The Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI), headquartered in Chapel Hill and previously directed by Dan Reed before he left for Microsoft Research, has announced that OSC’s Stan Ahalt will become the new director.
Stan will take his seat in the chair on the 28th of Sep
“Stan is an accomplished, respected scientist and a national leader in the high performance computing community,” said Waldrop. “He is the perfect match for RENCI and will be a strong leader as the institute continues its work of applying advanced technologies and faculty expertise to important state problems.”
Ahalt, a native of Virginia, comes to RENCI and UNC from Columbus, Ohio, where he led the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) for six years and held a faculty position in the department of electrical and computer engineering at the Ohio State University for 22 years. At OSC, he helped to build the center’s national reputation for providing training, scientific computing and network research services to researchers in Ohio and nationwide.
Stan has been a tremendous force in the community through many leadership roles and initiatives, but the one I have focused on is his Blue Collar Computing Initiative, the effort to tie business in Ohio together with supercomputing in an effort to drive the economic competitiveness of the region. This is a visionary effort that I hope continues at OSC, and which I hope Stan can build on at RENCI.
[…] where new director Stan Ahalt is facing some serious challenges even before he shows up for his first day on the job Budget cuts within the University of North Carolina system last week took a huge 35 percent biter […]