Co-organised by the Central European, MAR and JuWinHPC WHPC Chapters – Join our community at this Birds of a Feather Session “Super(computing) Heroes”!
Members of underrepresented groups often lack access to role models within their minority. The HPC community is still predominantly male, making it difficult for young women to find female “superheroes” to identify with. Such role models are crucial for career planning and guidance. This session aims to provide especially women with the opportunity to meet influential well-recognized female HPC “superheroes” from academia, research labs, HPC centers and industry. Join us to be inspired and find relatable role models as we work together to build a more inclusive and connected HPC community.
We are pleased to announce that this BoF series is continuing for ISC25. Come along and support our women in HPC super(computing) heroes!
Dr. Saleme received her B.S. and M.S. in Mathematics from the University of Córdoba and Universidad Nacional de Colombia, respectively. In 2016, she earned her Ph.D. in Computational Engineering from Mississippi State University (MSU). Ruiz’s first postdoctoral position was held at both the Department of Mathematical Sciences at George Mason University and the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics at UCLA during the 2016 fall semester. She is actively working towards understanding and predicting atomic and micromechanical behavior of materials using mathematical and computational tools. Her research focused on developing a discrete element model to understand fracture mechanisms affecting brittle polycrystalline materials’ microstructural and mechanical properties. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Luxembourg and the EUMaster4HPC project manager, the first Pan-European Master programme in HPC. Dr. Saleme is also promoter/designer of STEM outreach activities for kids and their parents.
Sarah Neuwirth is a Full Professor of Computer Science and Chair of the “High-Performance Computing and its Applications” research group at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU). She also leads JGU’s HPC strategy and development and serves as Co-Director of the NHR South-West HPC Center. Before joining JGU, she was Deputy Head of the “Modular Supercomputing and Quantum Computing” group at Goethe University Frankfurt and a postdoctoral research associate at Heidelberg University, where she earned her PhD in Computer Science in 2018. Her research focuses on parallel I/O and storage systems, performance modeling and analysis, optimization, reproducible benchmarking, high-performance networks, modular supercomputing, and parallel programming models. She led the “I/O & Storage” Working Group for the 6th Edition of ETP4HPC’s Strategic Research Agenda (SRA 6), which outlines Europe’s research, development, and innovation priorities in high-performance computing. Sarah has been recognized for her contributions to HPC with several honors, including the 2023 PRACE Ada Lovelace Award for HPC and the ZONTA Science Award 2019. She has participated as a co-PI in numerous research collaborations with institutions such as the Jülich Supercomputing Centre (DEEP Project Series, EUPEX), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, BITS Pilani Goa Campus, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Virginia Tech. Over the years, Sarah has held various leadership roles in prominent HPC conferences and workshops.
Marta is the CEO of Qilimanjaro, a quantum computing company in Barcelona focused on application-specific analog platforms. She has led deployments of quantum computers to HPC centers and is launching a cloud-based quantum data center. Previously, she researched at Japan’s NII and earned a PhD from the University of York. Her background spans quantum science, physical chemistry, theoretical modeling, and computer engineering.
Alexandra Kourfali is a program manager of research and innovation at the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking. She received her Computer Engineering diploma from the University of Thessaly, Greece, and her Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from Ghent University, Belgium. She has worked in research, development, and innovation for a decade in academia and the private sector in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, and Luxembourg. Her research experience ranges from HPC, reconfigurable, and approximate computing to hardware reliability and computer architectures. Since she joined EuroHPC, she has been managing the chips projects with a strong focus on the RISC-V initiatives.
Dr Carina Kemp is the Global Lead for Academic Research at AWS. Carina is passionate about enabling researchers to leverage the power of the cloud to accelerate their research. Previously Dr Kemp was the Director of eResearch at AARNet where she led Research Cloud Services enabling researchers with tools and advice for all their data and digital infrastructure needs. Dr Kemp joined AARNet from Geoscience Australia, where she provided scientific and digital leadership as the CIO. At GA, Dr Kemp also led the development of virtual laboratories and high-performance computing to enable geophysical applications for pre-competitive dataset delivery. In her career, Dr Kemp has always strived to enable research and innovation working for higher ed, industry, government and NGOS. Her interests include open data, data science, machine learning, high-performance computing, communication of science, improving collaboration across science and information technology disciplines, and encouraging leadership and women in science.
Megan Gawlik is an innovative Outbound Product Manager at Google, spearheading the marketing and communications strategy and execution for Google Cloud’s high-performance computing offerings and scientific discovery initiatives. Her expertise lies in crafting compelling narratives and programs that drive engagement and adoption of cutting-edge HPC solutions, bridging the gap between technical innovation and market needs. Prior to Google, Megan was a Datacenter & AI Go-to-Market Strategy Director at Intel Corporation, where she created and implemented design-win and GTM strategies to drive sales of Intel’s datacenter portfolio. She also helped launch HPE’s Apollo server products, known for bringing dense, multi-node HPC-optimized servers for both enterprise and public sector customers. Megan is passionate about the transformative power of HPC and is a dedicated advocate for encouraging women in technology and leadership.