Van Emden Henson is a computational mathematician in the Center for Applied Scientific Computing, where he specializes in devising highly accurate fast linear algebraic and applied graph theoretic methods for problems in data analysis for intelligence applications. Specifically, he researches 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.

Previously, Van 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 an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the U. S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey; before he was an exploration geophysicist (seismologist) for Cities Service Oil & Gas (later Occidental Petroleum).

Outside the office, Van is a Major in the Civil Air Patrol (U. S. Air Force Auxiliary), emphasizing Aerospace Education and Emergency Services (search & rescue).  His passion is flying gliders, which he does for the Civil Air Patrol at the Byron Airport, giving Cadets Orientation Flights, and in his own glider at Byron and Truckee with the Northern California Soaring Association and at Air Sailing, outside Reno, with the Nevada Soaring Association.

PhD, Applied Mathematics, University of Colorado Denver, 1990. Dissertation: "Fourier Methods in Image Reconstruction"

MS, Applied Mathematics, University of Colorado Denver, 1988. Thesis: "Parallel Compact Symmetric Fast Fourier Transforms"

BS, Geophysics, University of Utah, 1979

BS, Geology, University of Utah, 1979

Books:

"A Multigrid Tutorial, Second Edition" by William L. Briggs, Van Emden Henson, and Steve F. McCormick, SIAM Publications, 2000

"The DFT: An Owner's Guide to the Discrete Fourier Transform" by William L. Briggs and Van Emden Henson, SIAM Publications, 1995