About
Biography
Francesco Di Natale is a Computer Scientist in the Applications, Simulations, and Quality Division in Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Computing Directorate. His primary research interests include software workflow automation, applying software engineering to HPC, and reproducible simulation science. As a result of his research efforts, Francesco is the author and lead designer for the Maestro Workflow Conductor – a Python tool and library that allows users to specify parameterized multistep workflows and automates its execution. Prior to joining LLNL, he worked for Intel Corporation where he worked as a Performance Architect using simulation to study future processor architectures. Francesco holds dual B.S degrees in both Computer Science and Computer Engineering from the University of South Florida, and an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Personal Statement
I want to make HPC and Cloud Computing accessible and easy to use.
I’m a Software Engineer and Architect/Designer by education with practical experience from both the areas of Computer Architecture and HPC. Through the use of simulation during my various experiences in graduate school and industry, I’ve come to appreciate the complexities of developing generalized workflow automation in the computational sciences. My experiences have instilled in me a deep passion for making high performance resources more readily useful and accessible to computational scientists, while also striving to make computational science more reproducible and documentable. These goals have lead me to create the Maestro Workflow Conductor, a lightweight tool for specifying and automating multi-step workflows on HPC resources, which has been used on many of the world’s fastest supercomputers (Summit, Sierra, Lassen, and others). I plan to continue to develop the philosophies, concepts, and software needed to provide computational scientists the tools and know-how they need to better design, develop, and communicate computational workflow process while also continuing to leverage opportunities to make these efforts easier to automate.
It is my firm belief that my goals are achievable by prioritizing sound Software Engineering and Design fundamentals. I love to build tools that users not only trust, but that allows them to more productively focus on their own work towards critical scientific progress; however, simply delivering a tool is not enough. Tools need to outlive singular projects requiring iterative design, strongly componentized modules, and a clear vision for the future. I thrive in environments where my design expertise is allowed to meet my imagination, allowing me to creatively change the way people work and help them better solve their every day hurdles. My experiences have placed me into unique opportunities to work on multi-disciplinary teams, centered around simulating at-scale and with a variety of collaborators and contributors.
Contact me
If you’d like to reach me, follow me, or game with me – try one of the following. Sadly, I don’t post much right now but I hope to soon.
Interests, Passions, and Hobbies
My hobbies vary quite a bit – I’m currently working on learning to knit, but my other hobbies include (and probably are not limited to):
- Building and painting Gunpla
- Cooking (Currently working on Sourdough starters)
- 3D Printing
- Gaming (currently I mainly play the Nintendo Switch and Kerbal Space Program)
- Learning about code (trying to become familiar with the n-body problem)
- Anime
Photos of Rey
As a dog dad, I have to take the opportunity to show off my little one as much as possible.
