Rama Viswanathan

Professor (Emeritus) of Chemistry and Computer Education
Beloit College, Wisconsin, U.S.A.

Courses taught: Social Entrepreneurship in Science and Technology (Practicum), Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming, Introduction to Computer Hardware, Computer Architecture, Computer Networks, Data Visualization, Introduction to Computation and Modeling, Thermodynamics and Kinetics, Molecular Visualization, Modeling, and Computational Chemistry (Quantum Chemistry), and First Year Initiative (FYI) Seminars including "From the Buddha to Gandhi: Nonviolence and the History of India," and "The Seals and Symbols of the Indus Valley Civilization: A Fascinating Mystery."

Teaching/Research Experience

• CTO, GetAt Inc., Palo Alto, California (current).
• Visiting Researcher, Dept. of Chemistry, University of California at Irvine (2015-2017).
• At Beloit College since 1983, and Professor of Chemistry & Computer Education since 1996. Emeritus as of January 1, 2015.
• Sabbatical–Taught minicourses in Computer Architecture and Scanning Tunneling/Atomic Force Microscopy at St. Xavier's College, one of India's first liberal arts colleges to be granted autonomous university status, in Mumbai during fall 2011.  Also developed a prototype of the "Wallputer"–a pervasive display for information on the cloud.
• Sabbatical–Senior Visiting Scientist, BioQuest/BEDROCK Consortium, Beloit College (2003). Worked on projects to develop software and applications of mathematical and computational biology for the undergraduate curriculum.
• Sabbatical–Visiting Scientist, Innovationszentrum Itzehoe, Germany (1996).
• Director of Academic Computing, Beloit College (1990-93).
• Sabbatical–Visiting Associate Professor of Chemistry, Northwestern University (1989-1990).
• Visiting Scientist, IBM Almaden Research Laboratory (1986).
• Post-Doctoral Fellow, Dept. of Chemistry, Northwestern University (1980-83).

Areas of Expertise and Teaching/Research Interests

• Computer Software and Hardware. Programming in high-level languages including C, C++, and Java. Programming in scripting languages–HyperTalk (HyperCard and LiveCode IDEs), JavaScript, Perl, Python, and PHP–including server-side applications. Cloud Computing, Big Data, Machine Learning, and Quantum Computing. Systems Programming and Management (Unix/Linux). Excel front-ends using VBA. Assembly/Machine Language programming. Hardware and software design on laboratory microcomputer and minicomputer systems for control and data acquisition purposes. Interfacing instruments and portable data acquisition using laptops and tablets. Computer networking hardware and software. Techniques of numerical analysis. Bioinformatics and Computational Genomics. Data Visualization.
• Laser Techniques and Technology. Pulsed lasers and associated fast detectors in the UV, visible and IR. Applications in research in photochemistry and surface chemistry.
• High speed Analog and Digital Electronics (including microwave electronics and instrumentation).
• Ultrahigh Vacuum Techniques and Technology.
• Molecular Beam Techniques. Ph.D. research was the determination of geometries of weakly bound complexes involving H2S (formed in supersonic nozzle beams) using microwave and radiofrequency molecular beam electric resonance spectroscopy.

Education

• Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry, University of Oregon, Eugene (1980).
• M.Sc. in Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology (I.I.T.), Kanpur, India (1975).
• B.Sc. in Chemistry, St. Xavier's College, Bombay University, India (1973).

Awards and Honors

• Coleman Foundation Fellowship (2013-2014)
• Beloit College Phee Boon Kang Prize for Innovation in Technology-Based Instruction (2001)
• National Science Talent Scholarship, Government of India (1970-1975).

Professional Activities, Invited Talks, and Grants

• Invited plenary talk on the use of the BioGrapher Excel front-end for graphical visualization in biological applications, and Session Chair at BIOMAT 2015 – 15th International Symposium on Mathematical and Computational Biology, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India, November 3-4, 2015.
  
• Invited speaker, presenting on development of LiveCode front-ends for Big Data at the 2014 LiveCode RunRevLive Developers Conference, San Diego, California, September 4, 2014.
• PI, NCIIA/VentureWell planning grant for development of a Social Entrepreneurship course focusing on Science and Technology (August 2012-May 2013).
• Invited poster presentation and demonstration of  "Pervasive Display" software and "Wallputer" hardware prototype at the ARM Developer Workshop held at MIT, February 3, 2012.
• Invited speaker, presenting on development of "Pervasive Display/Wallputer" software at the 2011 LiveCode Developers Conference, San Jose, California, April 26, 2011.
• NSF/DUE-CCLI grant (DUE 0633651) for the development of a laboratory for computational visualization and modeling (CVM) as part of an innovative minor in the field (2007-2010).
• Participated in Image and Meaning mini-workshops sponsored by Harvard's Initiative for Innovative Computing, MIT, and Sigma Xi at the Illinois Institute of Technology September 7-8, 2006 (IM2.2) and at Harvard University October 25-26, 2007 (IM2.4). The workshops brought together scientists from different fields, graphic designers, artists, computing experts, science communicators and science-center professionals.
• Invited keynote speaker on bioinformatics at the tenth anniversary celebration of the founding of Innovationszentrum Itzehoe (IZET), a technology park funded by the state of Schleswig-Holstein in Itzehoe, Germany (April 2004).
• Attended and completed a Cold Spring Harbor course in Computational Genomics (November 2003).
• NSF/DUE-CCLI grant (DUE 9952604) for pump-probe pulsed laser photophysical studies (2000-2001).
• Member of the International Program Committee, an invited speaker, and a session co-chair at the 12th International Conference on Computers in Chemical Research and Education (ICCCRE XII), held at the University of Pune in India (January 1998).
• Grants of equipment from Apple Computers, Intel, Inmos-SGS Thompson, Johnson Wax Foundation, National Semiconductor Corporation, and most recently from Texas Instruments.

Other Selected Presentations and Abstracts

• BioGrapher: An Excel front-end for computation of graph theoretical properties and graphical visualization of networks. Poster: Rama Viswanathan (invited presenter at special NSF session), Han Lai, Hlaing Lin, Khalid Qumsieh, and John Jungck. American Mathematical Society Annual Meeting, San Diego, California (January 2008).
• Manipulatives, Models, and Mathematics: Biomolecular visualization via analog and digital modalities for measuring and making meaning of 3D geometry and topology. Tia Johnson, Rama Viswanathan, Anna Farbotko, John R. Jungck.  Abstracts Molecular Biology of the Cell 15, 234a (November 2004).
  
• Systems Biology Education: Exploring complex networks in DNA microarrays and metabolonomics with BioGrapher and JavaBENZER. J. R. Jungck, R. Viswanathan, V. Streif, and D. Beck. Poster presented at The American Society for Cell Biology 43rd Annual Meeting, San Francisco, California (December 2003).
• Implementation of pulsed laser-based nanosecond luminescence and pump-probe experiments in the physical chemistry laboratory. Roland D. Saito and R. Viswanathan. Poster presentation, American Chemical Society National Conference, San Diego (April 2001).

Publications

• Biographer: Visualization of graph theoretical patterns, measurements, and analysis in mathematical biology. Rama Viswanathan, Sijia Liang, Yang Yang, and John R. Jungck in: Rubem P. Mondaini, ed.  BIOMAT 2015: Proceedings of the 15th International Symposium on Mathematical and Computational Biology, pp 218-240, World Scientific Press (2016).
• Introduction to computational chemistry: Teaching Hückel molecular orbital theory using an Excel workbook for matrix diagonalization. Joshua Litofsky and Rama Viswanathan. Journal of Chemical Education 92,291 (2015).
• Graph theory for systems biology: Interval graphs, motifs, and pattern recognition. John Jungck and Rama Viswanathan. Chapter 1 in: R. Robeva, ed. Algebraic and Discrete Mathematical Methods for Modern Biology, Academic Press (2015).
• Multiple visualizations of quantitative biology: The ESTEEM collection.  Rama Viswanathan and Gretchen Koch, Abstracts of the American Mathematical Society 29, 257 (2008).
• Off-the-shelf portable data acquisition: Interfacing a serial-port equipped multimeter. R. Viswanathan, G. Lisensky, and D.A. Dobson. Journal of Chemical Education 73, A41 (1996).
• Carbon-carbon coupling of methyl groups on Pt(111). D.H. Fairbrother, X.D. Peng, R. Viswanathan, P.C. Stair, M. Trenary, and J. Fan. Surface Science Letters 285, L455 (1993).
• A methyl free radical source for use in surface studies. X.D. Peng, R. Viswanathan, G.H. Smudde, and P.C. Stair. Review of  Scientific Instruments 63, 3930 (1992).
• Adsorption of gas phase methyl radicals on the oxygen modified Mo(100) single crystal surface. G.H. Smudde, X.D. Peng, R. Viswanathan, and P.C. Stair. Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology A9, 1885 (1991).
• In situ vibrational spectroscopy of contact adsorbed thiocyanate on silver electrodes: experiment and theory. M.G. Samant, K. Kunimatsu, R. Viswanathan, H. Seki, G. Pacchioni, P.S. Bagus, and M.R. Philpott. Langmuir 7, 1261 (1991).
• In situ vibrational spectroscopy of specifically adsorbed azide on silver electrodes. M.G. Samant, R. Viswanathan, H. Seki, P.S. Bagus, C.J. Nelin, and M.R. Philpott. Journal of Chemical Physics 89, 583 (1988).
• Ablation of metal surfaces by pulsed ultraviolet lasers under ultrahigh vacuum. R. Viswanathan and I. Hussla. Journal of the Optical Society of America B3, 796 (1986).
• An inexpensive, shatterproof ballast bulb for a vapor pressure apparatus. R. Viswanathan. Journal of Chemical Education  63, 542 (1986).
• The microwave and radiofrequency spectrum of H2S.Ar. R. Viswanathan and T.R. Dyke. Journal of Chemical Physics 82, 1674 (1985).
• Ultralow repetition rate shutter mechanism for thyratron triggered pulsed lasers. R.Viswanathan and I. Hussla. Review of Scientific Instruments 56, 1468 (1985).
• Infrared laser-induced photodesorption and ultraviolet laser-induced thermal desorption of methyl fluoride and carbon monoxide from polycrystalline copper. I. Hussla and R. Viswanathan. Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology B3, 1520 (1985).
• Laser vaporization of clean and CO-covered polycrystalline copper surfaces. R. Viswanathan and I. Hussla. Laser Processing and Diagnostics. D. Bauerle, Ed. Springer Series in Chemical Physics vol. 39, pp. 148-153, Springer Verlag, Berlin (1984).
• Electric dipole moments and nuclear hyperfine interactions for H2S, HDS, and D2S. R. Viswanathan and T. R. Dyke. Journal of Molecular Spectroscopy 103, 231 (1984).
• Excimer laser induced ablation of clean and CO-covered polycrystalline copper surfaces: Generation and characterization of high energy copper species. I. Hussla and R. Viswanathan. Surface Science 145, L488 (1984).
• Pulsed laser-induced thermal desorption from surfaces: Instrumentation and procedures. D.R. Burgess, R. Viswanathan, I. Hussla, P.C. Stair and E. Weitz. Review of Scientific Instruments 55, 1771 (1984).
• Pulsed laser-induced thermal desorption of CO from copper surfaces. D.R. Burgess, R. Viswanathan, I. Hussla, P.C. Stair, and E. Weitz. Journal of Chemical Physics 79, 5200 (1983).
• Laser-induced thermal desorption of CO from clean polycrystalline copper and Cu(100): Time-of-flight and surface diffusion measurements. R. Viswanathan, D.R. Burgess, P.C. Stair, and E. Weitz. Journal of Electron Spectroscopy and Related Phenomena 29, 111 (1983).
• The structure of H2S.HF and the stereochemistry of the hydrogen bond. R. Viswanathan and T.R. Dyke. Journal of Chemical Physics 77, 1166 (1982).
• Laser flash desorption of CO from clean copper surfaces. R. Viswanathan, D.R. Burgess, P.C. Stair and E. Weitz. Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology 20, 605 (1982).
• Molecular beam electric deflection behavior and polarity of hydrogen bonded complexes of ROH, RSH and RNH. J.A. Odutola, R. Viswanathan, and T.R. Dyke. Journal of the American Chemical Society 101, 4787 (1979).

Updated November 21, 2018