CV

Last update: 25 Jul 2023
Please contact me directly if you need a more detailed CV or pdf version.

Academic appointments

2021- Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellow
Hamburg Observatory, University of Hamburg

Topics: Modeling of astrophysical plasmas; Subgrid-scale physics; Turbulence; Energy transfer in magnetized turbulence; Anisotropic effects in magnetized plasmas; Numerical methods for (magneto)-hydrodynamics; Large-scale simulations; Performance portable programming models for exascale computing;
2016-2021 Postdoctoral Research Associate
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing
Department of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering (MSU)

Academic degrees

2016 Ph.D. in Physics
02/2014 - 09/2016: Georg-August-University, Göttingen
Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research
Advisor: Prof. Dominik Schleicher
Thesis: Large eddy simulations of compressible magnetohydrodynamic turbulence [pdf]
2013 Master of Science in Computer Science - Major: Scientific Computing
10/2011 - 11/2013: Georg-August-University, Göttingen
Advisor: Prof. Dominik Schleicher
Thesis: Subgrid-scale modeling of isotropic turbulence in compressible magnetohydrodynamic large eddy simulations
2013 Bachelor of Science in Physics
10/2010 - 12/2013: Georg-August-University, Göttingen
Advisor: Prof. Dominik Schleicher
Thesis: Magnetic field amplification in the early universe
2008 Dipl.-Inf. (BA), Computer Science
10/2005 - 10/2008: University of Cooperative Education, Stuttgart
Diploma thesis at HP Laboratories, Bristol, UK: Conception of Virtual Platforms and Enhancement Of The Xen Inter-Domain Communication Library

Scholarships and awards

2021 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship: Unraveling effects of anisotropy from low collisionality in the intracluster medium
2020 MSU Postdoctoral Excellence in Research Award (annual award for two postdocs at MSU from all disciplines)
2020 Seal of Excellence for Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions individual fellowship proposal (proposal score >85%)
2019 Seal of Excellence for Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions individual fellowship proposal (proposal score >85%)
2017 Sole recipient of the doctoral thesis award 2017 from the German Astronomical Society
2017 Admission to the two week Argonne Training Program on Extreme-Scale Computing with full support (travel, meals, lodging)
2016 Travel grant of the German Astronomical Society to support a research presentation at ASTRONUM 2016
2015 Travel grant of the German Astronomical Society for the 16 th MHD Days
2014 Three year Ph.D. fellowship at the International Max Planck Research School for Solar System Science at the University of Göttingen

Invited talks, colloquia, and seminars

07/2023 Lothar-Collatz-Colloquium for Applied Mathematics, Hamburg
As a matter of dynamical range – scale-dependent energy dynamics in magnetized turbulence and pushing simulation limits
06/2023 Mike Norman Festschrift – 37 Years of developing Community Codes, Kloster Seeon
Pushing the Frontier of AGN Feedback Simulations
05/2023 Athena++ User and Developer Meeting, Center for Computational Astrophysics, NY
Parthenon(-hydro) and AthenaPK First experiences at the exascale
10/2022 Astrophysics, Gravitation, and Cosmology Seminar, U. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
As a matter of dynamical range - scale-dependent energy dynamics in magnetized turbulence and pushing simulation limits
04/2021 Colloquium (webinar), Colloquium, Hamburg Observatory, Germany
As a matter of tension – kinetic energy spectra in MHD turbulence and simulations of the intracluster medium (ICM)
03/2021 Invited Minisymposium Talk (webinar), SIAM Computational Science and Engineering
Performance Portability in Practice: Challenges and Successes with K-Athena (physics/MHD) and Parthenon (AMR)
01/2021 Invited Plenary Talk (webinar), Max-Planck-Princeton Center Annual Meeting
Subgrid-scale modeling in MHD turbulence: model overview and knowing what to capture
12/2020 Research presentation, High Performance Computing Colloquium (webinar), Institute of Computer Science, University of Göttingen
The multifaceted path towards exascale computing
06/2020 Colloquium (webinar), Department of Astronomy, Universidad de Concepción, Chile
K-Athena -- a performance portable structured grid finite volume MHD code
05/2020 Nambe webinar, Los Alamos/Lawrence Livermore/Sandia National Lab
As a matter of tension -- why Kolmogorov scaling is a slippery slope in MHD turbulence
01/2020 Research presentation, Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Bridging scales: plasma turbulence modeling and the path to exascale computing
11/2019 Cosmology Seminar, Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics
K-Athena -- a performance portable structured grid finite volume MHD code
10/2019 Los Alamos Astrophysics Distinguished Seminar, Los Alamos
Correlations and energy transfer in magnetized turbulence
09/2019 Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, Heidelberg
Studying magnetized turbulence using simulations
04/2019 Geophysical and Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics Seminar, UC Santa Cruz
Correlations and energy transfer in magnetized turbulence
03/2019 Computing Sciences Seminar, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA
Correlations and energy transfer in magnetized turbulence
03/2019 Konkoly Observatory Seminar, Budapest, Hungary
Energy transfer in isothermal MHD turbulence
10/2018 Astronomy & Astrophysics Seminar, Michigan State University, East Lansing,
Magnetized astrophysical turbulence — from phenomenology, to simulation, to modeling
11/2017 Colloquium talk, Michigan Institute for Plasma Science and Engineering, Ann Arbor
Energy transfer in compressible MHD turbulence
Recording available online here
11/2017 Colloquium talk, University of Notre Dame,
Energy transfer in compressible MHD turbulence
09/2017 PhD Prize talk, Annual Meeting of the German Astronomical Society, Göttingen
Large eddy simulations of compressible magnetohydrodynamic turbulence
06/2017 Colloquium talk, Hamburger Sternwarte, Hamburg, Germany
Energy transfer in compressible MHD turbulence
06/2017 Colloquium talk, Institute for Astrophysics, University of Göttingen, Germany
Energy transfer in compressible MHD turbulence
11/2015 Colloquium talk, Astronomy department, Universidad de Concepcion, Chile
Closing the foodchain of magnetic whorls - Introduction to subgrid-scale modeling of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence
06/2015 Colloquium talk, Hamburger Sternwarte, Hamburg, Germany
P. Grete and D. Vlaykov
Nonlinear subgrid-scale closures in magnetohydrodynamic turbulence

Computing grants

2023- Resolving Turbulent Multiphase Gas Dynamics
PI of project EHPC-EXT-2022E01-050 on Lumi at CSC through a EuroHPC Extreme Scale Access allocation
2023- Feedback and energetics from magnetized AGN jets in galaxy groups and clusters
Co-PI of project AST146 on Frontier at OLCF through an INCITE award
2022- The role of low collisionality in compressible, magnetized turbulence
PI of project anisoturb on JUWELS at Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC) through an GCS Large Scale allocation
2020-2022 The role of low collisionality in compressible, magnetized turbulence
PI of project AST20004 on Frontera at TACC through an LRAC
2019-2022 Measuring performance and scaling of Kokkos-accelerated Athena++ on Summit
Co-PI on project AST146 at OLCF via Director's Discretionary program.
2019-2020 The compressible, magnetized Taylor-Green vortex
PI of project AST190021 at XSEDE
2018-2019 Scaling and performance enhancement of an astrophysical plasma code
Co-PI on project athena_performance at ALCF and AST133 at OLCF via Director's Discretionary programs
2017-2019
and 2021-
Probing Galaxy Formation at Low and High Redshifts
Co-PI on project MCA08X028 at XSEDE
2017-2018 Turbulent small scale magnetic fields in the early Universe
Co-PI on project hhp00039 at North-German Supercomputing Alliance
Short description: [pdf]
2015-2016 A priori and a posteriori testing of subgrid-scale closures in compressible MHD turbulence
Co-PI on project nip00037 at North-German Supercomputing Alliance
Short description: [pdf]

Contributed talks and posters

06/2023 Modelling of Multiphase Astrophysical Media, Schloss Aspenstein
Feedback and energetics from magnetized AGN jets in galaxy groups and clusters
11/2022 Challenges and Innovations in Computational Astrophysics IV
Parthenon – a performance portable block-structured adaptive mesh refinement framework
10/2022 Parthenon Developer Meeting, Los Alamos
AthenaPK - a performance portable MHD AMR code
08/2022 Plasma Physics Meets AI: Workshop on Subgrid-scale Modeling of Turbulence, Helsinki
Subgrid-scale modeling of magnetized turbulence in astrophysics
08/2022 6th ICM Theory and Computation Workshop, Copenhagen
As a matter of dynamical range - scale-dependent energy dynamics in MHD turbulence
11/2021 Talk at the IAU Symposium 362 on The predictive power of computational astrophysics as discovery tool
Performance Portable Astrophysical Simulations: Challenges and Successes with K-Athena (MHD) and AthenaPK/Parthenon (AMR)
10/2021 Talk at the Royal Astronomical Society Specialist Discussion Meeting on "Galactic magnetic fields: connecting theory, simulations, and observations"
As a matter of tension - Kinetic energy spectra in MHD turbulence
09/2020 Talk at "Computational Astrophysics Splinter Meeting" at the Virtual German Astronomical Society Meeting
As a matter of tension - Kinetic energy spectra in MHD turbulence
02/2020 CMSE Postdoc Thunder Talk, East Lansing, MI
K-Athena - A performance portable structured grid finite volume MHD code
12/2019 CMSE mini-symposium on plasma physics, East Lansing, MI
MHD Turbulence - Theory and Simulation
11/2019 Talk at "Cosmic turbulence and magnetic fields : physics of baryonic matter across time and scales", Cargèse, France
Correlations and energy transfer in magnetized turbulence
09/2019 Talk at "Computational Astrophysics Splinter Meeting" at the German Astronomical Society Meeting, Stuttgart, Germany
K-Athena – a performance portable structured grid finite volume MHD code
07/2019 Talk at "ASTRONUM 2019 - 14th International Conference on Numerical Modeling of Space Plasma Flows", Paris, France
K-Athena – a performance portable structured grid finite volume MHD code
04/2019 Talk at "Kokkos User Meeting", Albuquerque, NM
K-Athena — enabling GPU accelerated Athena++ simulations using the performance portability library Kokkos: porting experience and results
03/2019 Talk at "Athena++ User Meeting", Las Vegas, NV
Correlations and energy transfer in compressible isothermal and adiabatic MHD turbulence
03/2019 Talk at "Athena++ Developer Meeting", Las Vegas, NV
K-Athena — enabling GPU accelerated Athena++ simulations using the performance portability library Kokkos: porting experience and results
03/2019 Talk at "Physics of the Intracluster Medium: Theory and Computation", Budapest, Hungary
Correlations and energy transfer in compressible isothermal and adiabatic MHD turbulence
11/2018 Talk at "MHD Days and GdRI Dynamo Meeting", Dresden, Germany
Correlations and energy transfer in compressible isothermal and adiabatic MHD turbulence
06/2018 Talk at "ASTRONUM 2018 - 13th International Conference on Numerical Modeling of Space Plasma Flows", Panama City Beach, FL
As a matter of force — Systematic biases in idealized turbulence simulations
05/2018 Talk at the "2018 Midwest Magnetic Fields Meeting", Madison, WI
As a matter of force — Systematic biases in idealized turbulence simulations
05/2018 Talk at "Enzo Workshop 2018", Atlanta, GA
What energy transfer analysis can tell us about numerics
03/2018 Talk at "SnowCluster - The Physics of Galaxy Clusters", Snowbird, Utah
As a matter of force — Systematic biases in idealized turbulence simulations
06/2017 Talk at "ASTRONUM 2017 - 12th International Conference on Numerical Modeling of Space Plasma Flows", Saint Malo, France
Energy transfer in compressible MHD turbulence
12/2016 Talk at “17 th MHD Days”, Göttingen, Germany
Large eddy simulations of decaying supersonic MHD turbulence
08/2016 Poster at “Physics of the Intracluster Medium: Theory & Computation Workshop”, Minneapolis, MN, USA
Subgrid-scale closures for MHD turbulence
06/2016 Talk at “ASTRONUM 2016 - 11th International Conference on Numerical Modeling of Space Plasma Flows”, Monterey, CA, USA
A compressible, nonlinear subgrid-scale model for magnetohydrodynamic turbulence
05/2016 Poster at “6th Les Houches school in numerical physics “International School of Computational Astrophysics”, Les Houches, France
Subgrid-scale closures for MHD turbulence
01/2016 Talk at “S3 seminar”, MPI for Solar System Research, Göttingen, Germany
Nonlinear subgrid-scale closures in MHD turbulence from the subsonic to the highly supersonic regime
12/2015 Talk at “16 th MHD Days”, Ilmenau, Germany
Subgrid-scale modeling of compressible MHD turbulence
03/2015 Talk at winter school on “Turbulence, magnetic fields and self organization in laboratory and astrophysical plasmas”, Les Houches, France
Nonlinear subgrid-scale closures in magnetohydrodynamic turbulence
01/2015 Talk at “S3 seminar”, MPI for Solar System Research, Göttingen, Germany
Nonlinear subgrid-scale closures in magnetohydrodynamic turbulence
12/2014 Talk at “15 th MHD Days”, Potsdam, Germany
Nonlinear subgrid-scale closures in magnetohydrodynamic turbulence
11/2014 Poster at Conference “Magnetic fields from the sun to black holes”, Paris, France
D. Vlaykov and P. Grete
Subgrid-scale closures for MHD turbulence
09/2014 Talk at “XXXIV Dynamics Days Europe, Nonlinear Phenomena in Plasma Astrophysics”, Bayreuth, Germany
Subgrid-scale closures in highly compressible MHD turbulence: turbulent energies
08/2014 Talk at “5th Black Sea Biennial School and Workshop on Space Plasma Physics”, Kiten, Bulgaria
Subgrid-scale modeling of highly compressible MHD turbulence: momentum closure
01/2014 Talk at “Cosmology seminar”, Institute for Astrophysics, Göttingen, Germany
How to tackle turbulence in magnetohydrodynamic simulations
10/2013 Poster at workshop on “Astrophysical Turbulence: From Galaxies to Planets”, Dresden, Germany
D. Vlaykov and P. Grete
Large eddy simulations of MHD turbulence

Teaching

June 2021 Remote workshop on “Collaborative Version Control” for REU undergraduate summer students.
May 2021 Mentor at the IDRIS GPU Hackathon 2021.
Dec 2020 Remote lecture (one class) on “Computational Fluid Dynamics in Astrophysics” at GSU.
May 2020 Remote workshop on “Collaborative Version Control” for REU undergraduate summer students.
Oct 2019 Tutorials at Los Alamos National Lab on using and developing K-Athena and Kokkos
Summer 2019 "Sustainable software practices with collaborative version control"
Inquiry based module for incoming undergraduate summer students.
Fall 2018 Course on “Computational astrophysics”
Co-lecturer with Prof. B. W. O'Shea covering multiple methods for solving partial differential equations with an emphasis on hyperbolic conservation laws.
Fall 2018 Course on "Computational modeling"
Taught module on "Computationally solve for and understand the evolution of a system that is modeled by ordinary differential equations" using an inquiry-based approach.
May 2018 Instructor at the Enzo Workshop 2018
Supported participants during all session in setting up Enzo (for simulations) and yt (for analysis), and lead a session on advanced yt usage covering, for example, creating derived fields and custom radial profiles, and clump finding.
Spring 2017 Course on “Computational astrophysics”
Guest lecturing for Prof. Brian O’Shea on numerical methods for fluid dynamics
Winter 2014/15 Seminar on “Compact objects”
Teaching assistant to Prof. D. Schleicher including presentation skills training for students
Winter 2014/15 Lab course on “Dark matter in spiral galaxies”
Guidance of students during the lab (degenerate, multi-component fits of rotation curves) and lab report review
Summer 2014 Course on “Computational Physics”
Teaching assistant to Prof. D. Schleicher and PD Dr. W. Schmidt on solving ordinary and partial differential equations with different techniques including adaptive time-stepping, FFTs, relaxation and finite volume methods. Design and implementation of new joint exercise/course assessment format.

Outreach

04/2023 Girls Day at the Hamburg Observatory
Hands-on computational astrophysics lab
10/2022 Open Day at the Hamburg Observatory
Built and demonstrated an interactive supercomputing model
12/2019 Astronomy on Tap in Lansing, MI
Talk on How to wipe your credit card from space. Behold, the magnetar!
04/2019 MSU Science Festival in East Lansing, MI
Lead the "Computational Science: Robots, Supercomputers, and Virtual Reality, Oh My!" booth at the Science Expo where visitors were able to use virtual reality headsets to explore computer simulations of molecules and galaxies, learn to program a robot arm to do things, and learn what makes a supercomputer "super" by interacting with simulations that are running on it.
04/2019 Astronomy on Tap in Lansing, MI
Talk on Rubber bands in space!
02/2019 Society of Physics Students Meeting in East Lansing, MI
Talk with hands-on session on What’s so super in supercomputer? Theory & Practice
11/2018 Rotary Club Meeting in Peine, Germany
Talk on What’s so super in supercomputer and why supercomputers cannot be large enough?
08/2018 Astronomy on Tap in Lansing, MI
Talk and hands-on demonstration on What’s so super in supercomputer? Theory & Practice
04/2018 MSU Science Festival in East Lansing, MI
Lead the "Hands-on supercomputing" booth where a self-made supercomputer model based on Raspberry Pis was presentend.
Provided a virtual reality experience of a turbulence simulation.
10/2017 Astronomy on Tap in Lansing, MI
Talk on We shot what into space? And it came back?
since 01/2017 Astronomy on Tap in Lansing, MI
Member of the organizing committee and responsible for the raffle.
04/2017 MSU Science Festival in East Lansing, MI
Support of the astronomy booth illustrating and explaining, for example, curved spacetime with a marbles and a rubber sheet.
11/2016 Astronomy on Tap in Lansing, MI
Talk on Astrophysical turbulence - fasten your seatbelts for a bumpy ride through space
10/2014 Public night at the Institute for Astrophysics, Göttingen
Talk on Plasma Turbulenz - misst Du noch oder simulierst Du schon? (Plasma turbulence - are you still experimenting or already simulating?)

Professional development

10/2022 - 06/2023 Navigating Successfully in Academia by the Hamburg Research Academy. Five two-day workshops incl. group management, communication, or university dynamics.
03/2019 - 06/2019 Professional Development Program (PDP) of the Institute for Scientist & Engineer Educators as design team leader.
Several multi-day workshops covering an inquiry based teaching approach with specific focus and equity and inclusion in STEM subjects.
Target activity: Sustainable software practices via collaborative version control
07/2018 Performance Portability with Kokkos at Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Four-day training organized by the Exascale Computing Project covering the Kokkos programming model and library for writing performance portable code.
03/2018 - 09/2019 Professional Development Program (PDP) of the Institute for Scientist & Engineer Educators
Several multi-day workshops covering an inquiry based teaching approach with specific focus and equity and inclusion in STEM subjects.
Target activity: Computationally solving and understanding the evolution of a system that is modeled by ordinary differential equations.
01/2018 Write Winning Grant Proposal
Full day workshop by Grant Writers' Seminars and Workshops, LLC
08/2017 Argonne Training Program on Extreme-Scale Computing (ATPESC)
Two-week training organized by the Exascale Computing Project covering programming methodologies that are effective across a variety of supercomputers.

Professional experience

10/2011 - 10/2010
(part time)
Program Manager in the EMEA Presales organization at Hewlett-Packard GmbH
09/2010 - 10/2008
(full time)
Technical Presales Consultant in the EMEA Presales organization at Hewlett-Packard GmbH

Community Service

09/2020 Organization of the "Computational Astrophysics Splinter Meeting" at the Virtual German Astronomical Society Meeting
09/2019 Organization of the "Computational Astrophysics Splinter Meeting" at the German Astronomical Society Meeting
05/2017 - 04/2021 MSU Postdoctoral Association. Member-at-large of the Steering Committee Supported review of awards and the strategic planning process of the Graduate School.

Active involvement in multiple student and faculty panels/committees within the Physics Faculty at the University of Göttingen including

2015-2016 Elected member of the faculty council
2012-2015 Appointed member of the study commission including design and implementation of a new curriculum
2013 Chair of the student representative council
2012-2016 Elected member of the student parliament and student representative council

Memberships

2005 - Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft (German Physical Society)
2015 - Astronomische Gesellschaft (German Astronomical Society)
2019 - European Astronomical Society
2021 - Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics