Tsutomu Shimomura

In the fall of 1984 he became a staff physicist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he was one of the architects of an advanced parallel computer. He also worked in the Laboratory's theoretical division with Brosl Hasslacher, one of the nation's leading researchers in computational physics. Shimomura assisted Hasslacher in developing a radical approach to simulating the flow of fluids based on a new model of computation, known as lattice gas automata. It takes advantage of natural parallelism and dramatically speeds computing on a variety of problems.

In later years Shimomura also worked in the area of computer security research. He consulted with a number of government agencies on security and computer crime issues. In 1992 he testified before a Congressional Committee chaired by Representative Edward Markey on issues surrounding the lack of privacy and security in cellular telephones. In February 1995 Shimomura helped several online service and Internet companies track down computer outlaw Kevin Mitnick, who had stolen software and electronic mail from his computers.