Dr. Laird's research interests include large-scale nonlinear optimization and parallel scientific computing. Focus areas include chemical process systems, homeland security applications, and large-scale infectious disease spread. Dr. Laird is the recipient of several research and teaching awards, including the CAST Division Outstanding Young Researcher Award, National Science Foundation Faculty Early Development (CAREER) Award and the Montague Center for Teaching Excellence Award. He is also a recipient of the prestigious Wilkinson Prize for Numerical Software and the IBM Bravo award for his work on IPOPT, a software library for solving nonlinear, nonconvex, large-scale continuous optimization problems. Dr. Laird earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon in 2006 and his Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Alberta.