-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Department of Scientific Computing, Florida State University, USA
Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 08:02:11 -0800 (PST)
From: Dennis E. Slice <[email protected]>
To: morphmet <[email protected]>
Greetings, fellow morphmetters.
As some of you know, I moved to a new position at Florida State
University last summer. I am now a faculty member in the Department of
Scientific Computing. This is the newest department in the University,
but its basic faculty and staff have been around for quite a while under
names such as the "School of Computational Science and Information
Technology."
Besides operating the university's high-performance computing center,
the department brings together faculty from more traditional backgrounds
(math, physics, geology, biology, etc. etc. etc.) with an interest in
quantitative, interdisciplinary research involving computation.
I am writing to let the morphmet community know about this department as
a potential venue for graduate training for students with quantitative
and computational interests coming from more traditional backgrounds. I
don't think the first place a biology or anthropology student would look
for a graduate program would be something called "Scientific Computing",
but this could be a unique and exceptional environment for the right
students.
I, myself, was more than a little concerned about how faculty from such
different backgrounds could interact, but I am happy to report that I
have found the department to be populated by very bright, yet pleasant,
concerned, and helpful people. And, as my office is not too far from the
main computer classroom, I can also report that these same folks do an
outstanding job of teaching even the most advanced material in a way
digestible to students from diverse backgrounds. In further recognition
of a varied student body, remedial courses are offered to help students
with different skill sets get up to speed in areas they might have
missed/forgotten in/from their prior training.
I would point out, too, that the single largest subset of faculty in
this department is the Computational Evolutionary Biology (CEB) group
with interests in phylogenetics, population genetics, ecological and
evolutionary modeling, and morphometrics. We have strong, deep, and
extensive connections with faculty in many other departments.
I am sure that most members of morphmet are either already graduate
students or faculty and are not necessarily looking for a graduate
program. I am equally sure, too, that many of us have encountered
students with both quantitative and computational interests and a strong
affinity for traditional disciplines. I would encourage you to have them
take a look at our Computational Science program (Masters and Doctoral).
The website is http://www.sc.fsu.edu/ , though the pages haven't quite
caught up with the recent change in departmental status.
I will be glad to entertain any questions with the usual caveat of the
need for patience and persistence when attempting to contact me.
Sincerely, dslice
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Dennis E. Slice
Associate Professor
Dept. of Scientific Computing
Florida State University
Dirac Science Library
Tallahassee, FL 32306-4120
-
Guest Professor
Department of Anthropology
University of Vienna
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