Postdoctoral Society of Argonne Announces 2022 Officers

The Postdoctoral Society of Argonne is pleased to announce the PSA officers for 2022. The PSA Officers and Board work closely the Postdoctoral Program Office and other leaders across the lab to support their mission to provide a supportive community, facilitate career development, and create a networking platform for postdocs at Argonne.

Congratulations to our 2022 Officers! Argonne postdocs and staff can learn more about the PSA through their intranet page (login required).

President, Kevin A. Brown

I am an Argonne Scholar (the inaugural Walter Massey Fellow) in the Mathematics and Computer Science Division. In this role, I investigate new networking technologies and designs for future supercomputers to solve emerging problems in AI and Climate Science. Prior to this, I received my Ph.D. in Mathematical and Computing Sciences from the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan and completed my first postdoctoral appointment in the Leadership Computing Facility here at Argonne.

In graduate school, I was President of the Tokyo Tech International Students Association for 2 years, representing 1500+ international students from 70+ countries. While at Argonne, I served as co-chair of the 2020 Postdoctoral Symposium where I worked with postdocs from across many divisions to organize our first virtual symposium. As PSA President, I aim to use these and other experiences to further increase engagement and support within the postdoc community at Argonne.

Vice President, Bulut Tekgul

I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Energy Systems Division, working on Computational Fluid Dynamics and Numerical Combustion. I am originally from Turkey and received my BSc and MS from Middle East Technical University. I have received my PhD from Aalto University, Finland in 2021, working on numerical modeling of dual-fuel combustion systems as well as novel model development efforts within our group. I have been always fascinated by using computers to solve real-life engineering problems, which is the reason why I chose to work on this field and that I enjoy what I do. Aalto University has a strong multi-cultural environment, so I have been exposed to different multi-cultural work and social environments, which I believe allowed me to gain new perspectives and be open to new ideas. Hopefully with the re-opening of the lab for on-site work soon, I am hoping to promote both social and career networking activities as the Vice President of PSA to make up for the time we all spent in our home offices.

Secretary, Amanda Carr

I am currently a Postdoctoral Appointee in the Heavy Elements and Separation Science group of the Chemical Science and Engineering Division at Argonne National Lab. I study graphene-based heavy elements separations with interfacial-specific synchrotron x-ray reflectivity and non-linear spectroscopy techniques. I received my PhD in Chemistry from Stony Brook University, NY in 2020 after working with Prof. Surita Bhatia and Prof. Matt Eisaman on x-ray and interfacial characterizations of graphene and other nanocomposites. My infrared reflection adsorption spectroscopy measurements on graphene-polymer laminar composites, the first of their kind, netted me a nomination for the Physical Electronics Conference’s Nottingham Prize where I finished as a finalist in 2020. In graduate school, I was actively involved in the graduate school student government, my department’s chemistry council, and a STEM outreach group devoted to teaching science to economically disadvantaged elementary students in my hometown. I graduated from the University of Rochester, NY in 2016 with a major in Chemistry with distinction and a minor in Women’s Studies. When not thinking about science, I like to cook, go for walks, and spend time with my wife and cat.

Liaison Officer, Ahsan Ali

I am currently a postdoc appointee in the Data Science and Learning Division at Argonne National Laboratory. My research focuses on developing machine learning (ML) frameworks to improve training efficiency and alleviate the burden of developing and managing ML pipelines for users. I received my Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Nevada Reno, where I worked on developing autonomous machine learning frameworks for robust training and adaptive serving with efficient recourse utilization. I earned my MS and BS in Computer Science and Telecommunication Engineering from KOC University in Istanbul, Turkey, and FAST National University in Islamabad Pakistan, respectively. I have also worked at Nokia Bell Labs in Stuttgart, Germany, where I focused on identifying and mitigating the key bottlenecks of ML systems in Cloud and HPC that results in suboptimal performance for applications in production. I recently served as a technical program committee (TC) member for the 2021 Postdoctoral Research and Career Symposium. I have also served in similar positions during my graduate studies. As the PSA Social Liaison, I intend to use my multi-cultural background and experiences to positively contribute toward diversifying the postdoc community at ANL.

About Kristene Henne

Kristene “Tina” Henne is Argonne’s Postdoctoral Program Lead for the Argonne Leadership Institute. In this role, she facilitates the postdoc appointment process, postdoc career development, mentoring, advises the Postdoctoral Society of Argonne and serves as a navigator for postdoctoral issues.
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