Dec. 8, 2022 — The global organization Women in High Performance Computing (WHPC) was founded with the mission to create more equality, diversity, and integration in the male-dominated HPC community. The initiative is active at conferences such as SC and ISC, and offers workshops and mentoring programs. Anyone who is interested can easily become a WHPC member and benefit from their offerings by registering free of charge on their website. WHPC works with several “chapters” – the official name for WHPC’s local networks – on five continents. To become a WHPC chapter, an institution or organization has to prove that they are suitably qualified in an application process.
A team of local WHPC members has now established a local WHPC network on behalf of Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich Women in HPC (JuWinHPC). This local network is not only supported by Jülich’s Board of Directors in its efforts, but has also already been approved by the global organization as the first German WHPC chapter.
JuWinHPC’s main goal is to strengthen the local community. For this purpose, the network organizes monthly informational meetings or gatherings. While the chapter members can use the network to meet new colleagues or to strengthen existing contacts, the founders are already working on further tasks in the background: they aim to gain a better understanding of the gender imbalance and make women in the field more visible. Therefore, JuWinHPC will work closely with other chapters on an international level and support the foundation of further chapters on a national level.
JuWinHPC encourages and welcomes anyone interested in the topic of equal opportunities, no matter their gender, to join the initiative.
About Jülich
The Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC) has about 300 staff members. It provides leading-edge supercomputer resources, IT tools, methods, and know-how for researchers at FZJ and for researchers participating in more than 200 German and European projects through the John von Neumann Institute for Computing (NIC), the Gauss Centre for Supercomputing (GCS) and the Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE). To ensure optimal mapping of methods, models and algorithms needed by users of high-end supercomputing, JSC on the one hand provides – in addition to basic user support – expert advice via its Algorithms, Tools and Methods Labs (ATMLs) in mathematical methods and algorithms, performance analysis or visualization and, on the other hand, in community oriented high-level research and support, the Simulation and Data Laboratories (SDLs). They support applications in different fields of natural sciences ranging from biology to physics, materials science as well as climate research and terrestrial systems. At the same time, the SDLs conduct their own research on topics in their specific domains.
Source: JSC