. Barker, “Self-Scaling Clusters and Reproducible Containers to Enable Scientific Computing,” 2020 IEEE High Performance Extreme Computing Conference (HPEC), Waltham, MA, USA, 2020, pp. 1-8, DOI: 10.1109/HPEC43674.2020.9286208.
- P. Z. Vaillancourt, B. Wineholt, B. Barker, P. Deliyannis, J. Zheng, A. Suresh, A. Brazier, R. Knepper, and R. Wolski, “Reproducible and Portable Workflows for Scientific Computing and HPC in the Cloud,” in the Proceedings of Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing (PEARC ’20), July 26 - 30, 2020, Portland, OR, USA. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 10 pages.
Presentations
- “Supporting Researchers with Containers," P. Z. Vaillancourt and J. L. Fischer, CaRCC Researcher- Facing Track, February 2021.
- “Self-Scaling Clusters and Reproducible Containers to Enable Scientific Computing,” P. Z. Vaillancourt and J. E. Coulter, IEEE HPEC Conference September 2020.
- “Reproducible and Portable Workflows for Scientific Computing and HPC in the Cloud,” P. Z. Vaillancourt, PEARC ’20 Conference, July 2020.
Professional Activities
- US-RSE Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Working Group
- XSEDE Container Tutorial: Deep Dive into Constructing Containers for Scientific Computing and Gateways
Professional Memberships
- Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM)
- Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
- United States Research Software Engineer Association (US-RSE)