Resume
Carlos A. Cruz
Contact
Work
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, MD 20771
(703) 405-4721
carlos.a.cruz@nasa.gov
Skills
- High-Performance Computing (HPC)
- Expertise with large-scale climate and data assimilation workflows
- Experience running and optimizing models on HPC clusters and cloud-based environments
- Numerical Models
- NU-WRF, GEOS-5, ModelE, MOM4, HyCOM
- Programming & Scripting
- Fortran, Python, C/C++, Bash
- Focus on scientific computing, data processing, and workflow automation
- Version Control & Collaboration
- Git, GitHub – branching workflows, CI/CD integration
- Data Visualization
- Python Data Science Stack: Matplotlib, Cartopy, xarray, pandas, Plotly, and custom visualization package eViz
- Matlab, GrADS
- Automated figure generation, interactive dashboards, and publication-ready graphics
- Documentation & Reporting
- LaTeX, Sphinx – reproducible documentation
- MS Office – technical reports and presentations
- Operating Systems
- Unix/Linux, macOS (Darwin), Windows
Research Interests
Software engineering for scientific applications, climate dynamics, numerical modeling of physical systems, machine learning.
Education
George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
Ph.D., Climate Dynamics — Dec 2010
- Dissertation: “Global Circulation Variability Induced by Southern Ocean Winds”
- Advisor: Dr. Barry Klinger
George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
Ph.D. Coursework, Computational Materials Science — Proposal Completed, Feb 2000
- Thesis proposal: “Optimization of molecular clusters”
George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
M.S., Applied Physics — May 1996
B.S., Physics — May 1988
Professional Experience
SSAI @ NASA GSFC — Chief Scientific Programmer Analyst (May 2012 – Present)
- Lead software engineer of NASA Unified WRF (NU-WRF)
- Lead developer of eViz, an easy to use real-time Earth system model visualization tool
- Lead developer of reg, a Python-based regression testing tool
- Refactored NASA-GISS modelE for HPC compatibility and regression testing
- Contributor to TERRAHydro and CREST tensor framework
- Trained junior staff and organized NASA software training bootcamps
NGIT @ NASA GSFC — Physicist IV (Jan 2007 – Apr 2012)
- Co-developed giga-particle stratospheric trajectory model (C++/MPI)
- Meteorological event cataloging via Moving Objects Database
- Collaborated on Elastic Parallel IO (EPIO) using ADIOS
- Developed GEOS-5 documentation and community support tools
NGIT @ NASA GSFC — Technical Staff, Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (May 2002 – Dec 2006)
- Contributed to ESMF and GEOS-5 integration
- Designed and implemented software for data assimilation systems
NGIT @ NASA GSFC — Senior Technical Staff, Science Data Systems (Jan 2002 – Apr 2002)
- Led design of a weather-informed disease forecasting tool
NGIT @ NASA GSFC — Senior Technical Staff, NCCS (Apr 2000 – Dec 2001)
- Developed coupler interface for weather and data assimilation models
SAIC @ US Census Bureau — Programmer (Aug 1998 – Mar 2000)
- Developed GA-based map coloring algorithm for Census 2000
CACI Federal — Systems Engineer (Mar 1996 – Jan 1997)
- Developed GUI and Oracle procedures for CMIS system
Walter Reed Army Institute of Research — Research Assistant (Oct 1990 – Oct 1995)
- Participated in Filmless Dental Imaging, NMR polymer analysis, and microencapsulation experiments
Awards
- Computational Sciences and Informatics Fellowship (1997–1998)
- Robert H. Goddard Exceptional Achievement Team Award (2010)
- Northrop Grumman TAP Award (2011)
- TASC Special Achievement Award (2001)
Societies
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- American Meteorological Society (AMS)
- Sigma Xi Research Society
Special Qualifications
- Numerical & Geophysical Modeling
- Scientific & Parallel Programming (MPI, HPC)
- Workflow Optimization for Climate Models
- Fluent in Spanish · U.S. Citizen
Volunteerism
- STEM Tutor – Alexandria City (2016–17) · Fairfax County (2014)
- Science Fair Judge – Alexandria & Fairfax Regional Fairs
- Sigma Xi Research Showcase Judge
Detailed CV available here: Download CV (PDF)