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UrduSchneider is the first woman and third faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh to be named a Packard Fellow since the award’s inception in 1988, and its first in 25 years: Previous Pitt awardees were Jeffrey Lawrence, biology, 1997, and Michael Hopkins, chemistry, 1990 (now at the University of Chicago).
Schneider’s research primarily focuses on the digital modeling of galaxies. Using a GPU-powered code known as Cholla and the world’s fastest supercomputers, Schneider and her fellow researchers simulate galaxies with greater clarity than ever before with a goal of understanding the building blocks of our universe.
“Evan is exactly the type of inquisitive, passionate, early-career faculty member Pitt seeks to attract and nurture. I’m grateful that the Packard Foundation has recognized her creative energy and their willingness to invest in her,” said Rob A. Rutenbar, Pitt’s Senior Vice Chancellor for Research.
After completing her undergraduate degree at Bryn Mawr College, Schneider started her graduate schooling at the University of Arizona in 2010. There, she aimed to investigate the mysteries of the universe.
Looking for a new project in her second year of graduate school, she met with her advisor, Brant Robertson, who now works at University of California, Santa Cruz.
Schneider recalled Robertson telling her that it would be great if someone created software capable of creating simulations on graphics processing units (GPU). She knew that tool would be groundbreaking for understanding how galaxies work — but she didn’t have experience with coding.
But Robertson told her that even though she wasn’t an expert, she could learn how to do it, she said.
That is when Schneider determined that she would never write herself off; if somebody out there was going to create this software, why not her?
As part of her thesis work at Arizona, where she would earn her PhD in 2017, she developed this code herself. Nicknamed “Cholla,” (Computational Hydrodynamics on II Architectures) it is a GPU-based hydrodynamics code that she keeps free and open-source.
Cholla is built to simulate the evolution of galaxies, like our Milky Way galaxy, to better understand the way that they form and the pieces that put them together. Particularly, Schneider found herself interested in the process of feedback in galaxy evolution.
When stars form, a lot of them will explode as supernovae. This process, known as feedback because of its cyclical nature, has the effect of blowing gas back out of the galaxy. Because gas is then needed to form stars, feedback can prevent the formation of new stars until gas returns into the galaxy. Since one would require extremely detailed simulations of the process to understand it, the finer details of this process are poorly understood.
However, as Schneider continued to develop Cholla, it soon allowed for more detailed simulations of this process than any code before it. By the time she completed her PhD and began her work at Pitt in 2020, she was already making strides in creating a way to better understand this phenomenon. At Pitt, she says she found support and was offered resources unlike any other institution she was considering.
“I found a home at a large research institution that provided me with support in a city I love,” Schneider said.
On Schneider, Physics and Astronomy department chair Arthur Kosowsky had to say:
“Evan and her students are going to redefine the state of the art in computer simulations of galaxies. Her hydrodynamics code is designed to run very efficiently on the world’s largest supercomputers, and her simulations will add a level of realism to our models of galaxy evolution that has never been possible before.”
With the award, Schneider aims to grow her team of researchers. She currently has six researchers on her team and hopes to add more. There is always development work to be done on Cholla, and more members of her team means people to focus on and run these simulations
With more members of her team, she can utilize her upcoming work at the Oak Ridge National Lab, which has the world’s first exascale supercomputer, to complete simulations at a more efficient rate than ever before.
Years of hard work and dedication paid off for Schneider with this Packard honor. Being nominated by her department chair and other Pitt administrators, Schneider had one takeaway from the award.
“It’s really just an honor to know people care about my work at all,” Schneider said. “As a post-doc, you grind away and work so hard, and a recognition like this is just a relief, because it tells me all that work was worthwhile.”
