In this monthly feature, we’ll keep you up-to-date on the latest career developments for individuals in the high performance computing community. Whether it’s a promotion, new company hire, or even an accolade, we’ve got the details. Check in each month for an updated list and you may even come across someone you know, or better yet, yourself!

Mike Clark

Mike Clark has been appointed as an AMD corporate fellow. This appointment is based on his leadership role in developing CPU core architectures. Notably, Clark contributed to the “Zen” microarchitecture that serves as the base for high-performance AMD Ryzen, AMD Ryzen Threadripper and AMD EPYC processors.

Clark will continue to oversee CPU core strategy, design and roadmap development. Promotion to AMD fellow is granted to the accomplished innovators, and is based on specific technical contributions, industry involvement and talent mentoring.

Lori Diachin

The U.S. DOE’s Exascale Computing Project has named Lori Diachin as its new deputy director. Lori is replacing Stephen Lee, who has retired. Lori served as deputy associate director for science and sechnology in the Computation Directorate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) since 2017. Previously, Lori worked at Sandia National Laboratories and Argonne National Laboratory. She has held leadership roles in high performance computing for over fifteen years.

“Stephen Lee has set a very high bar during his years of serving as the ECP Deputy Director,” said Diachin. “Stephen’s contributions have been extensive, and I’m honored to have been selected for this important role —important for DOE’s efforts in achieving our goals of a capable exascale computing ecosystem, and important for the U.S. HPC community and our nation’s efforts toward technology leadership. This is an exciting time in computing, and ECP is a marquis project in defining our future.  I look forward to working with the very talented ECP team of researchers as we work to make exascale computing a reality in the next few years.”

Steve Furber

Tachyum Inc. has announced that Professor Steve Furber, designer of the ARM microprocessor, has joined its Board of Advisors. Prof. Furber will help position the company’s Prodigy processor to achieve greater performance.

“I look forward to collaborating with Tachyum to help its management make informed strategic decisions that will help accelerate the realization of their disruptive products,” said Furber.

“Steve Furber is a true giant in processor architecture development, as well as one of the world’s leading experts on human brain simulation research,” said Dr. Radoslav Danilak, Tachyum Co-founder and CEO. “We are extremely gratified to be able to collaborate with Professor Furber on our Prodigy processor.”

Steven will also be speaking on “Brain-Inspired Massively-Parallel Computing” at SC18 on Tuesday, November 13th from 11:15-12pm. Find more details on the talk on the SC18 website.

Jennifer Houston

D-Wave Systems Inc. has announced that Jennifer Houston has joined the company as Senior Vice President, Marketing. Previously, Houston was the Vice President of Marketing at Apptio and established Pluck Disrupt, a marketing and communications consulting firm.

“I’m excited to join the incredible team at D-Wave, which has led quantum computing development and commercialization for two decades,” said Jennifer Houston. “I’ve spent my career at the edge of business and innovation—bringing amazing ideas to market in competitive environments. D-Wave is doing just that as they are at the intersection of creating a new market and mind-blowing technology, building disruptive quantum systems and applications with world-changing implications. I am awed by their work and honored to become part of the senior leadership team, bringing strategic marketing efforts to help propel the company to a new level of growth and expansion.”

Robin Miles

LLNL and the DOE Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office have announced the appointment of Robin Miles as interim director for the High Performance Computing for Manufacturing program. Robin earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering at MIT, an M.S. in mechanical engineering at Stanford, and an M.B.A. from UC Berkeley. She is currently a deputy division leader within the LLNL Engineering directorate and the project manager for HPC4Mfg and HPC4Mtls.

San Murugesan

The IEEE Computer Society has awarded San Murugesan with the Distinguished Service Certificate. The certificate is the second-highest service award granted by the Computer Society, and was awarded to Murugesan in recognition of his “distinguished and valuable service, commitment to excellence, and wide-ranging significant contributions the Computer Society.”

San Murugesan is director of BRITE Professional Services and an adjunct professor at Western Sydney University. He is editor-in-chief emeritus of CS IT Professional magazine and has served as a senior research fellow at the NASA Ames Research Center as professor of computer science at Southern Cross University and Western Sydney University.

Ravi Prasher

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has announced that Ravi Prasher will be its next associate laboratory director for energy technologies. Prasher will head the lab’s Energy Technologies Area (or ETA) which encompasses ESDR and three other divisions.

“I am really looking forward to this position,” Prasher said in an email. “The Energy Technologies Area at Berkeley Lab is unique. Its strength is its breadth. … I will be placing a special focus on strengthening the connection and collaboration opportunities with UC Berkeley.”

Benjamin Shaby

Benjamin Shaby, assistant professor of statistics and Penn State Institute for CyberScience faculty co-hire, has been awarded the National Science Foundation CAREER award for his project, “Hierarchical Models for Spatial Extremes.” NSF CAREER awards support junior faculty who demonstrate aptitude at being both a teacher and a scholar.

“I commend Ben for receiving such a reputable award. His various collaborations highlight the kind of interdisciplinary work ICS is doing within Penn State and the broader scientific community,” ICS Director and Professor of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science Jenni Evans said. “The mission of ICS is to reach out, work with other researchers and to build connections while answering critical scientific and societal questions through high-performance computing.”

Jean Sorensen

Hyperion Research Holdings, Ltd., an HPC market research firm, has named Jean Sorensen to the new position of full-time business manager. Ms. Sorensen began working at Hyperion as a part-time subcontractor a year ago, when Hyperion Research first separated from IDC. She worked as a part-time employee before accepting the new full-time position.

“Jean Sorensen’s expertise and organizational skills made her an integral part of Hyperion Research’s initial success as an independent company,” said Dr. Earl Joseph, the company’s CEO. “Going forward, she will oversee our global business operations, working closely with me and with Steve Conway, our COO. Jean will handle our accounting and finance, human resources, and other company logistics.  She will continue to be a key element in ensuring that the company runs smoothly.”

Volker Springel

Volker Springel has begun his new role as Director of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA) in Garching. Previously, he was head of the Theoretical Astrophysics group at HITS, where he worked for more than eight years.

“The new appointment represents a great achievement for Volker Springel as well as for us as a research institute,” said HITS Scientific Director Prof. Michael Strube at the farewell ceremony. “We are delighted that the concept of our founder, Klaus Tschira, has been realized: to bring brilliant young researchers to the institute, to let them conduct research with the greatest possible freedom, and to give them the opportunity to advance their careers.”

“Eight years ago, I took the conscious risk of accepting a position at a new and unknown institute, and the risk has truly paid off,” said Springel. “My appointment as Max Planck Director is a testament to the success of HITS. If you do research here, you can move on to even bigger and better things in your career.”

Kathy Warden

Northrop Grumman’s board of directors has elected Kathy Warden, the current president and COO, to the position of CEO and president. Warden has also been elected to serve as a member of the board.