Bill Sacks

Biography

Bill Sacks is a software engineer in the CESM Software Engineering Group (CSEG) of CGD. His background is in earth system science and computer science. He have a passion for bringing software engineering best practices to scientific software development. His work largely consists of coupling an ice sheet model (CISM) into CESM, improving the ice sheet-relevant capabilities and general software infrastructure of the Community Land Model (CLM), and helping to develop the CESM scripting infrastructure. He also serve as the software engineering liaison to the CESM Land Ice Working Group, supporting the university community in their use and development of CESM. In addition, he have led - and continue to lead - code modernization efforts for CLM, including the introduction of unit tests and object orientation in order to better modularize the code and support alternative parameterizations. Before entering this position, he helped develop a data assimilation system in CLM, as a postdoc jointly sponsored by NCAR and the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). Prior to coming to NCAR, he was a Ph.D. student in Environment & Resources at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE). His research investigated interactions between agricultural management and climate, through climate and land surface modeling and data analysis.

Research Interest

Software Engineering, Land-atmosphere interactions