Doug L Hoffman

Doug L. Hoffman has worked professionally as a mathematician, a computer programmer, an engineer, a computer salesman, a scientist, and a college professor. Dr. Hoffman earned his undergraduate degree, a BS in Applied Mathematics, from the Florida Institute of Technology. There he cut his teeth on computer models of heat flow and urban traffic simulations. After graduating, he performed hydro-acoustic work for the U.S. Navy in the Virgin Islands, where he first met Allen Simmons, co-author of The Resilient Earth. Later projects included engineering work on the Carrier Automatic Landing System and cockpit field of view simulations, and environmental models for the Saudi Arabian government.

He returned to academia in 1990, earning a Masters degree and a PhD in Computer Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While there he did research in Molecular Dynamics Simulations and, as a member of the BioSCAN team, he helped develop and implement high-speed comparison methods for RNA, DNA, and protein sequences, work funded by the Human Genome Project. After joining the research faculty at UNC, he continued to pursue his thesis work, automated comparison of three-dimensional protein molecules.

In 2000, he left academia to work in industry, serving as an expert architect for a major information processing company, publishing several papers on modeling the performance of large-scale grid computers. With a lifelong passion for education, he also continued to teach Computer Science at Hendrix College and the University of Central Arkansas. He has since retired and is now devoting himself to writing and having a good time. You can find out more about Doug at DLHoffman.com or TheResilientEarth.com.