Tamara Kolda has been fascinated with math and science since she was a child growing up in suburban Maryland. As a young girl, she spent her summers attending math and computer camps. Her parents were extremely supportive of all her educational activities.

After high school, Tamara went on to attend the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). She majored in mathematics and was encouraged by her UMBC professors to consider graduate school. She learned of the NPSC program through a fellow student who was one year older, had applied to the program, and had been selected as a runner-up. ?My friend?s near success convinced me that I had a chance as well, so I applied for the NPSC fellowship the following year.?

Tamara?s NPSC fellowship was sponsored by the National Security Agency (NSA) in Fort Meade, Maryland. ?My work experience at the NSA really opened my eyes to the many opportunities in developing algorithms for high-performance computers.? By the time she started graduate school at the University of Maryland at College Park, her research focus had shifted from pure to applied mathematics. Her two summers at the NSA led also her on to three summers at a government contractor, the Institute for Defense Analyses Center for Computational Sciences in Bowie, Maryland.

Upon graduation, Tamara accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a Department of Energy (DOE) facility in Oak Ridge Tennessee. From there, she went on to her current position as a member of the technical staff in the Computational Sciences and Mathematics Research department at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, California.

For the past few years, Tamara has been working in a variety of research areas, with her primary focus being the development of numerical algorithms and software. She received a 2003 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in recognition of her innovative research in algorithms and software for scientific computing, optimization, parallel computing and nonlinear solvers.

Tamara is also involved in service to her professional community through the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) and the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM). Tamara is also a frequent mentor to summer interns at Sandia; ?I enjoy working with students and fondly recall my own time as a student intern.?

?I cannot thank the NPSC program and my sponsoring agency, the NSA, enough. They not only offered me the means to undertake my graduate education but also, though the connection to a sponsoring agency, introduced me to wonderful mentors and interesting problems. This is a unique fellowship, and I hope many other students are afforded the same opportunities that I was.?

© Copyright 2004, National Physical Science Consortium.