For our second VA WHPC event, Anne Brown (VT), Jenna Cann (GMU), and Alexis Edwards (VCU) provided exciting insights into their research and how they utilize HPC for scientific discovery.
Anne Brown’s interests include utilizing computational modeling to answer biological questions and aid in drug discovery and the application of computational molecular modeling to elucidate the relationship between structure, function, and dynamics of biomolecules.
Jenna Cann is a postdoctoral fellow at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Her research focuses on studying black holes in dwarf and low metallicity galaxies, in an effort to constrain the origins of supermassive black holes that can be up to billions of times the mass of our Sun. To do this, they use both theoretical modeling with the Cloudy spectral simulation code and infrared and X-ray observations to determine the most effective ways to find these elusive objects. Jenna currently serves as a co-officer in the NASA Goddard Association for Postdoctoral and Early Career Scholars (NGAPS+) and was a co-founder of the GMU Physics and Astronomy department’s diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) organization, SPECTRUM.
Alexis Edwards is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her research focuses on understanding the etiology of substance use disorders, suicidal behavior, and internalizing problems, including how these outcomes are related to one another.
In case you missed it
You can watch the inspiring talks by all three speakers here.
