Rick Wagner

Leader in research cyberinfrastructure with almost 20 years of experience enabling science. Continuous history of supporting researchers across several disciplines, funding agencies, and organizations using a variety of technologies. Engages stakeholders and seeks out diverse viewpoints to create optimal solutions. Open-source contributor at both the code and leadership levels.

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Education

Year Degree
2023 Doctor of Philosophy: Physics
University Of California San Diego
La Jolla, CA
Dissertation: Fast Measurements of Two-Point Statistics in Simulations of Supersonic Isothermal Turbulence
Advisor: Professor Michael L. Norman
2009 Candidate of Philosophy: Physics
University Of California San Diego
La Jolla, CA
2006 Master of Science: Physics
University Of California San Diego
La Jolla, CA
2004 Bachelor of Science: Physics
University Of California San Diego
La Jolla, CA
magna cum laude
Physical Sciences Dean’s Undergraduate Award for Excellence, 2004
2002 Associate of Arts: Transfer Studies
San Diego Mesa College
San Diego, CA
with honors

Employment

Dates Role and Organization
2023-10 – Current Chief Technology Officer
San Diego Supercomputer Center
University Of California San Diego
La Jolla, CA
2020-05 – 2023-09 Principal Systems Integration Engineer
Research IT
University Of California San Diego
La Jolla, CA
2016-09 - 2020-05 Globus Professional Services Manager
Globus
University Of Chicago
Chicago, IL
2012-06 - 2016-09 HPC Systems Manager
San Diego Supercomputer Center
University Of California San Diego
La Jolla, CA
2010-01 - 2012-06 HPC Systems Engineer
San Diego Supercomputer Center
University Of California San Diego
La Jolla, CA
1999-02 - 2014-12 IT Manager
Sterling Corporate Custom Elevator Interiors
National City, CA
2005-01 - 2010-01 Graduate Student Researcher
Department of Physics
University Of California San Diego
La Jolla, CA

Synergistic Activities

Dates Role and Organization
2023-01 – Current Security Representative
Project Jupyter Software Steering Council
2022-01 – Current Member
InCommon Community Trust and Assurance Board
2020-01 – Current President
Herschel Condominiums Association
La Jolla, CA
2021-01 – 2021-12 Fellow
Trusted CI Fellows Program
2016-10 – 2018-04 Secretary
Open Scalable File Systems, Inc.

Publications

Making Common Fund data more findable: catalyzing a data ecosystem
Charbonneau, A. L., Brady, A., Czajkowski, K., Aluvathingal, J., Canchi, S., Carter, R., Chard, K., Clarke, D. J. B., Crabtree, J., Creasy, H. H., D’Arcy, M., Felix, V., Giglio, M., Gingrich, A., Harris, R. M., Hodges, T. K., Ifeonu, O., Jeon, M., Kropiwnicki, E., Lim, M. C. W., Liming, R. L., Lumian, J., Mahurkar, A. A., Mandal, M., Munro, J. B., Nadendla, S., Richter, R., Romano, C., Rocca-Serra, P., Schor, M., Schuler, R. E., Tangmunarunkit, H., Waldrop, A., Williams, C., Word, K., Sansone, S., Ma’ayan, A., Wagner, R., Foster, I., Kesselman, C., Brown, C. T., White, O.
GigaScience, 11, giac105 (2022) doi:10.1093/gigascience/giac105

Coordinating an operational data distribution network for CMIP6 data
Petrie, R., Denvil, S., Ames, S., Levavasseur, G., Fiore, S., Allen, C., Antonio, F., Berger, K., Bretonni’ere, P.-A., Cinquini, L., Dart, E., Dwarakanath, P., Druken, K., Evans, B., Franchist ́eguy, L., Gardoll, S., Gerbier, E., Greenslade, M., Hassell, D., Iwi, A., Juckes, M., Kindermann, S., Lacinski, L., Mirto, M., Nasser, A. B., Nassisi, P., Nienhouse, E., Nikonov, S., Nuzzo, A., Richards, C., Ridzwan, S., Rixen, M., Serradell, K., Snow, K., Stephens, A., Stockhause, M., Vahlenkamp, H., Wagner, R.
Geoscientific Model Development, 14, 629–644 (2021) doi:10.5194/gmd-14-629-2021

ENZO: An Adaptive Mesh Refinement Code for Astrophysics (Version 2.6)
Brummel-Smith, C., Bryan, G., Butsky, I., Corlies, L., Emerick, A., Forbes, J., Fujimoto, Y., Goldbaum, N., Grete, P., Hummels, C., Kim, J., Koh, D., Li, M., Li, Y., Li, X., OShea, B., Peeples, M., Regan, J., Salem, M., Schmidt, W., Simpson, C., Smith, B., Tumlinson, J., Turk, M., Wise, J., Abel, T., Bordner, J., Cen, R., Collins, D., Crosby, B., Edelmann, P., Hahn, O., Harkness, R., Harper-Clark, E., Kong, S., Kritsuk, A., Kuhlen, M., Larrue, J., Lee, E., Meece, G., Norman, M., Oishi, J., Paschos, P., Peruta, C., Razoumov, A., Reynolds, D., Silvia, D., Skillman, S., Skory, S., So, G., Tasker, E., Wagner, R., Wang, P., Xu, H., Zhao, F.
JOSS, 4, 1636 (2019) doi:10.21105/joss.01636

Energy Cascade and Scaling in Supersonic Isothermal Turbulence
Kritsuk, A. G., Wagner, R., Norman, M. L.
JFM, 729, R1 (2013) doi:10.1017/jfm.2013.342

Flux Correlations in Supersonic Isothermal Turbulence
Wagner, R., Falkovich, G., Kritsuk, A. G., Norman, M. L.
JFM, 713, 482 (2012) doi:10.1017/jfm.2012.470

Profiles of Dark Matter Velocity Anisotropy in Simulated Clusters Lemze, D., Wagner, R., Rephaeli, Y., Sadeh, S., Norman, M. L., Barkana, R., Broadhurst, T., Postman, M., Ford, H.
ApJ, 752, 141 (2012) doi:10.1088/0004-637X/752/2/141

Quantifying the Collisionless Nature of Dark Matter and Galaxies in A1689
Lemze, D., Rephaeli, Y., Barkana, R., Broadhurst, T., Wagner, R., Norman, M. L.
ApJ, 728, 40 (2011) doi:10.1088/0004-637X/728/1/40

On the Density Distribution in Star-forming Interstellar Clouds
Kritsuk, A. G., Norman, M. L., Wagner, R.
ApJL, 727, L20 (2011) doi:10.1088/2041-8205/727/1/L20

Turbulent Motions and Shocks Waves in Galaxy Clusters simulated with AMR
Vazza, F., Brunetti, G., Kritsuk, A., Wagner, R., Gheller, C., Norman, M.
A\&A, 504, 33 (2009) doi:10.1051/0004-6361/200912535

The Statistics of Supersonic Isothermal Turbulence
Kritsuk, A. G., Norman, M. L., Padoan, P., Wagner, R.
ApJ, 665, 416 (2007) doi:10.1086/519443

The Santa Fe Light Cone Simulation Project: I. Confusion and the WHIM in Upcoming Sunyaev-Zel’dovich Effect Surveys
Hallman, E. J. , O’Shea, B. W., Burns, J. O., Norman, M. L., Harkness, R., Wagner, R.
ApJ, 671, 27 (2007) doi:10.1086/522912

Book Chapters & Conference Proceedings

Active Research Data Management with the Django Globus Portal Framework
Saint, N., Chard, R., Vescovi, R., Pruyne, J., Blaiszik, B., Ananthakrishnan, R., Papka, M., Wagner, R., Chard, K., Foster, I.
PEARC ‘23: Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing, 1, 43 (2023) doi:10.1145/3569951.3593597

An Open Ecosystem for Pervasive Use of Persistent Identifiers
Ananthakrishnan, R., Chard, K., D’Arcy, M., Kesselman, C., Foster, I., McCollam, B., Pruyne, J., Rocca-Serra, P., Schuler, R., Wagner, R.
PEARC ‘20, 1, 99 (2020) doi:10.1145/3311790.3396660

Petrel: A Programmatically Accessible Research Data Service
Allcock, W. E., Allen, B. S., Ananthakrishnan, R., Blaiszik, B., Chard, K., Chard, R., Foster, I., Lacinski, L., Papka, M. E., Wagner, R.
PEARC ‘19, 49, 1 (2019) doi:10.1145/3332186.3332241

Comet: Tales from the long tail: Two years in and 10,000 users later
Strande, S. M., Cai, H., Cooper, T., Flammer, K., Irving, C., von Laszewski, G., Majumdar, A., Mishin, D., Papadopoulos, P., Pfeiffer, W., Sinkovits, R. S., Tatineni, M., Wagner, R., Wang, F., Wilkins-Diehr, N., Wolter, N., Norman, M. L.
PEARC17, 38, 1 (2017) doi:10.1145/3093338.3093383

COSMIC2: A science gateway for cryo-electron microscopy structure determination
Cianfrocco, M. A., Wong-Barnum, M., Youn, C., Wagner, R., Leschziner, A.
PEARC17, 22, 1 (2017) doi:10.1145/3093338.3093390

User Managed Virtual Clusters in Comet
Wagner, R., Papadopoulos, P., Mishin, D., Cooper, T., Tatineni, M., von Laszewski, G., Wang, F.
XSEDE ‘16, (2016) doi:10.1145/2949550.2949555

Scaling in Supersonic Isothermal Turbulence
Kritsuk, A. G., Wagner, R., Norman, M. L.
ASP Conference Series, 498, 16 (2015) URL

Storage utilization in the long tail of science
Lockwood, G. K., Tatineni, M., Wagner, R.
XSEDE ‘15, 32, 1 (2015) doi:10.1145/2792745.2792777

Opportunistic Resource Usage in CMS
Kreuzer, P., Hufnagel, D., Dykstra, D., Gutsche, O., Tadel, M., Sfiligoi, I., Letts, J., Würthwein, F., McCrea, A., Bockelman, B., Fajardo, E., Linares, L., Wagner, R., Konstantinov, P., Blumenfeld, B., Bradley, D., The CMS Collaboration
Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 513, 6 (2014) doi:10.1088/1742-6596/513/6/062028

Gateways to Discovery: Cyberinfrastructure for the Long Tail of Science
Moore, R. L., Baru, C., Baxter, D., Fox, G. C., Majumdar, A., Papadopoulos, P., Pfeiffer, W., Sinkovits, R. S., Strande, S., Tatineni, M., Wagner, R., Wilkins-Diehr, N., Norman, M. L.
XSEDE ‘14, 39, 1 (2014) doi:10.1145/2616498.2616540

SR-IOV: Performance Benefits for Virtualized Interconnects
Lockwood, G. K., Tatineni, M., Wagner, R.
XSEDE ‘14, 47, 1 (2014) doi:10.1145/2616498.2616537

Using Gordon to accelerate LHC science
Wagner, R., Tatineni, M., Hocks, E., Yoshimoto, K., Sakai, S., Norman, M. L., Bockelman, B., Sfiligoi, I., Tadel, M., Letts, J., Würthwein, F., Bauerdick, L. A.
XSEDE ‘13, 59, 1 (2013) doi:10.1145/2484762.2484834

Hadoop deployment and performance on Gordon data intensive supercomputer
Tatineni, M., Greenberg, J., Wagner, R., Hocks, E., Irving, C.
XSEDE ‘13, 45, 1 (2013) doi:10.1145/2484762.2484831

Gordon: design, performance, and experiences deploying and supporting a data intensive supercomputer
Strande, S. M., Cicotti, P., Sinkovits, R. S., Young, W. S., Wagner, R., Tatineni, M., Hocks, E., Snavely, A., Norman, M.
XSEDE ‘12, 3, 1 (2012) doi:10.1145/2335755.2335789

Exploring large data over wide area networks
Hereld, M., Insley, J. A., Olson, E. C., Papka, M. E., Vishwanath, V., Norman, M. L., Wagner, R.
Large Data Analysis and Visualization (LDAV), 2011, 133 (2011) doi:10.1109/LDAV.2011.6092335

A RESTful catalog for simulations
Wagner, R.
Mem. Soc. Astron. Ital., 80, 365 (2009) URL

Scaling Laws and Intermittency in Highly Compressible Turbulence
Kritsuk, A. G., Padoan, P., Wagner, R., Norman, M. L.
AIP Conference Proceedings, 932, 393 (2007) doi:10.1063/1.2778991

Theory SkyNode
Wagner, R., Norman, M.L.
ASP Conference Series, 382, 289 (2007) URL

Simulating Cosmological Evolution with Enzo
Norman, M. L., Bryan, G. L., Harkness, R., Bordner, J., Reynolds, D., O’Shea, B., Wagner, R.
Petascale Computing: Algorithms and Applications, Ed. D. Bader, CRC Press LLC (2007) doi:10.1201/9781584889106

High resolution simulations of supersonic turbulence in molecular clouds
Kritsuk, A. G., Wagner, R., Norman, M. L., Padoan, P.
ASP Conference Series, 359, 84 (2006) URL

Videos

These videos are a good summary of my activities outside of astrophysics research and provide a chronology of my professional development.

Jump to year: 2024, 2023, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2011

2024

Travis Talks Tech: Super Compute, AI, Physics, and Motorcycles? - with Rick Wagner

2023

Trusted CI Webinar: Using the Trusted CI Framework to Create the CFDE Cybersecurity Program

2020

JupyterCon 2020: The Streetwise Guide to JupyterHub Security, where I overproduced a tutorial during the COVID lockdown.

2019

Jupyter for Science User Facilities and High Performance Computing: Advancing Jupyter, Kubernetes, and Globus at ALCF

Singularity User Group - SDSC 2019: Managing large-scale cosmology simulations with Parsl and Singularity, with a prescient opening about my eventual return to SDSC.

2018

LUG 2018: What is Globus?, where you can jump to about 18 minutes in for one of the smoother Q&As I’ve delivered.

2016

MVAPICH User Group Meeting 2016: User Managed Virtual Clusters in Comet, where my boss pretended during my introduction that he didn’t know I was about to go to work at U. Chicago.

LUG 2016: Lustre Data Mover: Because File Systems are Rooted Trees and rsync Must Die, with the conclusion: “..if you find something, we are going to fix it, because this is our users’ data, and that’s about the most precious thing that I have. I can lose compute nodes any time, but if I lose your data, I lose your work.” Even if this didn’t take over the storage world by storm, I’m still very proud of this work developing a simple architecture to solve a complex problem.

Dell Sponsored for SDSC: Comet: No Research Barriers

Dell and Intel Sponsored for SDSC: SDSC Big Data

2015

LUG 2015: SDSC’s Data Oasis Gen II: ZFS, 40GbE, and Replication. This is very likely the most technical talk I’ve ever given, involving manual InfiniBand routing, diving into Linux kernel performance counters, processor SIMD instructions, patching Lustre and ZFS, and driving peak performance from disk to client over two distinct networking technologies with a parallel file system.

2014

insideHPC: SDSC Encourages Young Minds with Gaming at SC14

2013

insideHPC: SDSC Wraps the Long-Tail Death Match at SC13

insideHPC: Rasberry Pi Cluster to Power Gaming Competition in SDSC Booth at SC13

2011

CineGrid International Workshop 2011: Direct Numerical Simulations of Cosmological Reionization – Field Comparison: Density. This video was rendered in stereoscopic 4K and presented in 3D in the Qualcomm Institute Auditorium.

insideHPC: Research Team Does Galactic Volume Difference Rendering at SC11

insideHPC: Direct Numerical Simulations of Cosmological Reionization: Field Comparison: Ionization Fraction

insideHPC: Direct Numerical Simulations of Cosmological Reionization: Field Comparison: Density

insideHPC: Direct Numerical Simulations of Cosmological Reionizatoin: Field Comparison:Temperature

The Swiss HPC Service Provider Community: Discussion Between SDSC and Argonne About the Challenges of Visualizing Large Data Sets