Van Emden Henson is a computational mathematician in the Center for Applied Scientific Computing, where he specializes in devising highly accurate fast linear algebraic methods for problems in cybersecurity and in data mining for intelligence applications. Specifically, he is researches linear algebraic methods for clustering, community detection, and ranking of vertices in large, scale-free graphs and hypergraphs associated with computer, communications, and social networks.  This includes the effective and efficient determination of the eigenvalues and eigenvectors, as well as information-revealing factorizations, of the sparse matrices associated with such graphs and hypergraphs.

Throughout most of his career, Van has specialized in multigrid, algebraic multigrid, and massively-parallel high-performance computing for solving large simulations in physics, chemistry, and materials science. 

Prior to joining the Center for Applied Scientific Computing staff, Van was a professor in the mathematics department at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, and he spent a decade before that as an exploration geophysicist (seismologist) for Cities Service Oil & Gas (later Occidental Petroleum).

Outside the office, Van's main passion is flying gliders, which he does at the Byron and Truckee airports with the Northern California Soaring Association and at Air Sailing, outside Reno, with the Nevada Soaring Association.

William L. Brigg's "A Multigrid Tutorial" and Briggs, Henson, McCormick's "A Multigrid Tutorial, Part Two"