Michael Parks of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory will give a colloquium talk, “Past, Present, and Future,” at 4 p.m. March 29, in Avery Hall, Room 115.

In the talk, Parks will examine how the Department of Energy’s National Laboratories are an outgrowth of investment in scientific research by the United States government during World War II, and today tackle large-scale complex research problems in the interest of the nation. Further, Oak Ridge National Laboratory was founded on the origins of mathematics and computing. With current capabilities, initiatives and research efforts in these areas, the laboratory has an eye towards the future, and opportunities exist for engagement with Oak RIdge and the national laboratories.

Parks is the director of the Computer Science and Mathematics Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Before moving to Oak RIdge, he was the manager of the Computational Mathematics Department in the Center for Computing Research at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His research interests include nonlocal models, especially peridynamics, multiscale modeling and simulation, domain decomposition methods, and iterative solvers. He holds bachelor’s degrees in computer science and physics, as well as a master’s degree in computer science from Virginia Tech. He earned his doctorate in computer science at the University of Illinois.