Walter Nissen
Project Leader at LLNL
Livermore, California, United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolWalter Nissen is a Project Leader and experienced computer scientist with over 10 years at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, leading small cross-functional teams and coordinating with external collaborators to deliver complex scientific software. He architects and ships high-performance C++ applications across Linux, macOS, and Blue Gene Q, pairing a Qt GUI with Python scripting for usability and customer-driven features. His hands-on background includes UI/customer support and bug triage, while recent open-source contributions improved mesh-analysis tooling in the widely used MFEM finite element library. Walter combines technical depth in parallel numerical software with practical leadership—making final design decisions and setting priorities in mission-driven projects. An early innovator, he led a student team that produced an eBook prototype resulting in a U.S. patent, showing a long-standing pattern of turning prototypes into real-world impact. Based in Livermore, CA, he brings a pragmatic blend of engineering, user focus, and collaborative stewardship to scientific software development.
10 years of coding experience
B.S., B.S. at Harvey Mudd College
Stackoverflow
16,651reputation
1.4mreached
15answers
13questions
Github Skills (15)
c-language10
el10
f10
cprogramming-language10
hpc9
parallel-computing8
ctypes6
xlc6
tcsh6
shell6
macos6
linux6
unix6
opengl6
python6
Programming languages (5)
Github contributions (5)
mfem/mfem
Oct 2020 - Oct 2020
Lightweight, general, scalable C++ library for finite element methods
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:2 reviews, 5 commits, 1 PR in 2 days
Contributions summary:Walter primarily worked on the `miniapps/meshing/mesh-explorer.cpp` file, adding features related to mesh analysis. Their commits include adding options to view scaled Jacobians, incorporating an "mfem-style Print function," and fixing brace styles. These changes enhance the mesh explorer's functionality for visualizing and assessing mesh quality and geometric properties.
c-plus-plusfinitefemamrc-library
wnissen/spack
May 2016 - May 2019
Contributions:4 pushes, 1 branch in 3 years
compilersplatformspackage-managerconfigurationsmultiple-versions
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