In Memoriam: David Stampf
November 7, 2014
David Stampf of Brookhaven Lab's Computational Science Center died on Oct. 12, 2014. He was 63 years old.
David worked at Brookhaven Lab for more than 40 years, starting as an application and systems programmer with the Applied Math division in 1974. He was still actively working as a Senior Technology Architect when he died.
His years at the Lab included work with many different departments. He was a member of an International Atomic Energy Agency team sent to Vienna to support the safeguarding of nuclear material, a project manager for the Protein Data Bank, and he worked with the Lab's Blue Gene supercomputers. He also supported the work of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility.
He gave seminars at the Lab and Stony Brook University, and taught at Suffolk County Community College as an adjunct professor of computer science for many years.
"He loved science, traveling, reading, astronomy, and spending time with family," recalled his wife, Masako.
"Dave was always the first person in the group to try to learn new technologies or programming techniques," said Nick D'Imperio, Dave's manager. "Recently, he mastered GPU programming and became the resident expert here at the Lab. Using these techniques, he made important contributions to several recent projects achieving efficiencies and performance gains that allowed the exploration of the science on a much greater scale than previously anticipated."
Nick also noted how David loved to share his know-how with others.
"He was always the first to volunteer to give a workshop or seminar," Nick said. "His dedication, enthusiasm, and expertise will be greatly missed."
David is survived by his wife, his daughter Masami Rodriguez, grandsons Oliver and Elliott, brother Jonathan, sister Melissa, father Robert, and uncle Joseph Dowling.
A memorial service will be held at the Alexander-Tuthill Funeral Home, 6447 Route 25A in Wading River on Saturday, Nov. 8 from 2 to 4 p.m.
In lieu of flowers, contributions in David's memory may be made to Heifer International.
2014-5292 | INT/EXT | Newsroom
