Acknowledgments

I would first like to thank my adviser, Professor Laxmikant Kale, for his guidance and support during my doctoral research. He was a constant source of encouragement, support and guidance. It has been a pleasure to work with him for the last eight years. I would also like to thank Prof. Michael Heath, Prof. David Padua, and Prof. Eric deSturler, who agreed to be on my thesis committee, and for providing valuable suggestions.

I would like to particularly thank Prof. Michael Heath for giving me an opportunity to be associated with the Center for Simulation of Advanced Rockets (CSAR) as a research programmer.

Thanks to my colleagues at the Parallel Programming Laboratory: Orion Lawlor, Gengbin Zheng, Terry Wilmarth, Jay DeSouza, Sameer Kumar, Arun Singla, Joshua Unger, Chee Wai Lee, Guna, Mani. They have provided valuable inputs to this work. Orion and Gengbin particularly helped me a lot by taking over the responsibilities of maintaining the Charm++ system, leaving me free to devote time for my research. Thanks also to my ex-colleagues at Theoretical Biophysics Group, Robert Brunner and Jim Phillips, who have been instrumental in keeping the Charm++ software in shape at all times. I wish to express my appreciation to my colleagues at CSAR: Michael Campbell, Jim Jiao, Jay Hoeflinger, Ali, and Prasad for providing codes and working with me for their conversion to Adaptive MPI.

I would like to thank my parents, who encouraged me in all my endeavors. Their guidance and support has always been very valuable asset for me. I would like to mention the considerable understanding shown by my kids, Shivani and Shaunak, that belies their age. The most important of all, I am forever indebted to my wife, Vidula, for everything. She has been with me every step of the way through this arduous process without a complaint. This thesis would not have been possible without her.