March 26 — Following a national search for new leadership of its School of Computational Science and Engineering (CSE), Georgia Tech’s College of Computing has selected its own David A. Bader, a renowned leader in high-performance computing, to chair the school.

Bader, a professor in the School of CSE and executive director of the High-Performance Computing Lab, succeeds Regents’ Professor Richard Fujimoto, who has served in the role since 2007 and through CSE’s elevation to “school” status in 2010.  Fujimoto has continued to serve as chair amid the search and will remain as a professor within the school.

Bader will assume his new role in July 2014. His appointment is contingent upon approval by Georgia Tech President G.P. “Bud” Peterson and the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.

“I’m thrilled that we found within our own ranks a candidate as viable as David to take the helm of the School of CSE,” said Zvi Galil, John P. Imlay Jr. Dean of Computing. “Not only does David bring a deep background of experiences and an ambitious agenda that will ensure our college remains at the forefront of high-performance computing and data analytics, he exudes a contagious level of energy for these areas of computing. We expect great things to continue in the school under David’s watch.”

Bader earned his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1996 after earning both a B.S. in computer engineering in 1990 and an M.S. in electrical engineering in 1991 from Lehigh University. During his doctoral research, he was a NASA graduate fellow and was awarded a National Science Foundation research role in experimental computer science after receiving his doctorate.

In 1998, he became an assistant professor and Regents’ lecturer at the University of New Mexico. In 2005 he joined Georgia Tech’s College of Computing, where he became a full professor in 2008 and an integral part of the formation of the School of CSE.

“I believe that the School of CSE has firmly established itself as the country’s premier department focused on solving real-world challenges through advanced computational techniques, thanks to a world-class faculty and dedicated students,” Bader said. “My plan as school chair is to accelerate our impactful research and gain recognition for further successes by solving grand challenges that make this world a better place for all.”

While at Georgia Tech, Bader has established himself as an expert in the design and analysis of parallel and multicore algorithms for real-world applications, including computational biology and genomics and massive-scale data analytics.

For his work, he has earned recognition as a fellow with both IEEE and AAAS, received a National Science Foundation CAREER award and numerous industry awards from IBM, NVIDIA, Intel, Cray, Oracle/Sun Microsystems and Microsoft Research. InsideHPC recognized him as a “RockStar” of high-performance computing, and HPCwire’s cited him among “People to Watch” in both 2012 and 2014.

Bader serves as a board member of the Computing Research Association (CRA), on the NSF Advisory Committee on Cyberinfrastructure, on the Council on Competitiveness High Performance Computing Advisory Committee, on the IEEE Computer Society Board of Governors and on the steering committees of the IPDPS and HiPC conferences. He is editor-in-chief of IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems (TPDS) and program chair for IPDPS 2014.

The School of Computational Science and Engineering is devoted to the advancement and promotion of the CSE discipline. Research focuses on making fundamental advances in the creation and application of new computational methods and techniques in order to enable breakthroughs in scientific discovery and engineering practice.

About the Georgia Tech College of Computing

The Georgia Tech College of Computing is a national leader in the creation of real-world computing breakthroughs that drive social and scientific progress. With its graduate program ranked ninth nationally by U.S. News and World Report, the College’s unconventional approach to education is defining the new face of computing by expanding the horizons of traditional computer science students through interdisciplinary collaboration and a focus on human-centered solutions. For more information about the Georgia Tech College of Computing, its academic divisions and research centers, please visit http://www.cc.gatech.edu.

—–

Source: Georgia Tech College of Computing