Don Morton

Arctic Region Supercomputing Center
University of Alaska Fairbanks
West Ridge Research Building
909 Koyukuk Drive, Suite 105
PO Box 756020
Fairbanks, AK 99775-6020
Voice: (907) 450-8679
Fax : (907) 450-8603
Email: morton AT arsc.edu



During an eight-year enlistment in the United States Air Force serving as an Electronics Technician, Don Morton completed the B.S degree in Computer Science at the College of Great Falls in Montana. Driven by a passion to employ computational methods in the modeling of geophysical phenomena, Don pursued and completed a PhD in Computer Science at Louisiana State University. Since completion of graduate work in 1994 Don has held primary positions in academia at Cameron University in Oklahoma, and at The University of Montana. During this period, he has enjoyed extensive collaborations with the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center, and this has culminated in the assumption of a full-time research faculty position beginning in 2009. During his career, Don has focused his efforts in the modeling of subsurface flow, implementation of collaborative and high-performance computing environments at remote institutions, and bridging the gap between science and computer science, particularly in a classroom setting. Since 2004 Don has taken a particular interest in atmospheric modeling and operational weather modeling, and has spearheaded efforts to deploy operational weather models for the Missoula and Fairbanks Weather Forecast Offices of NOAA's National Weather Service. Don's over-riding professional motivation is to improve the pursuit of science through computational methods, and to make science more accessible to the general population.

Positions

  • June 2009 - . Research Professor, Arctic Region Supercomputing Center, University of Alaska, Fairbanks
  • August 1997 - May 2009. Asst, Assoc, Full Professor, Department of Computer Science, The University of Montana, Missoula, MT.
  • May 1994 - May 2009. Visiting Scientist, Arctic Region Supercomputing Center, University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
  • August 1994 - July 1997. Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematical Sciences, Cameron University, Lawton, OK.
  • 1991 - 1994. Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Computer Science and Department of Petroleum Engineering, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge.
  • January 1990 - December 1990. Graduate Teaching Assistant, Department of Computer Science, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge.
  • 1980 - 1988. General grunt olive-drab-collar labor. Enlisted United States Air Force. Westover AFB, MA; Malmstrom AFB, MT; Elmendorf AFB, AK.
  • 1976 - 1980. General grunt blue-collar labor, workin' for The Man. Factory work, dishwasher, janitor, cook.
  • 1959. Blessed the world with my appearance. Fargo, North Dakota.

    Education

  • FAA Private Pilot and Ground Instructor Certification, 2003.
  • Ph.D., Louisiana State University, 1994. Major in Computer Science. Minor in Geography with emphasis in Applied Climatology. Dissertation: "An Adaptive Finite Element Methodology For The High-Performance Computer Simulation Of Multiphase Flow Processes"
  • B.S., College of Great Falls, Montana, 1988. Major in Computer Science.
  • A.A.S., Community College of the Air Force, 1984. Major in Radio Communications Technology.
  • High school diploma, Algonquin Regional High School, Northboro, MA, 1976.

    Funding

    PI and Co-PI

  • NGA-NURI - "Robust Model-Driven Inversion of Interferometric SAR Time Series for Monitoring Geodynamic Processes"
  • Arctic Region Supercomputing Center - "ARSC-WRF R&D"
  • NOAA/COMET - "A Study of WRF Capabilities in Resolving Temperature Inversions in Alaska and Montana"
  • NOAA/COMET - "A Study of WRF Performance in High-Resolution NWP of Topography-Influenced Weather Events in Alaska and Montana"
  • Minerals Management Service - "Beaufort Sea Mesoscale Meteorology Study"
  • Arctic Region Supercomputing Center - "Real-time Weather Modeling in Alaska"
  • Inland Northwest Research Alliance - "Development of Course in Computational Methods for Subsurface Science"
  • National Science Foundation - "Montana Rockies Center for Computational Science"
  • Cray Research, Inc. / Arctic Region Supercomputing Center - "Object Oriented Finite Element Methods for Cray MPP Fluid Flow Simulations"
  • National Science Foundation - "Development of Distributed Computing Laboratory for Education and Research Activities in Distributed and High Performance Computing"
  • National Science Foundation - Supplement - Research Experience for Undergraduates
  • Cray Research, Inc. / Arctic Region Supercomputing Center - "Parallelization and Optimization of a Hydrologic Model for Arctic Regions"
  • Cray Research, Inc. / Arctic Region Supercomputing Center - "Cray T3E Coupling and Optimization of Parallel Hydrologic and Thermal Models for Arctic Regions"

    Papers and Presentations

  • Morton, D., "Weather and Climate Activities in Alaska's State-of-the-Art High Performance Computing Environment," High Performance Computing in Weather and Climate, Beijing, China, 22 March 2010.
  • Morton, D., E. Stevens, "A Numerical Weather Prediction Study of the Tanana Valley Jet Near Big Delta, Alaska," The Alaska Weather Symposium, Fairbanks, AK, 09-10 March 2010.
  • Morton, D., O. Nudson, D. Bahls, G. Newby, "Pushing WRF to Its Computational Limits," The Alaska Weather Symposium, Fairbanks, AK, 09-10 March 2010.
  • Morton, D., M. Jacobi and G. Newby, "VolksWRF - A Weather Modeling Portal for the General Public," Poster, American Geophysical Union Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, 14-18 December 2009.
  • Morton, D., "Weather and Climate Activities in Alaska's State-of-the-Art High Performance Computing Environment," 2nd OFES International Workshop and ESC-IPRC Joint Workshop on Computationally Intensive Modeling of the Climate System, Honolulu, HI, 09-10 December 2009.
  • Morton, D. and J. Zhang, "An Evaluation of Observational Data Assimilation in Alaska WRF Operational Forecasts," Poster, National Weather Association 34th Annual Meeting, Norfolk, VA, 17-22 October 2009.
  • Morton, D., O. Nudson, and C. Stephenson, "Benchmarking and Evaluation of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model on the Cray XT5" in Cray User Group Proceedings, Atlanta, GA, 04-07 May 2009.
  • Morton, D., "Comparison of ARSCwrf Surface Variables with Observations" The Alaska Weather Symposium, Fairbanks, AK, 10-12 March 2009.
  • Newby, G., D. Morton, "Performance Evaluation of Emerging High Performance Computing Technologies using WRF," Poster, American Geophysical Union Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, 15-19 December 2008.
  • Morton, D., M. Loeffelbein, E. Petrescu, "A Comparison of the Northern Rockies Mesoscale Model with Regional Observations," 12th Great Divide Weather Workshop, Billing, MT, 7-9 October 2008.
  • Morton, D., E. Stevens, and E. Petrescu, "Will WRF at High Resolution Capture Fairbanks' January 2008 Major Snowfall Event?" The Little Alaska Weather Symposium, Fairbanks, AK, 12-13 May 2008.
  • Molders, N., D. Morton, G. Newby, E. Stevens, and M. Stuefer, "Nowcasting and Forecasting Alaskan Weather," Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, April 2008, pp. 515-519.
  • Morton, D., "A Beginner's Venture into Skijoring - From Fairbanks to Western Montana," Paw Prints & Ski Tracks, Newsletter of the Alaska Skijoring and Pulk Association, February 2008.
  • Morton, D., E. Petrescu, "The Northern Rockies Mesoscale Model (NRMM)," 11th Great Divide Weather Workshop, Great Falls, MT, 2-4 October 2007.
  • D. Morton, J. Krieger, X. Fan, M. Shulski, J. Zhang, and A. Klene, "A Study of the Effects of Data Assimilation on Mesoscale Meteorological Modeling in the Beaufort Sea Region," Seventh Conference on Coastal Atmospheric and Oceanic Prediction and Processes, San Diego, California, 10-13 September 2007.
  • J.R. Krieger, J. Zhang, X. Fan, D.J. Morton, A. Klene, and M.D. Shulski, "Modeling the Beaufort Sea Coastal Wind Regime Using MM5 and WRF," Poster, Ninth Conference on Polar Meteorology and Oceanography, St. John's, Newfoundland, 28 May - 01 June 2007.
  • Klene, A.E., D.J. Morton, J. Zhang, X. Fan, J.R. Krieger, M.D. Shulski, "Initial evaluation of real-time weather forecasts for the Beaufort Sea Region, Alaska," Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, 13-17 April 2007.
  • Fan, X., J. Krieger, D. Morton, J. Zhang, M. Shulski, A. Klene, "Simulating Beaufort Sea Coastal Wind Events Using MM5 and WRF," The Great Alaska Weather Modeling Symposium, Fairbanks, AK, 13-15 March 2007.
  • Webley, P., D. Morton, K. Dean, R. Petersen, "Using WRF Forecasts in Operational Dispersion Modeling of Volcanic Ash," The Great Alaska Weather Modeling Symposium, Fairbanks, AK, 13-15 March 2007.
  • Morton, D., N. Molders, "Tradeoffs in Resolution versus Computational Resources in Modeling a Tanana Valley Wind Event," The Great Alaska Weather Modeling Symposium, Fairbanks, AK, 13-15 March 2007.
  • Petrescu, E., D. Morton, "Investigating the Treatment of Winter Inversions by WRF," The Great Alaska Weather Modeling Symposium, Fairbanks, AK, 13-15 March 2007.
  • Morton, D., P.W. Webley, K. Dean, R. Peterson, "The Use of High Resolution NWP data for Dispersion Modeling of Airborne Volcanic Ash and Tephra Fallout," American Geophysical Union Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, 11-15 December 2006.
  • Morton, D., E. Petrescu, A. Klene, "Studying the Effectiveness of the WRF NWP Model in Forecasting Events in Western Montana," 10th Great Divide Weather Workshop, Billings, MT, 3-5 October 2006.
  • Morton, D., A. Klene, E. Petrescu, E. Stevens, G. Newby, P. Webley, R. Peterson, "Challenges in Using WRF as an Operational and Research Tool for High Resolution NWP in Alaska and Montana," Poster, 7th WRF Users' Workshop, Boulder, CO, 19-22 June 2006.
  • Morton, D., P. Johnsen, "High-Resolution Weather Modeling in Rugged Regions," Supercomputing '05 (SC|05), Seattle, WA, 13-18 November 2005.
  • Morton, D., E. Petrescu, "High-Resolution Numerical Weather Prediction in Challenging Terrain," 9th Great Divide Weather Workshop, Great Falls, MT, 25-27 October 2005.
  • Morton, D., E. Petrescu, B. Nordgren, "Real-Time High-Resolution Weather Modeling in 'Rugged' Regions," in Cray User Group Proceedings, Albuquerque, NM, 16-19 May 2005.
  • Morton, D, J. Parham, "Engaging Undergraduates in Computational Science Activities Early in Their Undergraduate Careers," UM CAS Graduate Student and Faculty Research Conference, Missoula, MT, 10 April 2004.
  • Parham, Jennifer R., D. Morton, "Scientific Computing in Climate Modeling," Association of American Geographers 2003 Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, March 2003.
  • Morton, D, J. Tyler, "Potential Application of Dynamically Adaptive Grids for Subsurface Process Modeling," Subsurface Science Symposium 2002, Boise, ID, 14-16 October 2002.
  • Morton, D., G. Robinson, J. Shuckra, J. Parham, T. Warburton, "Building and Maintaining Critical Mass for Research Programs in the Frontier Regions," American Association for the Advancement of Science, 53rd Arctic Science Conference, Fairbanks, AK, 18-21 September 2002.
  • Morton, D.J., J. Parham, J. Sauer, "Montana Rockies Center for Computational Science," poster, DOE-EPSCoR Workshop, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 5-6 June 2002.
  • Edberg R., G. Robinson, J. Parham, D. Morton, J. Shuckra, T. Warburton, F. Gilfeather, "Collaborative High Performance Computing Course Using The Access Grid," Access Grid Retreat 2002, San Diego, CA, 4-5 March 2002.
  • Kucera, B.A., D. Morton, R. Edberg, N. Jovanovic, "Expanding the AG Community in a Closed Universe," In Proceedings of AG Technical Retreat 2001, Argonne, IL, 30-31 January 2001.
  • Morton, D., G. Prabu, D. Sandholdt, L. Slater, "The Integrative Role of COW's and Supercomputers in Research and Education Activities," in 41st Cray User Group Proceedings, 24-28 May 1999.
  • Morton, D.J., L. Hinzman, E. Lilly, Z. Zhang, D. Goering, "Coupling of Parallel Thermal and Hydrologic Models for Arctic Ecosystems." Poster presentation, Supercomputing '98, Orlando, FL, 7-13 November 1998.
  • Hinzman, L.D., D.L. Kane, E.K. Lilly, D.J. Goering, Z. Zhang, and D. Morton. "Modeling Spatially Distributed Coupled Hydrologic and Thermal Processes." Poster presentation in American Association for the Advancement of Science International Cooperation in Arctic Research: Detecting Global Change and Its Impacts in the Western Arctic - 49th Arctic Science Conferences, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 25-28 October 1998.
  • Morton, D.J., L.D. Hinzman, E.K. Lilly, Z. Zhang, D. Goering, "Coupling of Thermal and Hydrologic Models for Arctic Regions on Parallel Processing Architectures." In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on GeoComputation, Bristol, UK, 17-19 September 1998.
  • Morton, D.J. "A Heterogeneous SPMD Adaptive Finite Element Code for Simulating Multiphase Flow Through Porous Media - Linux and Cray T3E Implementations.'' Poster presentation, Supercomputing '97, November 16-21, 1997, San Jose, CA.
  • Morton, D.J. "A Portable SPMD Code For Adaptive Finite Element Methods in Parallel Computing Environments." Poster presentation, Supercomputing '96, November 17-22, 1996, Pittsburgh, PA.
  • Morton, D.J. "Supercomputing Applications on a Linux Workstation Cluster." 85th Annual Technical Meeting, Oklahoma Academy of Science, November 8, 1996, Oklahoma City, OK.
  • Morton, D.J. "An Integrated Scheme for the Distribution of Adaptive Finite Element Code in a Heterogeneous Computing Environment." Electronic poster presentation, Supercomputing '95, December 4-8, 1995, San Diego, CA.
  • Wang, K., D.O. Ogbe, A.S. Lawal, D.J. Morton, "Multigrid Approach for Petroleum Reservoir Simulation on the Cray T3D," in Proceedings of Cray User Group Conference, Fairbanks, Alaska, September 1995.
  • Morton, D.J., J.M. Tyler, A.T. Bourgoyne, and P.A. Schenewerk. "A Distributed Implementation of a Finite Element Approach for the Computer Simulation of Two-Phase Flow Problems." Third SIAM Conference on Mathematical and Computational Issues in the Geosciences, February 8-10, 1995, San Antonio, TX.
  • Morton, D.J., J.M. Tyler, A.T. Bourgoyne, and P.A. Schenewerk. "Development and Implementation of Portable, Distributed Finite Element Methods on a Workstation Cluster and the Cray T3D Supercomputer." 83rd Annual Technical Meeting, Oklahoma Academy of Science, November 12, 1994, Norman, OK.

    Peer-Reviewed Publications

  • Morton, D.J., J.M. Tyler, "A New Adaptive Finite Element Scheme with 1-Irregular Hexahedral Element Meshes," in Proceedings of the 2000 ACM Symposium on Applied Computing, Como, Italy, 19-21 March 2000.
  • Row, W.M., B.L. Adams, D.J. Morton, A.H. Wright, "Security Issues in Small Linux Networks."" In Proceedings of the 1999 ACM Symposium on Applied Computing, San Antonio, TX, 28 February - 2 March, 1999.
  • Morton, D.J., "Development of Parallel Adaptive Finite Element Implementations for Modeling Two-Phase Oil/Water Flow." In High Performance Computing Systems and Applications, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1998.
  • Morton, D.J., Z. Zhang, L.D. Hinzman, S. O'Connor, "The Parallelization of a Physically Based, Spatially Distributed Hydrologic Code for Arctic Regions." In Proceedings of the 1998 ACM Symposium on Applied Computing, Atlanta, GA, February 27 - March 1, 1998.
  • Morton, D.J. "Low-Cost Scientific Computing at Small Colleges and Universities," Journal of Computing In Small Colleges, 12(4):120-126, 1997.
  • Morton, D.J., J. Tyler. "Minimizing Development Overhead With Partial Parallelization," IEEE Parallel & Distributed Technology. Vol. 4, No. 3, Fall 1996, pp. 15-24.
  • Morton, D.J. "The Use of Linux and PVM to Introduce Parallel Computing in Small Colleges and Universities," Journal of Computing In Small Colleges . Vol. 11, No. 7, 1996, pp. 13-19.
  • Morton, D.J., J. Tyler, and J.R. Dorroh. "A New 3D Finite Element For Adaptive h-Refinement in 1-Irregular Meshes," International Journal For Numerical Methods in Engineering. Vol. 38, 1995, pp. 3989-4008.
  • Morton, D.J., K. Wang, D.O. Ogbe. "Lessons Learned in Porting Fortran/PVM Code to the Cray T3D," IEEE Parallel & Distributed Technology. Vol. 3, No. 1, Spring 1995, pp. 4-11.
  • Morton, D.J., J.M. Tyler, A.T. Bourgoyne, and P.A. Schenewerk. "An Adaptive Finite Element Methodology For 2D Simulation of Two-Phase Flow Through Porous Media." In Proceedings of the 1994 ACM Symposium on Applied Computing, Phoenix, AZ, March 6-8, 1994, pp. 357-362.

    Miscellaneous

  • Morton, D.J., K. Wang, D.O. Ogbe. "Development, Porting, and Optimization of a Distributed Direct Solver For the Cray T3D Supercomputer." ARSC Technical Report 94-001, Arctic Region Supercomputing Center, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, 99775, 1994.
  • Morton, D.J., J.M. Tyler, A.T. Bourgoyne, and P.A. Schenewerk. "Analysis and Implementation of a Portable and Versatile Approach for Distributing Transient and Nonlinear Finite Element Computations in Multiprocessor Environments." Department of Computer Science Technical Report 94-001, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, 1994.
  • Grymes, J.M. III, D. Morton, and R.A. Muller. "An Interactive Thornthwaite Water Budget Program For The IBM-PC." LOSC 93-1. Louisiana Office of State Climatology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 1993.
  • Iyengar, S.S., L. Prasad, and D.J. Morton. "Structure Of Genetic Algorithms In Biological Systems." In Structuring Biological Systems: A Computer Modeling Approach. Ed. S. Sitharama Iyengar, Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press, 1992.

    Professional Society Memberships

  • American Meteorological Society, National Weather Association, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

    Interests

  • Recreational dog mushing, hanging out in the outdoors with my dogs, running, hiking, biking, backpacking, fishing, hunting, snowshoeing, skiing, flying, science, reading.
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