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.



Lucia Maria de A. Drummond completed a doctorate in Systems and Computer Engineering from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in 1994, and the main article of her thesis obtained a Prize for stimulating research granted by the Ministry of Science and Technology and Compaq Computer Brasil by the Brazilian Academy of Sciences . In 2000, she received the State Young Scientist Award from FAPERJ. She joined Universidade Federal Fluminense in 1989, participating in the postgraduate creation project at the Department of Computer Science. She is currently Full Professor, working in undergraduate courses, and in the post-graduate program in Computing, advising masters and doctoral students. At the moment, she is also the coordinator of Stricto Sensu Pos-Graduate Programs at Universidade Federal Fluminense and coordinator of the Special Commission on Computer Architecture and High Performance Processing of the Brazilian Computer Society.
Michela Taufer is an ACM Distinguished Scientist and holds the Jack Dongarra Professorship in High Performance Computing in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Tennessee Knoxville (UTK). She earned her undergraduate degrees in Computer Engineering from the University of Padova (Italy) and her doctoral degree in Computer Science from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology or ETH (Switzerland). From 2003 to 2004 she was a La Jolla Interfaces in Science Training Program (LJIS) Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) and The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), where she worked on interdisciplinary projects in computer systems and computational chemistry. Her research interests include software applications and their advance programmability in heterogeneous computing; cloud computing and volunteer computing; and performance analysis, modeling and optimization of multi-scale applications. She also has significant experience in mentoring a diverse population of students on interdisciplinary research.
Lara Timm is an HPC Engineer at the Centre for High Performance Computing (CHPC) in Cape Town, South Africa. In her role at the CHPC Lara works primarily on developing the CHPC’s localised cloud platform, with a focus on utilising DevOps tools and practices for building sustainable cloud infrastructure. Lara is also involved in HPC training and outreach as part of the HPC Ecosystems Project, and the CHPC’s national Student Cluster Competition, respectively. Lara is passionate about sharing her experiences, in HPC and otherwise, with special interest in cloud technologies, infrastructure as code, HCD and outreach.

















