We need more rock stars in HPC: people like Larry Smarr, Jack Dongarra, Dan Reed, and Seymour Cray who accomplish big things and, periodically, capture the imagination of the lay press. In HPC it’s the accomplishment that matters, and some of our superheroes achieve cult status inside the community. But in their rock star role with the outside world, it doesn’t so much matter what they have accomplished so much as that they are interesting to the world at large long enough to carry the message of HPC to a broad audience.
Jay Boisseau gets rock star coverage in this weekend’s Austin American Statesman, coverage that is well deserved for the change he and his team have helped bring to UT’s computing infrastructure
When Jay Boisseau was asked to come to the University of Texas, skeptics told him UT was unlikely to become a major player in the supercomputing field. Boisseau, however, proved them wrong, helping land the federal grant that brought the supercomputer Ranger to the Austin campus.
The article is paired with another HPC article in the same edition that is also worth reading about the general landscape of HPC and the ephemerality of the testosterone rankings.
I would certainly have to agree with John’s comments. For what its worth, many of the sub-cultures within HPC have their own champions. Fritz Ferstl in batch, Papadopoulos/Katz/Bruno of infrastructure, Gropp of MPI, etc, etc. There aren’t, however, a number of “A-list” characters that champion the industry at large.
John… I think you just volunteered 🙂