By Joel Blumenthal
When Lenore Mullin brought a $312,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) Presidential Faculty Fellow (PFF) award with her from the University of Missouri-Rolla to the University at Albany Department of Computer Science in 1995, she had a plan.
�I want to help the University attain Carnegie Research University I status,� Mullin says. �I am delighted that our administration has decided to make Research I status its goal, is making the necessary investments, and has a plan on how to grow to get us there.�
Mullin takes time from the interview to speak with an undergraduate who thinks she might be interested in computer science, but doesn�t know where to begin. Mentoring students is an important part of Mullin�s life - as is serving on NSF panels that present graduate fellowships.
�At the last one I attended, we gave out 15 NSF graduate fellowships in the sciences to women. I don�t think I�ll ever forget that,� she says.
Mullin�s daughter Lisa played varsity basketball at UAlbany and earned a bachelor�s degree in political science; son Craig earned a bachelor�s in management information science — so joining the faculty here actually was a return to home and family. Mullin is delighted that she and the Center for Computational Science that she directs are integral to the University�s plans for attaining Carnegie Research I status.
�We have to be Research I to draw the best students. We�re identifying faculty, working on collaborative proposals with industry and other institutions, and investing in research that truly crosses interdisciplinary lines,� she adds.
�My area of research (computer languages and their ability to interact across disciplines) is just beginning a period of phenomenal growth,� she says. Computer programs and languages, she jokes, �are to computer science what an electrician is to physics.�
Her research �deals with the numerical aspects of what scientists want to do — computational models, simulations, more reliable core algorithms. It�s about mathematics and how mathematics intertwines in all disciplines, various architectures and methodology,� she says. �How do you put all these together in networks, how do architectures drive systems, how do computer languages interface with people?�
Mullin believes there is plenty of funding available for her faculty colleagues to seek from agencies such as the NSF, the Department of Defense (DOD) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
�Our faculty are as good as or better than any university�s,� she says. �What we need is to continue working with industry, in centers such as (former NSF Presidential Young Investigator) Alain Kaloyeros's Center for Advanced Thin Film Technology, and start obtaining industry-endowed chairs in computer sciences and the related laboratory sciences.�
And more sponsored funding will encourage more students, especially undergraduates, to become involved in research. �When your research becomes integral to the field, students want to work with you. There is a tiering of what we value, and winning an NSF award is the crème de la crème of scholarship, one of the best awards you can get, because it comes with fewer strings attached.�
Being selected as a Presidential Faculty Fellow to study Intermediate Languages for Enhanced Parallel Performance was even better, she says, because, �An NSF early career award says, �we believe that this person�s research is already so noteworthy that that the government is going to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in it.��
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