His impressive career includes being the first African American to earn a doctorate in theoretical physics from Stanford University. Since then, Giles has held key roles, such as SC Conference General Chair in 2002 and serving on the Boston University Board of Trustees. He also has been recognized with honors, including the A. Nico Habermann Award; multiple teaching awards; and is an American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow (2019). He is a driving force in promoting diversity and excellence in computing research and leads the SC23 Keynote and Invited Talks programs, exemplifying his advocacy.

Humanizing Technology

In this I Am HPC profile, Giles shares his unique perspective, providing insights into his work as a prominent physicist and computer engineer, as well as his passionate mission to humanize technology and bridge the digital divide.

Roscoe C. Giles, III

Professor, Boston University

Roscoe on LinkedIN

Q: What single event most made you realize you wanted a career in HPC/computing?

Giles: Probably not really a single event but a sequence of high points spread over time. My first introduction to a computer was an IBM 1620 when I was in high school around 1963 or 1964. We programmed it in FORTRAN II. Everything (including the two-pass compiler) was on cards. Still, it did amazing things.

Working as a graduate student around 1973, I studied string-like models and used computer simulations (this time an IBM 360/91 at SLAC) to compute their oscillation modes and produce (simple) graphics.

My turning point (from physics to computing) arose with early massively parallel computers, particularly the Connection Machine, which we had at Boston University around 1990. I loved programming it in LISP (list processing) and mapping problems onto its hypercube communication network.

Q: What do you consider your biggest contribution to the HPC/computing community?

Giles: Not so sure. I did early work on massively parallel computer simulations in QCD (quantum chromodynamics) and molecular dynamics back when 1 million particles was considered a large problem. I also helped lead education and outreach efforts for one of the NSF (National Science Foundation) supercomputing partnerships in the late ’90s.

Another set of community impacts came from my work on the DOE (Department of Energy) Advanced Scientific Computing Advisory Committee, which I served on starting at its founding in 2000 and through the start of the exascale computing initiative. I served on the Computational Science Graduate Fellowship steering committee for many years.

Finally, I chaired the SC02 conference over 20 years ago.

I would like to think that in some of these roles, I helped encourage Black and other underrepresented groups of people to engage with computing and HPC.

Q: In the past 35 years, what is the most significant overlooked breakthrough that has impacted the field in your eyes?

Giles: The vast improvement in software tools and the level of software engineering in the best of HPC systems. We are much better than we used to be in building composable, maintainable, testable software—and still probably have a long way to go :-))

Q: What would you like to see change about, within, or among the HPC/computing community?

Giles: The community needs to be more culturally diverse and embrace a wider range of perspectives, ideas, and problems. I love the theme of this year’s SC, which draws our attention to the human dimensions of our work and efforts.

Q: What would do you look forward to regarding the HPC/computing community?

Giles: As you probably have gathered, I have been around for a long time in the HPC community. I am very encouraged and proud of the current and future generations I see coming up in our community. I look forward to the ideas they will generate and the directions they will take us.

Currently, Ellingson serves as an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, where she also manages High-Performance Computing Services at the Markey Cancer Center. Her research combines simulations, big data analysis, and machine learning to improve drug binding predictions.

Beyond her research, Ellingson is committed to mentoring and outreach, particularly for underrepresented groups in the field of computational sciences. Her involvement in the SC Conference, dating back to 2014, has been extensive. She has contributed significantly to various programs within the conference, such as the Broader Engagement program, Student Volunteer program, Mentor-Protégé program, and School Tours. Currently serving as the Students@SC Chair, her volunteer efforts have had a lasting impact on the community.

Momentum & Mentoring

In Ellingson’s I Am HPC blog, she emphasizes the importance of maintaining the momentum of diversity and inclusion efforts within the HPC community and underscores the significance of mentoring the next generation to ensure a more inclusive and diverse environment.

Sally ellingson

Assistant Professor, Division of Biomedical Informatics, UK College of Medicine

Sally on LinkedIN

Q: What single event most made you realize you wanted a career in HPC/computing?

Ellingson: Touring the computer room at Oak Ridge National Laboratory when I was interviewing for graduate school. 

Q: What do you consider your biggest contribution to the HPC/computing community?

Ellingson: My volunteer work through the SC Conference.

Q: In the past 35 years, what is the most significant overlooked breakthrough that has impacted the field in your eyes?

Ellingson: I’ve been pleased to witness the growing emphasis on diversity and inclusion within the Supercomputing conference and the HPC community. During my grad school days, I participated in a program aimed at enhancing diversity and fostering a sense of community within the conference. While it was disappointing to see it discontinued, I’m proud to see these initiatives gaining momentum. Today, inclusivity stands as a top-tier priority for the conference, influencing every facet of the event. This underscores the commitment to cultivating a diverse workforce and nurturing inclusive work environments to sustain the vibrancy and diversity of our community.

Q: What would you like to see change about, within, or among the HPC/computing community?

Ellingson: As we move forward, it’s crucial that we maintain our momentum and remain steadfast in our commitment to DEI initiatives. Additionally, we should not lose sight of the significance of mentoring students. This investment in the next generation is pivotal for the continued growth and strength of our community. By providing guidance and support to emerging talent, we not only contribute to their personal development but also fortify the collective knowledge and capabilities of our community. Together, we can ensure a more inclusive, diverse, and thriving environment for all.

A Role Model for Success

Angie’s IT background and journey in a male-dominated field make her a role model for women in tech, particularly in Colorado. We believe her story could inspire countless young women considering careers in the tech sector.

Angie Asmus

Manager of Network and Security Operations, Colorado State University

Angie on LinkedIN

Q: What single event most made you realize you wanted a career in HPC/computing?

Asmus: I was first introduced to HPC/computing while attending the SC Conference in 2016. At the time, I was a network engineer contributing to SCinet, where I played a role in constructing the high-performance network for the conference. This experience broadened my perspective on HPC and exposed me to the diverse career paths within both HPC and networking. Since then I have remained a part of the HPC community by attending the conference and participating in SCinet, working with some of the best engineers who support HPC networks.

Q: What do you consider your biggest contribution to the HPC/computing community?

Asmus: My most significant impact on the HPC/computing community lies in my dedication to fostering diversity and supporting related programs. In 2016, I became a WINS (Women in IT Networking at SC) awardee, marking the beginning of my ongoing involvement in this valuable initiative. WINS addresses the acknowledged diversity gap in HPC and networking, taking intentional steps to support a varied group of SCinet participants. As the SC24 SCinet Chair, I am actively advancing diversity efforts, particularly in advocating for a diverse representation of women in leadership positions.

Q: In the past 35 years, what is the most significant overlooked breakthrough that has impacted the field in your eyes?

Asmus: The strides made in the past 35 years have been remarkable, but one often overlooked breakthrough that has significantly impacted the field is the increasing recognition of the value of diversity. While technological advancements grab the headlines, the acknowledgment that diverse perspectives drive innovation is a game-changer. Embracing a variety of voices, backgrounds, and experiences has not only enriched the field socially but has also proven to be a catalyst for groundbreaking ideas and solutions. It’s a breakthrough that goes beyond algorithms and processors, shaping a more inclusive and dynamic future for computing.

Q: What would you like to see change about, within, or among the HPC/computing community?

Asmus: As we move forward, it’s crucial that we maintain our momentum and remain steadfast in our commitment to DEI initiatives. Additionally, we should not lose sight of the significance of mentoring students. This investment in the next generation is pivotal for the continued growth and strength of our community. By providing guidance and support to emerging talent, we not only contribute to their personal development but also fortify the collective knowledge and capabilities of our community. Together, we can ensure a more inclusive, diverse, and thriving environment for all.

Q: What would you like to see change about, within, or among the HPC/computing community?

Asmus: I currently hold the position of the manager of network and security operations at Colorado State University and am also serving as the Interim Director of Network & Telecommunications. My involvement with SCinet began at SC16, where I participated as a WINS awardee, contributing to the construction of the conference network. Since then, I’ve been an active participant in SCinet every year. The honor of being chosen as the SCinet Chair for SC24 is especially significant, as I am the first WINS awardee to assume this role where I will be leading a team of exceptional volunteer network engineers to create the fastest and most powerful volunteer network for SC24.

For more than five years, Foulds has been an integral part of the SC Conference, especially with SCinet. As SCinet Management Team Executive Director (starting in 2020) and Project Management Team Chair (2018-2020), she has led efforts to coordinate the network’s project managers across all teams and direct activities for nearly 200 program volunteers annually. This year, Foulds brought her pr

Planning Committee Skills

Casey’s connection to the SC Conference is just one thing that makes her proud to say, “I Am HPC.”

Casey Foulds

Enterprise Project Manager, The University of Texas at Dallas

Casey on LinkedIN

Q: What single event most made you realize you wanted a career in HPC/computing?

Foulds: I was invited to project manage the XNet group [SCinet experimental network] to help drive cutting-edge network projects for SC18, and I was hooked!

Q: What do you consider your biggest contribution to the HPC/computing community?

Foulds: I have served on various committees with SCinet and the SC Committee in both project management and management roles.

Q: What would you like to see change about, within, or among the HPC/computing community?

Foulds: Waiting on the next big, featured thing. I can’t say what that [thing] is because I am not a subject matter expert, but I know that change drives innovation.

In recognition for his many years of dedication to HPC, Valero was awarded the HPCwire Readers’ Choice Award in 2020 for his “exceptional leadership in HPC” and for being “the driving force behind the renaissance of European HPC independence.”

Mateo Valero was also a panelist in the I Am HPC Plenary at SC23.

Fostering Global Collaboration

In this I Am HPC profile, Valero gives a look into his history with HPC, as well as where he sees the industry going.

Mateo Valero

Director, Barcelona Supercomputing Center

Mateo on LinkedIN

Q: What single event most made you realize you wanted a career in HPC/computing?

Valero: The realization that I wanted a career in HPC was sparked when, around 1977-78, I collaborated with my undergraduate students to construct some small-scale (two to four processors) multiprocessor systems featuring 4-8-bit Intel processors and shared memory.

Q: What do you consider your biggest contribution to the HPC/computing community?

Valero: My most significant contribution to the HPC/computing community has been the pioneering work my students and I conducted on Vector Architectures. During a time when the prevailing belief was that pure superscalar processors would render vector architectures obsolete, we defied conventional wisdom. We foresaw that high-performance vector processors would continue to thrive, and this prediction has become a reality today. We also made substantial contributions by bridging the worlds of ILP [instruction-level parallelism] and DLP [data-level parallelism], fostering a productive cross-pollination between these two fields. Our introduction of the concept of “fuzzy computation” evolved into the idea of “reduced data formats,” which has proven immensely valuable in terms of energy and space efficiency while also contributing to the advancement of current AI [artificial intelligence] hardware.

Q: In the past 35 years, what is the most significant overlooked breakthrough that has impacted the field in your eyes?

Valero: Vector architectures, notably those championed by Cray’s pioneering work and followed by other Japanese companies, have been a fundamental—and often an overlooked—breakthrough in the landscape of HPC and supercomputing. I consider them a hidden treasure in high-performance computing with their remarkable energy efficiency, clean semantics, and profound influence on contemporary architectures like GPUs [graphics processing units]. As the world seeks more efficient and powerful computing solutions, the impact of vector architectures continues to be felt, both in the quest for scientific discoveries and the design of innovative hardware.

Q: What would you like to see change about, within, or among the HPC/computing community?

Valero: I envision a transformation in the HPC/computing community, where we harness the power of our exceptional machines, supercomputers, and various instruments to foster global collaboration in addressing critical societal challenges. Issues such as climate change, sustainable energy solutions, and personalized medicine demand collective efforts from diverse institutions. One of the most challenging and promising research areas in this context is the development of a digital twin for the human body. Achieving breakthroughs in this field necessitates an extensive collaboration, where institutions come together and share their valuable resources. By promoting such cooperation, we can accelerate progress and make a significant impact on these pressing issues.

Curfman McInnes holds key positions, serving as the Deputy Director for the Software Technology focus area of the DOE Exascale Computing Project and co-leading the IDEAS scientific software productivity project. This project has birthed initiatives like the Better Scientific Software (BSSw) site, BSSw Fellowship Program, and the Extreme-scale Scientific Software Development Kit (xSDK).

With a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from the University of Virginia, Curfman McInnes is a SIAM Fellow (2017) and has received numerous honors, including the SIAM/ACM Prize in Computational Science and Engineering (2015). She was also recognized with the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award (2011) and the R&D 100 Award (2009) for her work on PETSc.

Curfman McInnes’ significant contributions shine through in her featured publications in renowned journals such as Nature Computational Science, ACM Transactions, and SIAM Review. Her pioneering research in optimizing parallelism in numerical software libraries has made a lasting impact.

On Wednesday, November 15, SC23 attendees had the privilege of attending her invited speaker presentation, “Broadening Participation in HPC: Together We Can Change the World.” During this session, she provided a comprehensive overview of workforce initiatives across the HPC community, highlighting opportunities for engagement. McInnes delved into the vital role played by DOE lab staff involved in the ECP Broadening Participation Initiative, as they are addressing DOE’s workforce challenges through a lens that acknowledges the unique needs and culture of high-performance computing.

Progress Though Team-Based Science

Curfman McInnes is a computational science pioneer whose work and leadership have left an indomitable mark on the field. In this I Am HPC profile Lois shares her HPC journey with us.

Lois Curfman McInnes

Senior Computational Scientist at Argonne National Laboratory

Lois on LinkedIN

Q: What single event most made you realize you wanted a career in HPC/computing?

Curfman McInnes: During my time as a grad student (in applied math at the University of Virginia), I spent a summer working at Argonne National Lab. This exposure to high-performance computational science and the multidisciplinary culture of DOE labs hooked me; I returned to Argonne as a postdoc … and I continue to be grateful for the opportunity to work in such an exciting field with such terrific colleagues throughout the HPC community.

Q: What do you consider your biggest contribution to the HPC/computing community?

Curfman McInnes: All of my work in HPC has been as part of exciting team-based collaborations. So, I would say that my biggest contribution has been, over time, being a member of a variety of terrific teams. Because “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” in team-based science, we are making strong progress in advancing scalable algorithms, productive and sustainable scientific software ecosystems, and diverse collaborations needed to tackle next-generation challenges in high-performance computational science.

Q: In the past 35 years, what is the most significant overlooked breakthrough that has impacted the field in your eyes?

Curfman McInnes: As the impact of high-performance computational science has grown tremendously, driving advances throughout science and society, so has the complexity and scope of HPC applications and software technologies. This shift demands intentional work toward software ecosystem approaches for HPC, explicitly considering relationships among diverse HPC contributions. I consider this topic – software ecosystem approaches for HPC – to be an “in-progress” breakthrough, not yet fully realized but with important progress underway by various groups throughout the international HPC community. One example is work in DOE’s Exascale Computing Project, where a robust scientific software ecosystem is supporting a diverse set of applications for scientific discovery.

Q: What would you like to see change about, within, or among the HPC/computing community?

Curfman McInnes: The combined expertise of diverse teams is essential for pursuing new frontiers in HPC. We need to expand partnerships across the HPC community to address the full life cycle of the HPC workforce, including broadening participation of underrepresented groups.

14,295 Attendees

438 Exhibitors

Notably, this year drew a record-breaking 14,295 attendees, reflecting the world’s ever-expanding interest in HPC. The exhibit floor was also packed with 438 exhibitors, also an SC record, of which 90 were entirely new to the conference.

This convergence of all things computing was exemplified by the SC23 theme, “I Am HPC,” which served to remind everyone that they are an equal and welcome contributor to this thriving HPC community. As the SC23 General Chair, Dorian Arnold put it, the theme “aims to humanize the field of High Performance Computing and ensure it’s accessible to all.”

Post-Conference Resources

Speaker Highlights 

An Inspirational Keynote

Hakeem Oluseyi’s keynote speech was especially relevant to this year’s theme of “I Am HPC.” Oluseyi’s life story provided a shining example of how intelligence and hard work can overcome adversity. Moreover, Oluseyi posed the notion that while receiving resources necessary to succeed can be needlessly difficult for so many people, it often only takes one outstretched hand to make a difference.

Opening Plenary Brilliance

The opening plenary panel was hosted by Valerie Taylor of Argonne National Laboratory. Taylor moderated a discussion, I Am HPC: The Impact and Future Directions of HPC, featuring Kathy Yelick of the University of California Berkeley, Mateo Valero of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Enobong (Anna) Branch of Rutgers University, and Frank Indiviglio of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

While technology was up for discussion, the group also addressed issues concerning the STEM pipeline and its reach within underrepresented sectors of society and the daily impacts HPC has, including in areas such as biomedicine and drug design, threat assessment, and climate modeling.

SCinet Delivers

WHen Powerful Matters

SCinet is created annually for use by exhibitors and attendees at the SC conference. Since this network must be able to perform extraordinary feats, such as the 400G connectivity required by AmLight for a research experiment, SCinet is the fastest network in the world for the week of the SC conference.

SCinet by the numbers

This year, SCinet required 66,814 feet of fiber optic cable, around two times Mount Everest’s height. The network was capable of 6.71 terabits per second, allowing someone to download Netflix’s entire content library in about an hour. Every piece of equipment in the network is donated, and this year’s total retail price for the donated equipment used to drive SC23 was approximately $40 million.

Awards Spotlight

Society Awards

ACM Gordon Bell Prize

“Large-scale Materials Modeling at Quantum Accuracy: Ab Initio Simulations of Quasicrystals and Interacting Extended Defects in Metallic Alloys” (University of Michigan, Indian Institute of Science, ORNL)

ACM Gordon Bell Prize for Climate Modelling

“The Simple Cloud-Resolving E3SM Atmosphere Model Running on the Frontier Exascale System” (SNL, LLNL, LBNL, ANL, ORNL, HPE, PNNL)

ACM Student Research Competition (Undergraduate)

Ronak Singh Monga (Indiana University & LBNL)

ACM Student Research Competition (Graduate)

Jiajun Huang (University of California Riverside)

ACM SIGHPC Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award

Keren Zhou (Rice University)

ACM SIGHPC Emerging Woman Leader in Technical Computing Award

Amanda Randles (Duke University)

ACM SIGHPC Fellowships in Computational and Data Science

Jeremy Williams (KTH Royal Institute of Technology), Alyssa Smolensky (University of Missouri), Van Truong (University of Pennsylvania), Lauren Ostrowski (University of California San Diego), Michelle Garcia (Dartmouth College), Beauty Chabuka (Florida State University)

ACM/IEEE-CS George Michael Memorial HPC Fellowships

J. Gregory Pauloski (University of Chicago), Rohan Basu Roy (Northeastern University)

ACM/IEEE-CS Ken Kennedy Award

Keshav Pingali (University of Texas at Austin)

IEEE-CS Sidney Fernbach Award

Manish Parashar (Scientific Computing and Imaging (SCI) Institute and University of Utah)

IEEE-CS TCHPC Award for Excellence for Early Career Researchers in High Performance Computing

Johannes Doerfert (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), Wengian Dong (Florida International University), Prashant Pandey (University of Utah)

SC Awards

Test of Time Award

Shaw DE, RO Dror, JK Salmon, et al. 2009. “Millisecond-scale molecular dynamics simulations on Anton”

Best Paper Award

“PanguLU: A Scalable Regular Two-Dimensional Block-Cyclic Sparse Direct Solver on Distributed Heterogeneous Systems”, Xu Fu, Bingbin Zhang, Tengcheng Wang, Wenhao Li, Yuechen Lu, Enxin Yi, Jianqi Zhao, XiaohanGeng, Fangying Li, Jingwen Zhang, Zhou Jin, Weifeng Liu (SSSLab, China University of Petroleum-Beijing, China)

Best Student Paper Award

“HEAR: Homomorphically Encrypted Allreduce”, Marcin Charpek, Mikhail Khalilov (ETH Zürich), Torsten Hoefloer (ETH Zürick, Microsoft)

Best Reproducibility Advancement Award

“HEAR: Homomorphically Encrypted Allreduce”, Marcin Charpek, Mikhail Khalilov (ETH Zürich), Torsten Hoefloer (ETH Zürick, Microsoft)

Best Research Poster Award

“Evaluating Performance Portability of GPU Programming Models”, Joshua H. Davis, Pranav Sivaraman, Isaac Minn, Abhinav Bhatele (University of Maryland)

Best Visualization Award

“ExaWind at NREL: Upping the Ante”, Nicholas Brunhardt-Lupo, Ashsh Sharma (NREL)

Student Cluster Competition (Overall Winner)

RACKlette (ETH Zürich, Switzerland)

Sophia Herrmann, Alexander Sotoudeh, Hannes Eberhard, Samuel Karsko, Yi Zhu, Alexander Pietak (Team), Torsten Hoefler (Advisor)

Student Cluster Competition (Highest Linpack Benchmark)

Radiance of Weiming (Peking University, China)

Shengyu Liu, Yuanhang Sun, Tianle Xu, Zhuofeng Wang, Jiameng Huang, Ruicheng Wang (Team), Chun Fan (Advisor)

Onward to the Next SC

SC24 in Atlanta, GA

As always, Denver was a gracious and hospitable host for SC23, thanks partly to the excellent infrastructure provided by the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. Next year, SC24 will take place in Atlanta at the Georgia World Conference Center. The SC24 conference theme is “HPC Creates” and will focus on the enormous generative power that supercomputing affords the modern world.

Early SC24 Applications

Presently, Women in IT Networking at SC (WINS) is seeking qualified female candidates in their early- to mid-career to join the SCinet volunteer workforce at SC24. WINS is heavily focused on diverse representation and will provide full travel support and mentoring by experienced engineering experts before, during, and after the conference.

Additionally, Lead Student Volunteer applications have opened. This is a fantastic opportunity for former student volunteers interested in elevating their SC experience.

I extend my heartfelt gratitude to everyone who helped make SC23 a remarkable success. The collective enthusiasm and collaborative spirit infused every facet of the event and underscored the vitality of our HPC community—a diverse community that includes the record-breaking ~14,000 attendees who wholeheartedly embraced our “I Am HPC” theme. Your engagement and commitment to this theme were starkly evident and contributed to the vibrant and inclusive atmosphere that defined SC23, which we hope sustains throughout the SC Conference Series and beyond. SC23 was invigorated by the many passionate individuals coming together to share knowledge, forge connections, and celebrate our shared commitment to advancing high-performance computing.

I offer my sincere appreciation to each participant, volunteer, contributor, supporter, and sponsor. Your enduring dedication is a driving force behind our community’s continued growth and impact.

Thank you for being an integral part of SC23, and I look forward to the exciting developments that lie ahead for our SC and HPC communities.

Warm regards,

Dorian C. Arnold, SC23 General Chair

In 2015, Asmus was working in Colorado State University’s Information Technology division as a security analyst, focused on compliance, network firewalls, and routing. In this role, she met WINS founder Marla Meehl, who was then running the Front Range GigaPoP. With Meehl’s encouragement, Asmus applied for a WINS scholarship and, to her surprise, was named a 2016 WINS awardee. 

“I hadn’t really worked with network switches until I came to SCinet that year,” Asmus recalled. “Kevin Hayden [2024 Exhibits Chair] was my mentor, and he handed me a set of 65 switches and told me to upgrade and configure them. He had to walk me through the first one. Then it started really clicking and making sense. Along with the team, I did all the edge switches and wireless for the conference—and loved it.” 

Asmus formed a tight bond with the other WINS awardees and the SCinet team that year. 

“I met 200 great people who felt like a new family, and that made me want to come back.”

— Angie Asmus, SC24 SCinet Chair

From WINS to Career Wins

Asmus has come back every year since, working her way up to becoming the Edge Team Chair. At SC23, she served as SCinet Deputy Chair, and at SC24, she will be SCinet Chair in Atlanta. From WINS awardee to SCinet chair in a mere eight years is a pretty powerful trajectory, and Asmus gives the credit to WINS.

“WINS means everything to me,” she said. “It’s given me the confidence and experience to rise through the ranks in my career, not to mention the chance to present and speak on the importance of diversity in the tech field. I’ve gained skills I never knew I needed, from soft skills to tech skills.” 

To wit, Asmus was recently promoted to Interim Director of the Network and Telecommunications team at Colorado State University, where she manages three teams with 20 full-time employees. 

Ultimately, Asmus has this to say to women considering WINS: “Definitely apply for the WINS scholarship. It is life changing. It’s truly so impactful for what it can do for your career.” 

SC24 SCinet Chair Angie Asmus (left) and SC24 SCinet Technical Director Brenna Meade (right)

SC23 WINS Cohort in Denver

Learn More & Apply

Dr. Arnold boasts an accomplished career, that includes being recognized as an ACM Distinguished Speaker and an IEEE Senior member, with the honor of receiving two R&D 100 Awards. Dr. Arnold’s commitment to diversity and inclusion is evident through his roles as the General Chair for the 2017 ACM Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity and the co-founding of “The HPC Pipeline Workshop: Diversifying the HPC Workforce.”He is a researcher, that addresses the challenges of making extremely large computing systems accessible to experts from various domains. Dr. Arnold’s contributions, both academically and in advocacy, mark him as a leader in the field, pushing the boundaries of high-performance computing while ensuring that it remains inclusive and relatable to all. In his role as SC23 General Chair, he has been pivotal in making the Supercomputing Conference (SC) more relatable and inclusive. Drawing inspiration from the “I am Tiger Woods” campaign, which conveyed the message that anyone, regardless of their background, could aspire to greatness just as Tiger Woods did in golf, the “I am HPC” tagline aims to humanize the field of High Performance Computing and ensure it’s accessible to all.”

SC23 General Chair

Now, let’s delve deeper into the world of Dr. Dorian C. Arnold and learn more about his journey, perspectives, and contributions in the realm of High Performance Computing as he answers insightful questions about his career, experiences, and the future of the HPC community.

Dorian C. Arnold

Associate Professor of Computer Science, Emory University

Dorian on LinkedIN

Q: What single event most made you realize you wanted a career in HPC/computing?

Arnold: While studying for my master’s degree at the University of Tennessee, I took a course from Dr. James Plank; his engaging, fun, and effective teaching style sparked my curiosity in computer systems. Dr. Plank later became my M.S. research advisor. While at UTK during a department-wide event, Dr. Jack Dongarra who was already renown at the time, introduced himself to me, a lowly student, and asked me about my interests. I was struck by his humble, welcoming demeanor. My data points were computer systems are cool, HPC is cool, and the people are cool; what more could I ask for!

Q: What do you consider your biggest contribution to the HPC/computing community?

Arnold: I don’t know if it’s my biggest contribution, but perhaps the one that has had the biggest practical impact: during my PhD, I wrote the code for two software systems: MRNet, a highly-configurable software overlay network for large scale data communication and aggregation, and STAT a debugging tool that is built on top of MRNet. Both these codes have been used and still are in use in production mode on supercomputers across the world.

Q: In the past 35 years, what is the most significant overlooked breakthrough that has impacted the field in your eyes?

Arnold: Overlooked? Perhaps high-level programming languages and environments, coupled with compilers, that have helped to make HPC admissible and accessible to a broad range of scientists and engineers, who no longer have to understand all the low-level nuances of these complex systems to develop correct and efficient codes.

Q: What would you like to see change about, within, or among the HPC/computing community?

Arnold: More access, more diversity, more equitable opportunities, more inclusivity — for all definitions of those terms.

Attendee Resources

Personalize Your Schedule

Program Highlights

Expansive Exhibits

Students@SC

Engaging Activities

SCinet Technology

SCinet by the Numbers

Let the Festivities Begin

Inclusivity Matters

All of these programs and events make SC23 a dynamic and enriching experience, offering unique insights, networking opportunities, leading-edge technology, breakthrough research, and a chance to celebrate the groundbreaking work and people within the HPC community.