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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!
The Association for Computing Machinery named Pieter Abbeel as the recipient of the 2021 ACM Prize in Computing for his contributions to robot learning, including learning from demonstrations and deep reinforcement learning for robotic control. Abbeel is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley and the cofounder, president and chief scientist at Covariant, an AI robotics company.
Abbeel pioneered teaching robots to learn from human demonstrations and through their own trial and error, which have formed the foundation for the next generation of robotics.
Sara Andrews
Marvell, a provider of data infrastructure semiconductor solutions, appointed Sara Andrews to its board of directors. Andrews currently serves as the chief information security officer at Experian. She also serves on the board of directors at Mandiant and has previously served on the board of LogMeIn.
Before Andrews joined Experian, she served as the senior vice president and chief information security officer at PepsiCo, Inc., where she was responsible for safeguarding networks and data across all PepsiCo business units and brands globally.
Ashley Barker, operations section head for the National Center for Computational Sciences, will take a new role in the procurement and deployment of the next supercomputer system at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, a US Department of Energy Office of Science user facility located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
“I am thankful I had the opportunity to work on this project that will have a lasting impact on shaping exascale computing,” Barker said. “I had the pleasure of working with talented staff from across the DOE complex, both inside T&P and across the project. I look forward to starting new collaborations with this great group of people in the coming years.”
Mehdi Bozzo-Rey
Multiverse Computing, a provider of quantum computing solutions, appointed Mehdi Bozzo-Rey as its chief revenue officer. Bozzo-Rey also spent 14 years at IBM, where he led sales for IBM Quantum in Canada and was a certified senior offering manager for the high performance computing team. He comes to Multiverse after leading business development for the Quantum Algorithms Institute in Vancouver, B.C.
“I believe quantum computing has the long-term potential to change the way we tackle the challenges that specific industry verticals are facing in finance, energy, logistics, health and more,” said Bozzo-Rey. “I joined Multiverse Computing because of their unique expertise in quantum and quantum-inspired algorithms that allows enterprises to not only benefit from solutions that have an immediate return on investment but prepare them for the transition to future quantum computing-enabled processes.”
David Brayford
Intel appointed David Brayford as its HPC architect. Brayford is a senior scientist specializing in HPC and artificial intelligence and a scientific and numerical computing software developer. He comes to Intel from Leibniz Supercomputing Centre, where he served as a senior HPC and AI scientist. Before he joined LRZ, he was a research scientist at AutoTune EU project and Mont-Blanc EU project.
Brayford currently serves on the OpenHPC technical steering committee, a Linux Foundation collaborative project, and from 2019 to 2022 he served as a lab representative on the governance board at OpenHPC.
The OpenACC organization has announced Barbara Chapman, distinguished technologist for the Hewlett Packard Enterprises (HPE) Cray Programming Environment at HPE, as the newly appointed vice president.
“As future systems come online in the exascale era, I am excited to see what new platforms arise to support science given the enormous rate of innovation in both hardware and software. Software programming needs to be more intuitive, portable across platforms and adaptable without any compromise in performance,” said Chapman. “ I am keenly interested in the new classes of users that will rely on these computational resources and how we can help facilitate successful deployments and ensure good user experiences related to productivity, application scalability and performance. This is completely aligned with the OpenACC Organization’s mission.”
Chapman succeeds Jack Wells, who now serves as OpenACC President.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise appointed Trish Damkroger as its chief product officer of HPC & AI. Damkroger brings to HPE over 30 years of experience in HPC. Her most recent role was at Intel, where she served as vice president and general manager of HPC. Damkroger was responsible for leading the strategic initiatives to deliver compute, accelerators and memory optimized for supercomputers, including exascale-class supercomputers.
Before Damkroger joined Intel, she held the role of deputy associate director of computation at the U.S. DOE’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. At the Lab, Damkroger led more than 1,000 engineers and scientists focused on supercomputing efforts.
Jack Dongarra
The OpenMP Architecture Review Board, which develops the standard API specification for shared-memory parallelization, appointed Jack Dongarra to its board of directors. Dongarra is the American University Distinguished Professor of Computer Science in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at the University of Tennessee and is the founding director of the University of Tennessee’s Innovative Computing Laboratory.
“Over twenty-five years have passed since the release of the first OpenMP specification. It has become a mature and important programming API that continues to grow, has been enhanced, and is vital to the computational science community,” said Dongarra. “I would like to help move OpenMP forward with my acquired experience of working with MPI and developing mathematical software libraries.”
Al Emondi
NTT Research, Inc., a division of NTT, appointed Dr. Al Emondi as its head of partner strategy. Emondi joined NTT Research in March 2022 on a contract basis as part of its leadership advisory team. He is also president and chief executive officer of Piontier, LLC, a technology development and neurotech product line consultancy.
“With my stint at the neuroscience research bench behind me, I have spent much of my professional career building successful interdisciplinary research environments – both programs and laboratories,” said Emondi. “Motivated by creativity and driven by the challenge of identifying new technical opportunity space, I have a proven history of building successful research programs, as well as creating new technical capabilities within organizations. The opportunity to build on the existing success at NTT Research is incredibly exciting.”
Chip Ernst
Speedb, the maker of a data engine that helps organizations evolve their hyper-scale data operations, appointed Chip Ernst as its vice president of US sales. Ernst brings over 20 years of experience in building global sales teams from the ground up and driving strategic partnerships at both deep-tech startups and large multinationals.
He joins Speedb from Lightbits Labs, where as vice president of strategic sales, he drove US enterprise business development efforts and helped build highly scalable sales practices, while also overseeing its indirect channels program. Previously Ernst served as VP of sales and business development for Reduxio (now Ionir), where he opened the US Northeast market and achieved the company’s first sales, before leading its worldwide sales organization.
Fernanda Foertter
Fernanda Foertter joined Voltron Data as its director of developer relations and HPC business development. Foertter comes to the company from NextSilicon, where she was director of applications. Before NextSilicon, Foertter was a senior scientific consultant at Bioteam. Previously, at Nvidia, she was the global alliance manager for genomics HPC+AI. Prior to Nvidia, she spent six years at Oak Ridge National Laboratory as an HPC data scientist.
“I’ve been an advisor to Voltron and it was time to jump fully on board,” said Foertter on Twitter. “I’m looking forward to doing what I love most in this world, building community. I’m lucky I get to do it with old friends. data+hw+sw+HPC+opensource+standards… combines all the things!”
Maria Goeppert Mayer Fellows and Walter Massey Fellows
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory named Afroditi Papodopoulou, Gordon Peterson and Soham Saha as the 2022 Maria Goeppert Mayer Fellows and Elizabeth Laudadio and Sixbert Muhoz as the 2022 Walter Massey Fellows. For more information on each fellow and their research at Argonne, click here.
“We are excited to welcome these fellows to Argonne. They show great promise to be leaders in their fields, and our lab is an exceptional place to help them grow their careers,” said Argonne Director Paul Kearns. “Our latest Goeppert Mayer and Massey Fellows will unlock new frontiers for America’s energy future, which will make an impact on many different areas of science, from high-energy physics to materials science.”
Arthur Hu
Lenovo promoted Arthur Hu chief technology officer of the company’s Solutions & Services Group. In his new role, Hu will lead the newly formed research and development unit within SSG.
“I’m excited to lead this dynamic team that brings together technologists and creators while also taking Lenovo’s Group IT to the next level as part of SSG,” Hu said. “New IT will power the next generation of technology services and experiences for consumers and businesses alike, and there couldn’t be a better time to develop innovative solutions for our customers around the world.”
Laurie E. Locascio was sworn in as the fourth Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and the 17th director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology after her U.S. Senate confirmation on April 7, 2022. Locascio most recently served as vice president for research at the University of Maryland College Park and the University of Maryland Baltimore.
“I am excited to return to NIST — an agency with such an impactful mission filled with brilliant, dedicated public servants,” said Locascio. “It is an honor to be nominated by President Biden to serve in this role, and I look forward to supporting Secretary Raimondo in promoting and strengthening U.S. competitiveness at this critical time for our nation.”
Osni Marques, a staff scientist in the Applied Math and Computational Research Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, will lead the Training & Productivity effort within the U.S. Department of Energy’s Exascale Computing Project.
“As we know, software quality is a critical component of quality science, and that is one of the key things the T&P group is focused on,” Marques said. “I’m looking forward to working with the ECP community and facilities to identify potential software training needs going forward.”
Micron Technology, Inc., a provider of memory and storage solutions, appointed Mark Murphy as the company’s executive vice president and chief financial officer. Murphy brings 25 years of financial and operational leadership to the role and will oversee Micron’s financial strategy.
“Memory and storage are essential to global economic growth. Micron’s leading technology across memory and storage uniquely position the company for success into the next decade,” said Murphy. “I’m excited to leverage my experience to steer Micron’s financial growth in the coming years. I look forward to working with Sanjay and the leadership team to fulfill the company’s vision to transform how the world uses the information to enrich life for all.”
Rigetti Computing, Inc., a provider of hybrid quantum-classical computing systems solutions, appointed Eric Ostby as its vice president of products. Ostby will be responsible for overseeing Rigetti’s QCS product and platform development to advance the Company’s Quantum Computing as a Service business in the public and private sectors.
“I am thrilled to join Rigetti to lead and grow the QCS product function, and collaboratively take Rigetti’s full-stack quantum computing product to the next level,” Ostby said.“I look forward to working alongside Rigetti’s talented teams, partners, and customers as we develop quantum native applications today that will change how we work and live in the future.”
Kieran Penwill, Chris Sassone, Mike Sheppard, Jeff Whitaker
Panasas, a provider of high-performance data solutions, appointed Kieran Penwill and Chris Sassone as its sales directors of EMEA and APAC, respectively. In addition, Mike Sheppard joined Panasas as its global director of channels and alliances, and Jeff Whitaker joined the company as its vice president of marketing and product management.
“I’m thrilled to announce these new appointments,” said Brian Peterson, chief operating officer of Panasas.“The ActiveStor Ultra product line has received high praise from both established and new customers, and Panasas has enjoyed a sharp increase in demand over the last 18 months. As a result, we are investing further in our teams and our products to support our expanding global customer base.”
AMD appointed the former chief information officer of Xilinx Hasmukh Ranjan as its senior vice president and chief information officer. Ranjan will be responsible for managing the company’s IT organization and for providing strategic oversight of corporate IT infrastructure, maintaining critical technology applications and systems, and delivering advanced solutions to enable more secure and productive business operations.
“There has never been a more exciting time in the semiconductor industry – and especially for AMD,” Ranjan said. “I’m particularly inspired by the collaborative spirit and culture within the company and am eager to leverage our industry-leading products to further bolster our team’s capacity to innovate.”
Karina Robinson
Multiverse Computing, a provider of quantum computing solutions, appointed Karina Robinson as a senior advisor to the company. Robinson joins Multiverse with over 10 years of experience in providing chief executive officer and chairman advisory services. Currently, Robinson is CEO of Robinson Hambro Ltd and a non-executive director on the board of Atlanti, an Anglo-Swiss fund management group based in Geneva.
“I’m delighted to join Multiverse’s outstanding global team. Quantum is going to transform everything from financial risk to global warming,” said Robinson. “Multiverse’s ability to work with diverse multinational corporations in their quantum journeys, along with its record number of patents and inclusive culture, were an irresistible combination.”
The Association for Computing Machinery named Éva Tardos as the 2022-2023 ACM Athena Lecturer. Tardos is recognized for fundamental research contributions to combinatorial optimization, approximation algorithms, and algorithmic game theory, and for her dedicated mentoring and service to these communities.
Tardos is the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Computer Science and Chair of the Department of Computer Science at Cornell University. She also served as Associate Dean for Diversity & Inclusion, and Diversity Lead for Computing and Information Sciences.
Jessica Tierney, Daniel Larremore, and Lara Thompson
The U.S. National Science Foundation named Jessica Tierney, Daniel Larremore, and Lara Thompson as the recipients of this year’s Alan T. Waterman Award. Tierney is a University of Arizona geoscientist, Thompson is a biomedical engineer at the University of the District of Columbia, and Larremore is a computer scientist from the University of Colorado Boulder.
This is the first year NSF has chosen to honor three researchers with the award, which recognizes an outstanding early-career U.S. science or engineering researcher who demonstrates exceptional individual achievements in research in NSF-supported fields.
The US Department of Commerce appointed Reggie Townsend to the National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee. Townsend serves as director of the data ethics practice at analytics and artificial intelligence software company SAS. The NAIAC will advise the president and the National AI Initiative Office on a range of issues related to AI.
“AI comes with promise and peril,” said Townsend. “The need for legal, technical, social and academic frameworks to capitalize on the promise of AI while mitigating the peril is not only important but urgent in these times. I’m hopeful we will succeed and consider it an honor and a privilege to do my part.”
WEKA, the data platform for AI company, appointed Dan Warmenhoven to its board of directors. Warmenhoven will help to shape the company’s strategic alliances, go to market and customer acquisition strategies. Warmenhoven served as chief executive officer of NetApp from 1994 to 2009 and later became its executive chairperson from 2009 to 2014.
“WEKA’s data platform technology and vision are impressive. I believe they have the potential to be as transformative to modern data management as NetApp’s technology was for data storage in the 90s,” said Warmenhoven. “They aren’t just building a better storage mousetrap like so many of their market peers. WEKA’s unique software-based, cloud agnostic approach has the potential to fundamentally change how organizations store, process, and manage their data.”
Samsung Group’s research and development hub Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology appointed Dr. Robert Wisniewski as its senior vice president, chief architect of HPC, and will head its system architecture lab established under the system research center in SAIT.
Wisniewski will be responsible for leading Samsung’s supercomputer system development through research on supercomputer hardware and software architecture to strengthen research capabilities in the field of next-generation supercomputers.
National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee
The U.S. Department of Commerce appointed 27 experts to the National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee, which will advise the President and the National AI Initiative Office on a range of issues related to artificial intelligence.
“Artificial intelligence presents a new frontier for enhancing our economic and national security, as well as our way of life. Moreover, responsible AI development is instrumental to our strategic competition with China,” said U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves. “At the same time, we must remain steadfast in mitigating the risks associated with this emerging technology, and others, while ensuring that all Americans can benefit. The diverse leaders of our inaugural National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee represent the best and brightest of their respective fields and will be instrumental in helping the Department strike this balance. Their anticipated recommendations to the President and the National AI Initiative Office will serve as building blocks for U.S. AI policy for decades to come, and I am immensely grateful for their voluntary service.”
To read last month’s edition of Career Notes, click here.
Do you know someone that should be included in next month’s list? If so, send us an email at [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you.
