DAVID A. JOINER

2501 Fairfax Rd. #2C
Greensboro, NC 27407
Home: (336) 834-0698
E-mail: joined@rpi.edu

Education:

Ph.D., M.S., Physics, (Sep. 1993 - Dec. 1999), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY.

B.S., Cum Laude, Physics, (Sep. 1989 - May 1993), University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX.

 Current Position: As a postdoctoral appointment as a Staff Scientist at The Shodor Education Foundation, Inc., I am currently working to implement the use of computational science into the classroom. Professional Appointments:

Staff Scientist: Oct 1999 - present, The Shodor Education Foundation, Inc.

Projects: Development of MASTER tools, a suite of computational science exercises designed to utilize numerical computing in science and math classrooms. I am responsible for development of cross-platform tools development, including Macintosh and Windows98, and creation of educational content.

Development of Computational Science Education Reference Desk. I am responsible for the development and promotion of an online resource dedicated to the exploration of computational science, but for the researcher and the educator. Work involves building tools in JAVA, lesson plans in accordance with state and national standards, and online access in HTML and PERL.

 Research/Teaching Assistant: June 1994 - Oct 1999, Dept. of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Research Assistant: June 1994-present, Dept. of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York.

Projects:

Grain formation (May 1997 - Oct 1999): Developed theory for and modeled the growth of carbon particles in stellar outflows by chemical processes. I was responsible for project conception, background research, development, coding, and analysis and presentation of results.

Polarized radiative transfer (June 1995 - April 1997): Developed theory for and designed numerical model of the escape and scattering of light from evolved stars. I was responsible for background research, development, coding, and analysis and presentation of results.

GUI design (Jan 1994 - May 1995): Designed a graphical user interface in MS Visual C++ for a radiative transfer code.

System Administration (Sep 1994 - Sep 1998): Participated in system administration of a multi-platform research lab, with responsibilities increasing over time. I was the primary person responsible for lab maintenance during the final year, and have continued in an advisory role.

Distance Education Teaching Assistant: Jan 1998-June 1999, Dept. of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy & the Anderson Center for Innovation in Undergraduate Education, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York.

Projects:

Instructor for experimental distance AP physics class (Sep 1998 - June 1999): I developed and taught a pilot AP physics course over ISDN and internet based distance education. As promotion of Rensselaer has been a goal of this program, I have also been responsible for entertaining and making demonstrations to visitors interested in Rensselaer's distance learning initiative, including a presentation to a group of visiting executives from Lucent Technologies.

Installation of distance learning computer lab (Jan 1998 - May 1998): I assisted in the creation of a computer lab dedicated to distance learning, with responsibilities including hardware installation, software installation and maintenance, and evaluation of different software options.

I received the 1998-99 Eppenstein Graduate Teaching Assistant Award for my work with this project.

During this time, I have also been continuing my research toward my doctorate.

 Research Associate: June 1998-Aug 1998, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Graduate Student Research Program, Research and Development Laboratories, Hanscom AFB, MA. Projects:

Analysis of IR data: Analyzed observations taken by the MSX satellite mission to determine the impact on the infrared celestial background.

Update of grain growth code: Made corrections to the numerical algorithm for an existing grain growth and hydrodynamics code.
 
 

 Computer System Administrator: Sep. 1997-Sep 1998, Huntington B. Hill Laboratory, Dept. of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York. In addition to my system administration responsibilities with the astrophysics group at Rensselaer, I was the sole system administrator for a department computer laboratory consisting of PCs, UNIX servers, X-station clients, and scanning and printing facilities. Teaching Assistant: Sep. 1993-May 1995, Dept. of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York. As a recitation instructor for Physics I and II, my responsibilities included lecturing and problem solving for 70-90 students per semester. Teaching Assistant: July 1993, Alliance for Education, San Antonio, Texas. As part of a group that worked with inner city minorities, my work included instruction of physics and mathematics, and supervision of 20-30 sixth and seventh grade students. Technical Staff Assistant: Sep. 1992-Apr 1993, Dept. of Earth and Physical Sciences, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas. My responsibilities included instructional laboratory set-up, maintenance, and grading. Tutor: May 1991-May 1993, Help Is Here! tutoring service, San Antonio, Texas. My responsibilities included instruction in: elementary through college mathematics; high school through college Physics; high school Biology, Chemistry, and general science; and Statics. Computer Experience: Numerical Computing: Radiative transfer, chemical kinetics, hydrodynamics.

Languages: Experience with JAVA, FORTRAN, C, C++, HTML, IDL, PERL, CSH scripts.

Distance Education: Intel Business Video Conferencing, LearnLinc I-Net, WebCT.

Application Programming: Web based using JAVA, Windows using Visual C++ and X-Windows using Motif.

Operating Systems: UNIX system administration (SunOS 4, Solaris, IRIX, AIX, Linux), Windows95/98/NT, DOS.

Document Preparation: LaTeX, Scientific Notebook, Microsoft Office.
 
 

 Publications: "Modeling the Transport of Polarized Radiation due to Scattering in Spherical Dust Shells." David A. Joiner, Chun Ming Leung. (submitted to ApJ)

"Using a PC to Model Radiation Transport in a Dusty Medium." David A. Joiner, Chun Ming Leung. Polarimetry of the Interstellar Medium. ASP Conference Series, Vol. 97, 1996.

 Conferences and Workshops Attended:
195th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, Atlanta, Georgia. (oral presentation)
SC99, Portland, OR.
192nd meeting of the American Astronomical Society, San Diego, California. (poster presentation)

4th course of the "Ettore Majorana" Centre for Scientific Culture International School of Space Chemistry, Formation and Evolution of Solids in Space, Erice, Italy.

189th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, Toronto, Canada. (poster presentation)

Polarimetry of the Interstellar Medium, Rensselaer, Troy, NY. (poster presentation)