Staff Profiles

Dr Jean Christophe Desplat

B.Sc., Ph.D.

Contact Details

Director
M: +353 870508885
E: j-c.desplat@ichec.ie

Biography

JC studied for his degree at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK where he gained a BSc (hons) in Instrumentation and Measurements, and later received a PhD for his work on "Monte Carlo simulations of amphiphilic systems" in 1996. His first experience of parallel computing dates back to 1992 on T800 transputers, and later Transtech Paramid i860XP. He later joined the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre (EPCC) at the University of Edinburgh in 1995 as an applications scientist for the EC-funded TRACS programme.

JC worked nearly 10 years at EPCC, during which time he took part in a number of projects and activities ranging from user support, research, teaching at post-graduate level and research student supervision, software development, development and co-ordination of large European programmes. The highlights of these ten years include his involvement in Prof. Michael E. Cates' research group for whom he co-developed the parallel generalised Lattice-Boltzmann code "Ludwig" (see list of publications below), as well as negotiating and setting up EPCC's involvement in the DEISA and HPC-Europa projects (chair of the Technical Executive Board and co-ordinator of the Transnational Access activity).

JC joined the Irish Centre for High-End Computing (ICHEC) in June 2005 as Technical Manager (and employee #5) and later become Associate Director (July 2007) and Director (May 2012). His expertise has proven crucial in establishing ICHEC as one of the leading technology centres in Europe, only within a few years of its creation. Thus ICHEC has now (2013) become:

a leading centre in the effective use of many-core technologies (NVIDIA GPUs and Intel Xeon Phi) for business and academia. ICHEC was awarded the status of NVIDIA CUDA Research Centre in 2010 (among the first seven in the world), the HPCWire Reader's Choice 2012 for the "Most innovative use of HPC in the Financial Services", and the Intel Parallel Computing Centre (IPCC) status by Intel in 2014 (among the first six in the world);
a highly respected partner to industry and the semi-state sector, including such prestigious clients as Tullow Oil, MetEireann, Paddy Power, CarTrawler, and many others ICHEC currently leverages over €700k per annum from its industry engagement programme;
a leading centre for Training & Education in Europe, e.g., currently leading the Pillar on Training, Education & Outreach for the Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE),and effectively the main architects of the PRACE Advanced Training Centres;
a leading provider of High Performance Computing and Platform Technology services to Academia, with a recent government mandate to provide a national platform for Big Data / Analytics (see Department for Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation's Action plan for jobs 2013).

JC is one of the original authors of the e-INIS white paper describing a vision for the establishment of a National e-Infrastructure in Ireland, and a co-investigator of the €13M Higher Education Authority (HEA) PRTLI4-funded e-INIS project. He is also the Principal Investigator for a number of awards from Science Foundation Ireland (SFI, €8.6M), the HEA (€1.1M), the Dept. of Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation, Dept. of Education & Skills (€4.2M), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, €322k) and the European Commission FP7 (€2.8M).

Over his career, JC had the opportunity to work on a number of HPC systems including T800 transputers, Transtech Paramid i860XP, Cray J90/YMP/T3D, Cray T3E-900/1200, SGI Origin 2000/3800 (CSAR), Sun Enterprise 3500/6500 and Fire 6800/15k, IBM p690/p575 cluster (HPCx), IBM BlueGene /L and /P, IBM cluster 1350 and Bull NS6320, SGI Altix ICE 8200EX (Stokes), Bull Novascale R422-E2 (Stoney) and SGI ICE X (Fionn).

J-C holds the position of 'Honorary Professor of Computational Science' at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) since 2008, and of Adjunct Professor in the School of Physics at NUI Galway since 2012. He was also a member of the Digital Humanities Observatory (DHO) Management Board (2008-2012) and of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Climate Change Coordination Committee (2008-2013). More recently, he joined the ICT Sub-Committee of the Medical Council (2011-2013) and the UK EPSRC Research Infrastructure Strategic Advisory Team (2011-).

Research Projects

Project	Start Date	End Date
EC-Earth Climate Simulations - Ireland's Comtributions to CMIP6	31-JAN-16	28-APR-19
2016 FUND HEA CONTRIBUTION T ICHEC 2016 JC DESPLAT	01-JAN-16	31-DEC-16
WeSavvy Innovation Voucher	16-OCT-15	15-OCT-16
Investigation on Image Progressing Algorithm for Drone footage streaming	05-OCT-15	27-NOV-17
ESCAPE- Energy-efficient SCalable Algorithms for weather Prediction at Exascale	01-OCT-15	30-SEP-19
Translation of a novel dynamic asset of platelet function	01-OCT-15	01-JAN-18
E-CAM An e-infrastructure for software, training and consultancy in simulation and modelling	01-OCT-15	30-SEP-20
READEX - Runtime Exploitation of Application Dynamism for Energy-efficient eXascale computing	01-SEP-15	31-AUG-22
ESiWACE - Excellence in SImulationof Weather and Climate in Europe	01-SEP-15	31-AUG-19
EI Match Funded Innovation Voucher - Valitacell Ltd	20-JUL-15	19-JUL-16
Opening HR Limited T/A Opening Innovation Voucher	22-JUN-15	21-JUN-16
SESAME NET	01-JUN-15	30-SEP-18
Research Innovation Voucher Salaso Health Solutions	09-MAR-15	08-MAR-16
High Resolution Climate Projections for Ireland - a Multi Model Ensemble Approach.	02-FEB-15	28-FEB-19
PRACE-4IP	01-FEB-15	30-SEP-18
LERO Platform Hub C Michael Lysaght	01-JAN-15	31-DEC-20
Investiigation on WRF High Resolution Model	05-DEC-14	06-FEB-15
Wind Farm Forecasting with the Harmonie Weather Model	03-NOV-14	03-MAR-15
HIGHER DIPLOMA STUDENTS	15-OCT-14	14-OCT-17
Investigation on Smart Search Engine (SSE)	01-SEP-14	15-DEC-14
ICHEC VATABLE GENERAL ACCOUNT	13-MAR-14	13-MAR-19
ICHEC NON VATABLE GENERAL ACCOUNT	13-MAR-14	31-DEC-20
INVESTIGATION INTO SPIKE 1 PREDICTIVE MODEL JC DESPLAT	20-JAN-14	19-MAR-14
PARALLEL COMPUTING CENTRE AND RESEARCH JC DESPLAT	29-NOV-13	30-DEC-17
RESEARCH INNOVATION VOUCHER J.C. DESPLAT	15-NOV-13	15-NOV-14
RERESEARCH INNOVATION VOUCHER J.C. DESPLAT	04-NOV-13	03-NOV-14
NAME OUR COMPUTER SFI DES AWARD JC DESPLAT	19-JUL-13	19-FEB-15
MET EIREANN METEOROLOGICAL RESEACH AND FORECAST MODEL PROJECT JC DESPLAT	01-FEB-13	31-DEC-15
ICHEC CENTRAL REPORTING ACCOUNT	01-FEB-13	31-DEC-15
HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING INFRASTRUCTURE JC DESPLAT	01-JAN-13	30-JUN-15
PROVISION OF SUPERCOMPUTING SUPPORT JC DESPLAT	08-OCT-12	31-JAN-13
PRACE THIRD IMPLEMENTATION PHASE PROJECT PRACE 3 JC DESPLAT	01-JUL-12	25-OCT-18
ICHEC HEA 2012 FUND HEA CONTRIBUTION T ICHEC 2012 JC DESPLAT	01-APR-12	08-APR-13
IRISH CENTRE FOR HIGH END COMPUTING SFI CENTRE JC DESPLAT	01-APR-12	08-FEB-13
ICHEC/AUTOTUNE PROJECT EU-FP7 COLLABORATIVE SMALL AUTOTUNE NUMBER 288038 JC DESPLAT	15-OCT-11	14-APR-15
ICHEC/RCSI PROJECT DATA ANALYSIS & SOFTWARE OPTIMISATION FOR THE CVD1 STRAND- J C DESPLAT	19-SEP-11	31-JUL-17
PRACE-2IP (283493) E.U. OTHER JC DESPLAT	01-SEP-11	11-NOV-16
ICHEC/E-FISCAL PROJECT E.U.FP7 R INFRASTRUCTURES E-FISCAL NO 283449 JC DESPLAT	01-AUG-11	31-JAN-13
ICHEC HEA 2011 FUND J C DESPLAT	01-JAN-11	16-MAR-12
ICHEC HPC CLUSTER JC DESPLAT RSF STRATEGIC INIT R157	02-AUG-10	31-JAN-12
PRACE 1IP EU COLLAB SMALL 261557 JC DESPLAT	01-JUL-10	31-DEC-13
GENERAL FOR ICHEC TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER ACCOUNT JC DESPLAT	26-MAY-10	31-DEC-17
Quantum-ESPRESSO-Workshop	01-MAY-10	10-DEC-10
ICHEC HEA CONTRIBUTION JC DESPLAT	01-JAN-10	31-MAR-13
EPA STRIVE CCRP 09 FS 5 2 JEAN CHRISTOPHE DESPLAT	01-DEC-09	29-NOV-17
Establishment of ICHEC as a National Facility for	01-JAN-09	30-JUN-13
ICHEC SFI OVERHEADS 08/HEC/1450 J C DESPLAT	01-JAN-09	31-DEC-11
PRTLI 4 E-INIS J.C.Desplat RH4602	01-JUL-08	30-SEP-15
ICHEC E INISH NON NUIG OVERLEADS J C DESPLAT	01-JUL-08	23-OCT-15
ICHEC/MET EIREANN COLLABORATION ANDREW SHEARER	01-JAN-07	31-DEC-20
SFI 04HECI5 HIGH END COMPUTING A SHEARER	09-DEC-04	30-SEP-10

Peer Reviewed Journals

	Year	Publication
	(2007)	'Binary fluids under steady shear in three dimensions' Stratford, K and Desplat, J-C and Stansell, P and Cates, ME (2007) 'Binary fluids under steady shear in three dimensions'. Physical Review E, 76 (3) [Details]
	(2006)	'Nonequilibrium steady states in sheared binary fluids' Stansell, P and Stratford, K and Desplat, J-C and Adhikari, R and Cates, ME (2006) 'Nonequilibrium steady states in sheared binary fluids'. Physical review letters, 96 (8) [Details]
	(2005)	'Sliding periodic boundary conditions for lattice Boltzmann and lattice kinetic equations' Adhikari, R and Desplat, J-C and Stratford, K (2005) 'Sliding periodic boundary conditions for lattice Boltzmann and lattice kinetic equations'. arXiv preprint cond-mat/0503175, [Details]
	(2005)	'Colloidal jamming at interfaces: A route to fluid-bicontinuous gels' Stratford, Kevin and Adhikari, Ronojoy and Pagonabarraga, Ignacio and Desplat, J-C and Cates, Michael E (2005) 'Colloidal jamming at interfaces: A route to fluid-bicontinuous gels'. Science, 309 (5744):2198-2201 [Details]
	(2005)	'Lattice Boltzmann for binary fluids with suspended colloids' Stratford, K and Adhikari, R and Pagonabarraga, I and Desplat, J-C (2005) 'Lattice Boltzmann for binary fluids with suspended colloids'. Journal of statistical physics, 121 (1-2):163-178 [Details]
	(2005)	'Physical and computational scaling issues in lattice Boltzmann simulations of binary fluid mixtures' Cates, ME and Desplat, J-C and Stansell, P and Wagner, AJ and Stratford, K and Adhikari, R and Pagonabarraga, I (2005) 'Physical and computational scaling issues in lattice Boltzmann simulations of binary fluid mixtures'. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 363 (1833):1917-1935 [Details]
	(2004)	'Simulating colloid hydrodynamics with lattice Boltzmann methods' Cates, ME and Stratford, K and Adhikari, R and Stansell, P and Desplat, JC and Pagonabarraga, I and Wagner, AJ (2004) 'Simulating colloid hydrodynamics with lattice Boltzmann methods'. Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, 16 (38) [Details]
	(2002)	'Grid service requirements' Desplat, JC and Hardy, Judy and Antonioletti, Mario and Nabrzyski, Jarek and Stroinski, Maciej and Meyer, Norbert (2002) 'Grid service requirements'. ENACTS report, January, [Details]
	(2002)	'High performance computing development for the next decade, and its implications for molecular modelling applications' Fagerstr\"om, Jan and Faxen, M\"unger P and Munger, Peter and Ynnerman, Anders and Desplat, JC and De Angelis, Filippo and Mercuri, Francesco and Rosi, Marzio and Sgamellotti, Antonio and Tarantelli, Francesco and others (2002) 'High performance computing development for the next decade, and its implications for molecular modelling applications'. Daily News and Information for the Global Grid Community, October, 28 [Details]
	(2001)	'LUDWIG: A parallel Lattice-Boltzmann code for complex fluids' Desplat, Jean-Christophe and Pagonabarraga, Ignacio and Bladon, Peter (2001) 'LUDWIG: A parallel Lattice-Boltzmann code for complex fluids'. Computer Physics Communications, 134 (3):273-290 [Details]
	(2001)	*'Interfacial dynamics in 3D binary fluid demixing: animation studies'** Pagonabarraga, I and Desplat, JC and Wagner, AJ and Cates, ME (2001) 'Interfacial dynamics in 3D binary fluid demixing: animation studies'. New Journal of Physics*, 3 (1) [Details]
	(2001)	'Inertial effects in three-dimensional spinodal decomposition of a symmetric binary fluid mixture: a lattice Boltzmann study' Kendon, Vivien M and Cates, Michael E and Pagonabarraga, Ignacio and Desplat, J-C and Bladon, Peter (2001) 'Inertial effects in three-dimensional spinodal decomposition of a symmetric binary fluid mixture: a lattice Boltzmann study'. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 440 :147-203 [Details]
	(2000)	'LB Simulation of 3D Spinodal Decomposition in the Inertial Regime' Kendon, VM and Desplat, JC and Bladon, P and Cates, M (2000) 'LB Simulation of 3D Spinodal Decomposition in the Inertial Regime'. Molecular Simulation, 25 (3-4):177-185 [Details]
	(2000)	'Persistence exponents in a three-dimensional symmetric binary fluid mixture' Kendon, VM and Cates, ME and Desplat, J-C (2000) 'Persistence exponents in a three-dimensional symmetric binary fluid mixture'. Physical Review E, 61 (4) [Details]
	(1999)	'Introductory Lecture: Inertia, coarsening and fluid motion in binary mixtures' \'aM Kendon, V and others (1999) 'Introductory Lecture: Inertia, coarsening and fluid motion in binary mixtures'. Faraday Discussions, 112 :1-11 [Details]
	(1999)	'3D spinodal decomposition in the inertial regime' Kendon, VM and Desplat, JC and Bladon, P and Cates, ME (1999) '3D spinodal decomposition in the inertial regime'. Physical Review Letters, 83 (3) [Details]
	(1999)	'Persistence exponents in a 3D symmetric binary fluid mixture' Kendon, VM and Cates, ME and Desplat, JC (1999) 'Persistence exponents in a 3D symmetric binary fluid mixture'. arXiv preprint cond-mat/9910339, [Details]
	(1996)	'A Monte Carlo simulation of the micellar phase of an amphiphile and solvent mixture' Desplat, J-C and Care, CM (1996) 'A Monte Carlo simulation of the micellar phase of an amphiphile and solvent mixture'. Molecular Physics, 87 (2):441-453 [Details]
	(1993)	'Lattice models of surfactant systems' Care, CM and Desplat, JC and Brindle, D (1993) 'Lattice models of surfactant systems'. Tenside, surfactants, detergents, 30 (4):281-286 [Details]