Rayadurgam Srikant will serve as the new director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. Srikant succeeded previous director Bill Gropp and began his duties Jan. 1.
Srikant is a professor in The Grainger College of Engineering. He also holds a Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering. He was previously involved in NSCA in 2023, when he served as acting director of operations for several months.
“I’m very excited to begin this new journey with NCSA,” Srikant wrote in a University press release. “My focus is on supporting our excellent researchers and staff, strengthening collaboration across the center, and ensuring that NCSA continues to thrive in its research, service and impact missions.”
Earning his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Srikant then received both a doctoral and master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University. His research interests include cloud computing, machine learning, networks, optimization, probability, game theory and control theory.
Srikant has been recognized numerous times for his work on mathematical analysis and his designs of algorithms for the internet, wireless networks and data centers. He has received major awards including the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Koji Kobayashi Field Award for Computers and Communications and the ACM SIGMETRICS Achievement Award.
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“I am confident that Srikant’s expertise and collaborative approach will be invaluable at NCSA,” said Susan Martinis, senior vice chancellor for research and innovation, in a December statement.
Srikant’s first month as director has been very busy. He hosted a tour of the National Petascale Computing Facility for Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker in January to discuss the impact of HPC on the state of Illinois, as well as artificial intelligence and quantum computing.
“Meeting with Gov. Pritzker was a rewarding opportunity to showcase how NCSA’s innovations resonate from Illinois to the global stage,” Srikant said in the announcement. “We’re proud to be at the forefront of advanced computing that drives transformative economic growth and industrial leadership across our state.”
NSCA has been at the epicenter of supercomputing research since its founding in 1986 and is one of five facilities created by the National Science Foundation Supercomputer Centers Program. It is a hub for trans-disciplinary research, and pioneers innovations in technology to work to solve critical questions.
NSCA’s mission is to bring “people, computing and data together to benefit society,” according to the website.
