Satish Karra, PhD

Satish Karra is a computational scientist with the Systems Modeling and Computational Science team. He joined EMSL in 2022 as the lead scientist for the Systems Modeling Integrated Research Platform. In this role, he oversees the computational resource needs of EMSL users and advises on simulation and computational strategies to achieve their science objectives. He co-leads road mapping for EMSL's computing and modeling vision.
Satish has 15 years of experience developing scientific software products (high-performance computing, machine learning) for various DOE and private sponsors. Satish’s research is at the interface of engineering, geoscience, applied mathematics, and computing, to solve real-world problems in energy and environmental sciences. He is an expert in building coupled multi-physics and multi-scale models for subsurface applications. His recent works build reduced-order approaches using machine learning and graph-based techniques that emulate physics towards faster decision-making. He also develops methods to link models and experimental data via machine learning. He has 75+ peer-reviewed journal papers and book chapters and is a reviewer for a broad range of journals in computational science, geoscience, flow and transport, and mechanics. He is a developer of the massively parallel code PFLOTRAN and led the parallelization effort in the R&D100 award-winning suite dfnWorks. Satish has mentored 20 students and postdocs. Before joining EMSL, Satish was the team leader for the Subsurface Flow and Transport Team at LANL. At LANL, he led and contributed to projects in the areas of energy, global security, and nuclear security.

Research Interests


Porous media modeling
Reduced-order modeling
Multi-physics and multi-scale coupling
Physics-informed machine learning


Education


PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University (2011)
MS in Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University (2007)
BTech in Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras (2005)


Awards and Recognition


LANL SPOT awards for team leadership and positive influence on co-workers, 2020, 2021.
Distinguished Performance Award (Subsurface Hydrology, Geology, and Geochemistry Science Team), Los Alamos National Laboratory, 2019.
Los Alamos Awards Program award for Publication, Los Alamos National Laboratory, 2017 & 2019.
Distinguished Performance Award (dfnWorks Team), Los Alamos National Laboratory, 2018.
R&D100 Award for dfnWorks, 2017.
Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer Notable Technology Development Award for dfnWorks Software Suite, 2017.
Los Alamos Awards Program award for Outstanding Performance in Prototyping Three-dimensional Calculations and Visualizing of Gas Migration in Fractures Following a Subsurface Explosion, Los Alamos National Laboratory, 2016.
Los Alamos LDRD Early Career Award, Los Alamos National Laboratory, 2014.
Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award, Texas A&M University, 2010.
Mechanical Engineering Graduate Fellowship, Texas A&M University, 2005-06.
‘Graduate Pool’ Fellowship, Texas A&M University, 2005-06.