Alan Alda to Keynote SC15

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Alan Alda

Alan Alda

In a surprise announcement, SC15 has announced that Actor Alan Alda will keynote the annual Supercomputing conference. The event will take place Nov. 15-20 in Austin, Texas.

High performance computing has a transformational impact on science in our society,” said SC15 general chair Jackie Kern, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. “For decades scientists and engineers have relied on high performance computing to advance the state of the art in diverse fields ranging from healthcare and automotive safety to renewable energy. Computing is now fully integrated into the scientific discovery process, an equal partner with theory and experiment in improving the quality of life for all members of our global society. Mr. Alda’s focus on communicating the benefits of science to the public—and how we can all do this more effectively—makes him uniquely positioned to help SC continue to bridge the gaps in science understanding and highlight our role in the discovery process.”

Alda is a seven-time Emmy winner and science enthusiast. Most widely known for his role as Captain Hawkeye Pierce on M*A*S*H, Alda has also hosted Scientific American Frontiers on PBS for 11 years and worked on programs such as The Human Spark.

In this video, Alan discusses various ways to better communicate science to a mass audience.

At first, Alda seemed to me to be an odd choice for SC15. But after watching of his work on Scientific American Frontiers, it is clear that Alda speaks with true passion and enthusiasm for science. Call it Show Business maybe, but the SC15 audience should come away from this talk with fresh energy that will be very welcome at the conference.

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Comments

  1. This is going to be an interesting keynote, especially as he is addressing this geeky community that loves jargons. I wonder whose idea it was to invite Alan Alda.