May 22, 2015 – The Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE) today published the first edition of PRACE Women in HPC Magazine 2015, part of PRACE’s ongoing effort to advance gender and diversity issues within the HPC community. The opening editorial by Dr Sylvie Joussaume, the Chair of the PRACE Scientific Steering Committee, perfectly captures intent of the new publication:

“…PRACE, in collaboration with the Women in HPC initiative, is embracing a year celebrating the contribution women make to HPC and computational science. This magazine puts the spotlight not just on the scientific advances made by PRACE, but also on the women that contribute to make PRACE a world-leading force in HPC- enabled science and in the move towards Exa-scale computing.

“PRACE has always aimed to improve European competitiveness. HPC is a key economic driver in Europe, providing the ability for scientific breakthroughs that are impossible without leading edge computing resources. Enabling equality of opportunity and participation is also important to increase this competitiveness. PRACE’s year of Women in HPC aims to emphasize the work that PRACE is already doing to improve the opportunities for women, and the input that they provide to the scientific community. By publishing the first magazine of this kind in the field of HPC, Europe is leading the way to highlight the contribution women make in this rapidly developing field.

“By showcasing the talents of women, we hope this publication will provide inspirational models to the next generation of PRACErs. HPC is uniquely positioned to attract women as its users are from a broad range of fields, and HPC already has a growing proportion of female users. At international events, such as ISC and SC, the Women in HPC initiative draws great interest from the HPC and scientific community. The number of women working in HPC is growing day by day. The HPC community is strengthening so that women no longer feel that they are the exception but instead are part of the norm.”

Women in HPC was set up to address the gender imbalance in HPC through support, research and initiatives to bring women into the community. The Women in High Performance Computing (WHPC) Network works to raise the professional profile of Women in HPC by:

• Bringing together female HPC scientists, researchers, developers, users and technicians
• Raising the professional profile of women working in HPC
• Increasing the participation of women in outreach activities
• Assessing the influence of equality initiatives on the HPC community

To encourage women to participate by:

• Increasing the visibility of experienced female role models in HPC
• Providing opportunities for networking amongst women in HPC, both peer-to-peer and peer-to-role model
• Raising awareness that gender-balancing of research groups improves scientific output

Two editions are planned, this first one published as part of the run-up to PRACEdays15 in May. A second edition will be published around at SC15 in Austin in November 2015. The first edition provides a collection of articles about prominent women in HPC and their work.