• Collaborative virtual environments, multicast networking, astrophysics simulations, science data analysis and archiving, distributed computing, and mathematics research software.
  
  
• Java, C/C++, HTML, XML, object-oriented analysis and design (UML), Perl, MOO; UNIX (Solaris, HP-UX) and Macintosh (MacOS, LinuxPPC).

Senior Software Engineer - September, 1998 to present
Interferometry Science Center (ISC), Caltech/JPL - Pasadena, CA

• Designed and implemented systems supporting the Keck Interferometer, Space Interferometer Mission, and Space Technology 3 projects at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena and the Keck Observatory in Hawaii. Software functionality includes the capture, display, and processing of real-time telemetry; large-scale science archives; user interfaces for engineering and operations; and numerical algorithms for scientific data reduction packages.
• Lead the ISC software development team.
• Authored the software development process and coding standards for the ISC and established the ISC development environment.
• Reverse engineered the Palomar Testbed Interferometer data system.
• Established IPAC-wide software reuse library and oversight group.
• Provided expertise for other projects at IPAC, including the Space InfraRed Telescope Facility.

   

Computing Analyst - June, 1996 to September, 1998
Infrared Processing Analysis Center (IPAC), Caltech/JPL - Pasadena, CA

• Lead developer for Supernova and the SIM Collaboratory, a NASA-funded virtual environment for online, collaborative spaceflight project development (in progress: currently approx. 15K lines of Java plus another 5K lines of MOO).
• Developed astrophysics package to simulate radiative transfer at arbitrary spatial resolutions and with arbitrary geometries (approx. 10K lines of C++, plus some legacy FORTRAN). This software was used to support Hubble Space Telescope observations with Dr. Susan Terebey, leading to the first direct image of a planet outside our solar system.
• Wrote a small part of the 2MASS pipeline process to generate HTML summary Q/A for nightly scan-by-scan reports (approx. 5K lines of C).

   

Graduate Teaching Assistant - September, 1994 to June, 1996
Department of Mathematics, University of Washington - Seattle, WA

• Teaching assistant for multivariable calculus, including one year teaching a supplemental computer lab.

   

Programmer - June to July, 1994
Infrared Processing Analysis Center (IPAC), Caltech/JPL - Pasadena, CA

• Turned the image analysis program Skyview into a shared, networked, collaborative tool.

• Instructors: Steve Deering, Deborah Estrin, Lixia Zhang
• Covered basic multicasting including routing protocols (DVMRP, IGMP, MOSPF, PIM) as well as RSVP, SRM, RTP/RTCP, and various MBone applications
  
  

M.S. in Mathematics - June, 1996
University of Washington - Seattle, WA

• Thesis: From the Even Cycle Mystery to the L-Matrix Problem and Beyond
  (on the computational complexity of finding cycles of even length in directed graphs, and related research problems).
• Developed Web-based software for the teaching of mathematics, including interactive programs for calculus drills and three-dimensional graphing (using Mathematica).
  
  

B.S. in Mathematics - June, 1994
California Institute of Technology (Caltech) - Pasadena, CA

• Recipient of the Hinrichs Leadership Award
• Vice-president of the incorporated undergraduate student body
  (Associated Students of the California Institute of Technology, Inc.)
• Chairman of the Board of Control (executive committee for the undergraduate honor system)

10 Micron Search for Cool Companions of Nearby Stars
Dave Van Buren, Michael Brundage, Michael Ressler, and Susan Terebey.
The Astronomical Journal, August, 1998.

AstroVR, An On-line Collaborative Environment for Research in Astrophysics
Dave Van Buren, Michael Brundage, Pavel Curtis, and Dave Nichols.
Proceedings of the 1994 ADASS Conference, Baltimore. November, 1994.
(An HTML-formatted abstract is also available.)

Network Places - December, 1997
Web exhibition of AstroVR, Jupiter, Supernova, and network places more generally. 

Graceful Graphs - 1995
Introduction to a research topic in mathematics, with original results.

Futures of Mathematics Conference - December, 1994
A summary of a conference I attended at MSRI in Berkeley (where I was first introduced to Oak, which later became Java).

reviewer, Addison-Wesley (for the The Java Series, including The Java Native Interface) - 1998 to present

member, IEEE Computer Society - 1997 to present

member, Gnome Club (honorary Caltech alumni group) - 1996 to present

member, Caltech Student Affairs' Student Advisory Group - 1994

member, Caltech Committee on Hazing - 1993
(helped define Caltech's hazing policy)

house representative, Caltech Student/Faculty Advisory Committee for the Core Curriculum - 1990 to 1993

member, Caltech JV Soccer team - 1990 to 1992

member, Caltech Wind Ensemble - 1990 to 1992

president, highschool chapter of the National Honor Society - 1989 to 1990

page, Oklahoma State Senate - 1989

Don Shepard Essay Contest Winner (Caltech) - 1993

Robert Andrews Millikan Scholar (Caltech) -1990-91 , 1991-92

National Merit Scholar - 1990

Oklahoma Academic All-State (State of Oklahoma) - 1990

Valedictorian (Midwest City High School) - 1990

American High School Mathematics Exam: First place in a seven state region - 1989

Principal Mallet Percussionist (Oklahoma All-State Band) - 1989

Principal Mallet Percussionist (Oklahoma All-State Orchestra) - 1988

Natural languages: English (native), German (beginner)