An Accidental Mathematician: Stories of a Journey through STEM-Land as a Minority, Princeton/IAS Spring Opportunities Workshop, January 12-13, 2023

Activities in NSF’s Division of Mathematical Sciences, AMS Special Event, JMM, January 15-18, 2020, Denver, CO

A Voice and A Vision of Your Own
Keynote Address, Northern California Diversity Forum, University of California, Merced, April 8, 2017

Computational Math and Science: How Mathematics Will Help Save the World
General Education Course Guest Lecture, University of California, Merced, California, Fall 2016
See earlier versions of this lecture:

Derivative-Free Optimization Methods for a Surface Structure Determination Problem
Applied Math Seminar, University of California, Merced, California, October 7, 2016

Derivative-Free Optimization Methods for a Surface Structure Determination Problem
Workshop on Nonlinear Optimization Algorithms and Industrial Applications, Toronto, Canada, June 2–4, 2016

A Short Tour of Derivative-Free Optimization
Optimization Seminar, University of California, Merced, California, Spring 2016

Derivative-Free Optimization Methods for a Surface Structure Inverse Problem
22nd International Symposium on Optimization, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, July 12-17 2015

A Trust Region Direct Constrained Minimization Algorithm for the Kohn-Sham Equations
Optimization Seminar, University of California, Merced, California, Spring 2015

The TOP 10 Mistakes: The Unwritten Rules of Interviewing for Industrial and Academic Jobs
Empowering Leadership Alliance (ELA), Rice University, Houston, Texas, March 24, 2015

Adventures of an Improbable Scientist
Invited Keynote Talk, UC Berkeley Science Network, Asilomar Conference Center, Pacific Grove, California, March 7, 2015

Derivative-Free Optimization Methods for the Surface Structure Determination Problem
International Conference on Continuous Optimization, Lisbon, Portugal, July 27–August 1, 2013

Mathematical Challenges and Opportunities in Energy and the Environment
25th Biennial Numerical Analysis Conference, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, June 25–28, 2013

How to Succeed in Science: Lessons From the Soccer Field
UC LEADS Keynote, University of California, Santa Cruz, California, March 2, 2013

Derivative-Free Optimization Methods for Determining the Surface Structure of Nanosystems
21st International Symposium on Mathematical Programming, Berlin, Germany, August 19–24, 2012

Future Directions in High Performance Computing
Society of Exploration Geophysicists, Houston, Texas, October 26, 2009.

Computation for CCS, Buildings, and Renewables
Carbon Cycle 2.0 Meeting, Chaminade, Santa Cruz, California, October 11–13, 2009.

The Mathematics Behind Energy and Earth Systems Modeling
Center for Science Excellence, Contra Costa College, San Pablo, California, October 2, 2009.

Large-Scale Scientific Data Management and Visualization
National Energy Technology Laboratory (NTEL), Morgantown, West Virginia, September 22, 2009.

Optimization: The Difference Between Theory and Practice ...
SIAM Annual Conference, Denver, Colorado, July 6–10, 2009.

The Mathematics Behind Energy and Earth Systems Modeling
SIAM Annual Conference, Workshop Celebrating Diversity: Applications of Mathematics, Denver, Colorado, July 6–10, 2009.
the-mathematics-behind-energy-and-earth-systems-modeling-siam.pdf

Computing Sciences at Berkeley Lab
SUPERB: Summer Undergraduate Research, University of California, Berkeley, California, June 24, 2009.
computing-sciences-at-berkeley-lab.pdf

Mathematics, Energy, and Climate Change
M*A*T*H Colloquium, Mathematics Department, Sonoma State University, Sonoma, California, April 28, 2009.
mathematics-energy-and-climate-change.pdf

Success, Failure, and Leadership—What You Need to Know
UC Leads, Sacramento, CA, March 8, 2009.

Linearly Scaling Three Dimensional Fragment Method for Large Scale Electronic Structure Calculations
2008 Gordon Bell Special Prize Talk, ASCAC Meeting, Washington, DC, March 3, 2009.

Optimization: The Difference Between Theory and Practice …
SAMSI Special Workshop and Blackwell-Tapia Conference, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, November 14–15, 2008.

A Direct Constrained Optimization Method for the Kohn-Sham Equations (with Chao Yang and Lin-Wang Wang)
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, November 13, 2008.

A Direct Constrained Optimization Method for the Kohn-Sham Equations
University of Texas, El Paso, Texas, September 12, 2008.

Computing Sciences at Berkeley Lab. Parallel Computing Laboratory (ParLab)
University of California, Berkeley, California, September 9, 2008.

Challenges in Using Derivative-Free Optimization Methods for Scientific Applications
SIAM Conference on Optimization, Boston, Massachusetts, May 2008.

The Role of Mathematics in Amplifying Science Research
Keynote Speaker, Undergraduate Mathematics Conference, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, California, April 19, 2008.

The Role of Mathematics in Amplifying Science Research
NSF CAMP/UC Leads, University of California, Berkeley, California, March 13, 2008.

I Want to Be a (Computational) Mathematician
Keynote Speaker, Marjorie Lee Browne Colloquium, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, January 21, 2008.

A Direct Constrained Optimization Method for Solving the Kohn-Sham Equations
Applied Mathematics Seminar, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, January 18, 2008.

The Role of Mathematics in Amplifying Science Research
Mathematics Department Seminar, University of San Diego, San Diego, California, November 8, 2007.

Computational Mathematics: Role, Impact, Challenges
NCN/COINS/Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, November 6, 2007.

Computational and Mathematical Tools for Electronic Structure Calculations
Molecular Foundry Seminar Series, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, October 24, 2007.

Research Opportunities in Computational Math and Science
Berkeley EDGE Conference, Berkeley, California, October 20, 2007.

Strengthening Your Link in the Mentorship Chain
Berkeley EDGE Panel, University of California, Berkeley, California, October 9, 2007.

Recent Developments in Electronic Structure Calculations
ALS Workshop on Photon-in/Photon-out Inelastic Soft-X-Ray Scattering in Renewable Energy Science, Advanced Light Source Users Meeting, Berkeley, California, October 4–6, 2007.

If I Had a Cookie …
UC LEADS/NSF CAMP Diversity Science Students Seminar, Berkeley, California, August 29, 2007.

Advanced Algorithms for Analyzing Vulnerabilities in the Electric Power Grid
2007 Monterey Homeland Security Conference, Naval Post-Graduate School, Monterey, California, August 21–24, 2007.

Surface Structure Determination of Nanostructures Using a Mesh Adaptive Direct Search Method
Sixth International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Zurich, Switzerland, July 16–20, 2007.

A Short Tour of Computational Science and Mathematics
Conference for African-American Researchers in the Mathematical Sciences, Boston, Massachusetts, June 22, 2007.

Research Job Interviews: The Unwritten Rules
Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate, Rice University, Houston, Texas, June 8, 2007.

A Short Overview of Computational Nanoscience
Advanced Light Source Seminar, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, June 6, 2007.

Surface Structure Determination of Nanostructures Using a Mesh Adaptive Optimization Method
SIAM Conference on Computational Science and Engineering, Costa Mesa, California, February 19–23, 2007.

The Unwritten Rules of Interviewing
SIAM Student Chapter Seminar, Rice University, Houston, Texas, January 12, 2007.

Surface Structure Determination Using Simplified Physics Surrogates
Second International Workshop on Surrogate Modeling and Space Mapping for Engineering Optimization, Copenhagen, Denmark, November 9–11, 2006.

The Three Pillars of Science
Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, California, July 20, 2006.
the-three-pillars-of-science.pdf

An Introduction to Parallel Optimization Methods
SIAM Parallel Processing Conference, San Francisco, California, February 22–24, 2006.

Generalized Pattern Search Methods for a Structure Determination Problem
SIAM Optimization Conference, Stockholm, Sweden, May 15–19, 2005.
generalized-pattern-search-methods-for-a-structure-determination-problem.pdf

LBNL, NERSC and ESnet Update
SOS9 Workshop, Davos, Switzerland, March 21–23, 2005.

Optimization Methods for Simulation-Based Problems in Nanoscience
SIAM CSE Conference, Orlando, Florida, February 12–15, 2005.

Amplifying Science Research Through Computational Sciences
AGEP Seminar, Rice University, Houston, Texas, July 16, 2004.

The Art of Giving Talks: Some Thoughts, Advice, and Lessons Learned the Hard Way
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory CS Summer Student Seminar, Berkeley, California, June 28, 2004.

Optimization Methods in Science and Engineering
SACNAS National Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico, October 2–5, 2003.

OPT++: An Object-Oriented Toolkit for Nonlinear Optimization
Fourth Workshop on the DOE Advanced Computational Software Collection, Berkeley, California, August 24–27, 2003.

OPT++: A Toolkit for Nonlinear Optimization
5th Annual ICIAM Conference 2003, Sydney, Australia, July 7–11, 2003.

Giving Good Talks Isn't as Hard as it Looks
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Summer Student Seminar Series, Berkeley, California, July 22, 2002.

Challenges and Approaches for Simulation-Based Optimization Problems
SIAM Conference on Optimization Conference, Toronto, Canada, May 20–22, 2002.

Some New Approaches for Solving Simulation-Based Optimization Problems
San Diego State University, San Diego, California, December 14, 2001.

Parallel Optimization Methods for Simulation-Based Optimization
Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing Symposium, Houston, Texas, October 19, 2001.

Using Design of Computer Experiments to Quantify Uncertainty in Simulations
Sensitivity Analysis Workshop, Livermore, California, August 16–17, 2001.

Giving Talks for Fun and Profit
Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate Summer Program Seminar, Rice University, Houston, Texas, July 27, 2001.

The Role of Computational Mathematics in Industrial Problems
IMA Career Workshop in Computational Science and Engineering: Minorities in Applied Mathematics - Connections to Industry and Government Labs, Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 4–6, 2001.

Optimization Challenges and Opportunities in the ASCI Program
First Workshop on Large-Scale PDE-Constrained Optimization, Santa Fe, New Mexico, April 4–6, 2001.

A Class of Trust-region Methods for Simulation-Based Optimization
SIAM CSE00, Washington, DC, September, 23, 2000.

I Want to be a Computational Mathematician
Second Minorities and Applied Mathematicians Conference - Connections to Industry and Laboratories, Berkeley, California, September 17–19, 1998.

Optimal Design and Control of Chemical Vapor Deposition Reactors
IMA Workshop, "Minorities and Applied Mathematics: Connections to Industry", October 4–6, 1996.

In Search of Optimal Designs
Minority Undergraduate Research and Participation in the Physical and Mathematical Sciences, University of California, Davis, March 15, 1995.

The Role of Mathematics in Computational Science and Engineering
CAMP Seminar Series, University of California, Irvine, March 8, 1993.

Massively Parallel Methods for Nonlinear Equations and Optimization
DOE/Office of Scientific Computing Workshop, Albuquerque, New Mexico, February 2–5, 1993.

Massively Parallel Scientific Computation
Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in the Sciences, San Antonio, Texas, January 2–6, 1992.

Three Dimensional Semiconductor Device Modeling
Conference on Numerical Optimization Methods In Differential Equations and Control, Raleigh, North Carolina, July 15–17, 1991.

Three-Dimensional Time-Dependent Semiconductor Device Modeling
Proceedings of the Fifth International Workshop on Physics of Semiconductor Devices, New Delhi, India, December 11–15, 1989.

Semiconductor Device Modeling
Miniconference on Newton-Like Methods for Large-Scale Nonlinear Systems, Logan, Utah, August 27–29, 1989.