Biography

Prof. Rob H. Bisseling is a full professor in Scientific Computing at the Mathematics Institute of Utrecht University, The Netherlands. He holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science (cum laude) in Mathematics from the Catholic University of Nijmegen, with minors in Physics and Astronomy, and holds a PhD in Theoretical Chemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

His professional experience spans both academia and industry. He worked as a research mathematician at the Royal Dutch Shell Laboratory in Amsterdam before joining Utrecht University in 1993, where he later served as Director of Education (2012–2015).

Prof. Bisseling’s research interests include parallel algorithms, sparse matrix and tensor computations, graph and hypergraph algorithms, fast Fourier transforms, and the enumeration of self-avoiding walks. He is also known for his pedagogical contributions, including a textbook and video lectures on parallel scientific computing.

Collaboration with the LIP

The visit of Prof. Rob H. Bisseling, a world-renowned expert in parallel scientific computing, represents a strategic and high-impact opportunity for ENS de Lyon. His three-month stay will strengthen scientific collaborations around hypergraph partitioning and sparse matrix/tensor computations, with a clear objective: to develop efficient parallel algorithms for large-scale irregular applications—a research area of major scientific importance.

Hosted by the ROMA team at LIP and working closely with Bora Uçar (CNRS), with whom he has collaborated for over ten years, Prof. Bisseling will contribute significantly to the local scientific community through:

• advanced research collaborations on parallel partitioning of sparse matrices and tensors, building on recent tools such as PMondriaan;
• knowledge transfer through accessible lectures and seminars on parallel computing, based on his well-known textbook and video materials, which can be credited as doctoral training hours (ED InfoMaths);
• direct interactions with permanent researchers, PhD students, postdocs, and engineers at LIP, particularly on numerical methods, large-scale data processing, and high-performance computing;
• interdisciplinary outreach with seminars planned at other Lyon institutes (Institut Camille Jordan, LabPhys, Fédération Informatique de Lyon), addressing topics such as tomographic reconstruction and statistical physics modeling.

In summary, this visit will not only bring high-level scientific expertise to LIP and ENS de Lyon but will also foster a collaborative dynamic with long-lasting local and international impact.

Major publications

• R. H. Bisseling, Parallel Scientific Computation: A Structured Approach using BSP, Second edition, Oxford University Press, September 2020.
• F. Pawłowski, R. H. Bisseling, B. Uçar, and A. N. Yzelman, Combinatorial Tiling for Sparse Neural Networks, in IEEE HPEC 2020, pp. 1–7.
• J. W. Buurlage, T. Bannink, and R. H. Bisseling, Bulk: a Modern C++ Interface for Bulk-Synchronous Parallel Programs, In Euro-Par 2018, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 11014, Springer, 2018, pp. 519–532.
• A. N. Yzelman, R. H. Bisseling, D. Roose, and K. Meerbergen, MulticoreBSP for C: a high-performance library for shared-memory parallel programming, International Journal of Parallel Programming, 42, No. 4, (2014) pp. 619–642.