"Computers and computer programming have always been great hobbies of mine, as well as doing physics and mathematics. To study these subjects further, I followed an exact sciences profile (N&T) at my highschool together with computer science as extracurricular subject. When I entered Utrecht University, I opted to follow up on this with the TWIN mathematics/physics programme, which came in first, just before the mathematics/computer sciences combination (but it was a very close call). My bachelor thesis (for mathematics/physics) was concerned with the visualisation of Conformal Geometric Algebra via a computer program (CGAview, inspired by Leo Dorst's GAview). After this I started my masters in Theoretical Physics and Mathematical Sciences, where I came across the subject Laboratory Class Scientific Computing, then taught by Arthur van Dam. This was quite an eye-opener, even though I had focused primarily on differential geometry and general relativity during the better part of my master (which were both very interesting subjects), I had never had so much fun as with the scientific computing course! Therefore I contacted professor Rob Bisseling about applying for the AiO (PhD student) position that had become available at the Mathematics Department here in Utrecht, to become an AiO for the Scientific Computing group, under his supervision, and he agreed. So I applied in this PhD round, and the position was granted, so now I will be learning a lot about parallel algorithms, write a lot of code, hopefully publish a lot of nice results, and have a lot of fun."

Paul Zegeling

"I started working here in 1993, on exactly the same day as Rob Bisseling. I'd just finished my PhD degree at the CWI (Center for Mathematics and Computer Science) after studying both Mathematics and Astronomy, and was very excited to start at the university. Together with Henk van der Vorst and Gerard Sleijpen, Rob and I started a new programme, called Computational Science, combining Mathematics, Computer Science and a field of application (such as Physics). It was a lot of work, preparing all of the lectures and trying to promote the course, but it was also a lot of fun. I spent some time teaching all kinds of subjects like numerical mathematics (most of them are connected to partial differential equations) and mathematical subjects for Chemistry and Physics students. I've also guided a lot of students with their internship at companies and their final papers."

"Besides educating, I also do research and write articles. One of the things I like most about Scientific Computing is that you can apply your formulas and computer programs to various fields. I've worked with people from Chemistry, Biology, Geology, Medicine, etc. That way you're always meeting new people. Scientific Computing is always interesting, because you have to find the best, fastest, most flexible and most convenient way to solve a problem, using both Mathematics and Computer Science, and the fields of use vary immensely. Even after 16 years, I still learn new things every day."

Gerard Sleijpen

"When I started working here in 1978, I didn't know anything about this field. I had a PhD degree in Pure Mathematics, but at that time computers hardly existed as the computers we know now. In 1990 Henk van der Vorst got the position of Full Professor in Applied Mathematics, and we started working together. We were a great team, and together with Rob and Paul who joined in 1993 we started the new programme of Computational Science. A very good thing about Scientific computing, is that it's a lot easier to explain to people than, for example, Pure Mathematics."

"The main things I do for work are educating, writing articles/doing research, programming and guiding students. I like to work with students and get them excited for subjects, and to see them really get into a problem. That's what I like to do too. Personally, I don't think programming is a lot of fun, until one can lose one self in what you are doing. I think that's what drives me the most, solving problems. Besides that, I also travel for work, and I'm planning on visiting Japan next year. I try to not to travel too much though (once or twice a year) because if you travel too much, you won't have anything left to say, though on the other hand, if you don't travel, not a lot of people will hear what you want to say."

Albert-Jan Yzelman

"I think I probably started programming when I was about eight or nine years old. My dad had bought a computer with a manual telling you how to program all kinds of things, and I got hooked immediately. When I was in highschool, everyone had to do a project connected to their profile (I did 'Exact Sciences'). So together with a friend I made a model of the solar system. We wrote a computer program that did a numeral simulation of all the trajectories of the planets, their positions, etc. In a way you could say that this was Computational Science.

I heard about the Computational Science programme in Utrecht, and really wanted to study it, but when I started my bachelor it had become a part of Mathematics. I didn't study 2 majors intentionally, but because I chose so many courses from Computer Science in my free space, I ended up with a bachelor in both Mathematics and Computer Science. After that I entered the master's programme in Scientific Computing. During my internship, I got an email telling me that there was a vacancy for the position of AiO (PhD Student), so I applied for it. Because I got hired on money from the University itself, I've got a lot more freedom than if I were hired on money for a single project. I can chose which subject I want to do research on. Because Scientific Computing can be applied to many fields, there's a great number of choices. The thing I like best about Scientific Computing is that it's very challenging. Especially parallel programming. It's almost like a sport, the faster the better."

Rob Bisseling

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