Brandon Runnels
Associate Professor
Ames, Iowa, United States
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolBrandon Runnels is an associate professor of aerospace engineering with 11 years of experience leading a graduate research group that develops high-performance computational mechanics methods and software for problems ranging from solid rocket propellant burn to droplet impact on wind turbines. He combines rigorous PhD-level mechanics expertise from Caltech with hands-on HPC and code development—contributing backend improvements to the widely used AMReX framework, including multigrid and multicomponent solver enhancements. His work spans academia and national-lab research, translating complex multiphysics theory into scalable, production-ready simulation tools. Based in Ames, Iowa, he is known for bridging fundamental mechanics and practical engineering solutions while mentoring the next generation of computational scientists.
10 years of coding experience
16 years of employment as a software developer
Bachelor of Science - BS, Mechanical Engineering, Bachelor of Science - BS, Mechanical Engineering at New Mexico Institute of Mining and TechnologyCalifornia Institute of Technology
Github Skills (11)
solver10
solve10
linear-systems10
c-language10
cprogramming-language10
amr10
grid10
grids10
scientific-computing9
parallel-computing9
cluster-computing9
Programming languages (5)
Github contributions (5)
AMReX-Codes/amrex
Feb 2018 - Nov 2022
AMReX: Software Framework for Block Structured AMR
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:2 reviews, 100 commits, 28 PRs in 4 years 9 months
Contributions summary:Brandon primarily contributed to the AMReX framework by modifying and extending the capabilities of the MLMG (MultiLevel Multigrid) solver. Their work involved updating and refactoring the MLMG, MLCG, MLLinop, and MLCellLinOp modules for multicomponent support, addressing issues in 2D and 3D. The user also added ghost cell updates and implemented boundary conditions.
amrmpistructuredsnl-applicationsmultiphysics
bsrunnels/amrex
May 2020 - Feb 2025
AMReX: Software Framework for Block Structured AMR
Contributions:2 PRs, 59 pushes, 10 branches in 4 years 9 months
software-frameworkamrexstructuredamr
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