Uthpala Herath
Sr. Research Computing Engagement Specialist at Duke University
Durham, North Carolina, United States
Summary
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Senior🎓
Top SchoolUthpala Herath is a computational physicist and Sr. Research Computing Engagement Specialist with nine years of experience enabling high-impact research through HPC, data science, and scalable software. She has a strong track record developing open-source tools and scientific codes—from DMFTwDFT and PyProcar to FHI-aims integrations—and has helped secure major HPC allocations and grants for large-scale simulations. At Duke she partners across disciplines and via NCShare to broaden access to advanced computing statewide, translating complex methods into usable pipelines, documentation, and training. Her research contributions include a Nature publication on high-temperature superfluorescence and the integration of relativistic spin-orbit coupling into periodic GWA, reflecting rare depth at the intersection of theory, code, and experiment. She combines hands-on HPC expertise (Python, Fortran, Bash, Docker, CI) with mentorship experience and a history of building active user communities around scientific software. Notably, several of her open-source projects have sustained substantial global user bases and citation impact, underscoring both technical quality and community adoption.
9 years of coding experience
9 years of employment as a software developer
Bachelor's degree, Physics (Major) and Mathematics (Minor), Honors, Bachelor's degree, Physics (Major) and Mathematics (Minor), Honors at University of PeradeniyaDoctor of Philosophy - PhD, Physics, Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Physics at West Virginia UniversityGCE Advanced Level, Physics, Mathematics and Chemistry, GCE Advanced Level, Physics, Mathematics and Chemistry at Trinity College Kandy
Sinhalese, English, Tamil, pāli
Github Skills (74)
python10
powerline10
wave10
code-completion10
screen10
python-scripts10
temperature10
post-processing10
elk10
shell10
cli10
tmux-configuration10
dft10
tty10
console10
Programming languages (9)
Github contributions (5)
uthpalaherath/MatSciScripts
Mar 2020 - Nov 2022
Contributions:135 commits, 141 pushes, 1 branch in 2 years 8 months
romerogroup/pyprocar
Mar 2018 - Jun 2021
A Python library for electronic structure pre/post-processing
Contributions:7 releases, 233 commits, 14 PRs in 3 years 3 months
python-librarypost-processingphysicspythonelk
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