Michael J. Dvorak - Curriculum Vita

Education

BS in Computational Mathematics (minor in Computer Science), May 2001
University of Minnesota Duluth
MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Atmosphere/Energy Program, March 2007
Stanford University
PhD (expected) in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Atmosphere/Energy Program, 2011
Stanford University

Employment History

Chief Technical Officer
Aqua Sunn, Inc. (Redwood City, CA)
January 2008-Present

Running a field testing program for evacuated tube domestic solar water heating units

Evaluating different types of solar water heating products

Company startup

Technical support for customers

Sustainable Energy Fellow
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) (New York, New York)
June 2006-September 2006

Created wind energy development maps for NY state to educate environmental groups about affected land areas

Analyzed and mapped potential wind, biogas, and biofuel resources to support upcoming farm bill legislation

Gave and submitted public comments on the Long Island Offshore Wind Park

Wrote about wind energy and wildlife issues

Briefed NRDC on the potential negative effects of air pollution and ethanol

Studied renewable energy issues in the developing world by traveling to Malaysia

Assistant Scientific Application Engineer
Argonne National Lab, Mathematics and Computer Science Division
July 2003-July 2005

Assisting users in the implementation of parallel programming algorithms on Jazz, a 350 processor Linux cluster

Organizing tutorials and workshops for users of Jazz

Building the Jazz computing environment to support scientific exploration

Running and optimizing the PSU/NCAR Mesoscale Model v5 (MM5) for the NSF TeraGrid

Grid Computing Consultant
Gridwise Technologies (Krakow, Poland)
September 2004

Evaluated Grid application software for a European Grid consortium

Application Programmer Specialist
University of Chicago, Computation Institute
January 2002-July 2003

Designed and created a Grid enabled scientific model interface with Java and Globus Toolkit (Espresso Scientific Modeling Interface)

Improved code organization and build system for the Fast Ocean-Atmosphere Model (FOAM)

Ran FOAM on Linux clusters in multiple supercomputing environments

Held visitor status in the Mathematics and Computer Science Division, Argonne National Lab

Research Fellowship
Argonne National Lab, Argonne Regional Climate Center
May 2001-December 2001

Built infrastructure for a multidecadal run of the Mesoscale Model 5 (MM5) atmospheric model

Compared empirical tropospheric climate data with MM5 simulation output

Ran the MM5 model in a supercomputing environment

Invited Seminars and Lectures

Dvorak, M.J. "Capturing the Energy of the Wind". CEE 70: Environmental Science and Technology class lecture, Stanford University. 28 May 2008.
Dvorak, M.J., C.L. Archer, M.Z. Jacobson. "Assessing California's offshore wind energy potential". Renewable Energy Student Union, Humboldt State University. 3 April 2008.
Dvorak, M.J., C.L. Archer, M.Z. Jacobson. "California offshore wind energy potential". Gerard J. Mangone Center for Marine Policy, University of Delaware. 13 September 2007.
Dvorak, M.J., C.L. Archer, M.Z. Jacobson. "California offshore wind energy potential". Earth System Research Laboratory Physical Sciences Division, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Boulder, Colorado. 27 August 2007.
Dvorak, M.J., C.L. Archer, W.M. Kempton, A. Dhanju, R.W. Garvine, M.Z. Jacobson. "Offshore wind energy potential near California and the mid-Atlantic bight". Naval Research Lab., Monterey, California. 19 July 2007.

Conference Talks, Papers, and Posters

Dvorak, M.J. "California Offshore Wind Energy Potential". American Wind Energy Assocation Offshore Wind Energy Workshop, Wilmington, Delaware (Plenary talk). 10 September 2007.
Dvorak, M.J., M.Z. Jacobson, C.L. Archer. "Development potential for California’s offshore wind energy resource". American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California (poster presentation and abstract publication in EOS Transactions, AGU, 88(52), Fall Meet. Suppl.). 10-14 December 2007.
Dvorak, M.J., M.Z. Jacobson, C.L. Archer. "Prospects for California offshore wind energy development". 4th annual California Climate Change Conference, Sacramento, California (poster presentation). 10-13 September 2007.
Dvorak, M.J., M.Z. Jacobson, C.L. Archer. "California offshore wind energy potential". Wind Power 2007 conference, American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) Conference, Los Angeles, California (poster presentation and conference paper). 3-6 June 2007.
Dvorak, M.J., P. Suda. "Exploring your world with open source GIS, GPS, and Google Maps". Hackers On Planet Earth 6 (HOPE 6) conference, New York, New York (talk). 23 July 2006.
Dvorak, M.J., J.A. Taylor, S.A. Mickelson. "Designing a Flexible Grid Enabled Scientific Modeling Interface". International Conference on Computer Science, University of Amsterdam (UvA), Amsterdam, Netherlands (paper and talk). 22 April 2002.
Mickelson, S.A., J.A. Taylor, M.J. Dvorak. "Simplifying the Task of Generating Climate Simulations and Visualizations". International Conference on Computer Science, University of Amsterdam (UvA), Amsterdam, Netherlands (paper). 22 April 2002.
Taylor, J.A., M.J. Dvorak, S.A. Mickelson. "Developing Grid Based Infrastructure for Climate Modeling". International Conference on Computer Science, University of Amsterdam (UvA), Amsterdam, Netherlands (paper). 22 April 2002.

Volunteer Organizations

Vice President
Stanford Solar and Wind Energy Project (SWEP) (Stanford University)
January 2008-Present

Obtained, built, and plumbed a unique Chinese evacuated tube solar water heater for the purpose of testing.

Designed and build a 10 meter meteorological tower from scratch.

Analyzed San Francisco Bay Area winds for ideal placement of a wind turbine.

Sustainable Energy Correspondent
This is Hell radio show, Northwestern University WNUR (Chicago, Illinois)
April 2007-Present

Community Scientist
Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization (PERRO) (Chicago, Illinois)
February 2004-December 2005

Acting as a scientific liaison to community, governmental agencies, and media

Analyzing lead emissions from Chicago's number one lead polluter

Made Freedom of Information Act requests to regulatory agencies for pollution data

Collected and analyzed soil samples for contaminants

Creating community maps of soil testing and environmental justice issues

Researched air pollution meteorology of large scale pollution events

Helped obtain mandate for $500,000 in new pollution controls at lead polluting factory

Co-chairperson
Sierra Club, Transit & Sprawl Committee (Chicago, Illinois)
January 2004-August 2005

Organized a campaign to prevent detrimental Chicago Transit Authority funding cutbacks

Worked to promote new urbanism concepts in Chicago by promoting cycling and walking

Promoted rail travel to members and the general public

President
Math Club (University of Minnesota Duluth)
2000-2001

Undergraduate Representative
Department of Mathematics and Statistics (University of Minnesota Duluth)
Fall 2000

Computational Skills

Programming Languages: Java, Python, C++, C, FORTRAN, XSLT, LaTex, BASH.

Scientific Software and Libraries: Mesoscale Model version 5 (MM5), Vis5D, Cave5d, NCAR Command Language (NCL), Globus Toolkit, Message Passing Interface (MPI).

Geographical Information Systems (GIS): Geographic Resources Analysis Support System (GRASS GIS), Manifold GIS, Quantum GIS.

Data Formats and Databases: Network Common Data Form (NetCDF), PostgreSQL relational database, PostGIS, eXtensible Markup Language (XML), HTML.

Unix System Administration: GNU/Linux, TCP/IP networking.

Professional Memberships

American Geophysical Union (AGU)
June 2007-Present
American Meteorology Association (AMS)
June 2007-Present
Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME)
March 2008-Present

Awards

Sylvan Burgstaller Senior Service Award, University of Minnesota Duluth, Department of Mathematics and Statistics,
Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program grant recipient, University of Minnesota Duluth, June 2000-May 2001