3/14/2013 Elise King, CSL
Written by Elise King, CSL
"AAAS is an international, non-profit organization dedicated to advancing science, engineering and innovation around the world. I think that AAAS is one of the societies that is most active in engaging in public policy and science,” Gropp said.
Gropp will run a four-year term as Member-at-Large, starting this month. “I was thrilled,” Gropp said about being told he had been elected. As a Member-at-Large, Gropp said his main responsibilities will include proposing members for election as fellows and, more importantly, ensuring that computing interests are reflected in the agenda of AAAS.
He also explained that there is a lot currently going on in computing, much of which public doesn’t understand, so as a Member-at-Large he wants to help shape a message to the community about what is important in this field.
“I really do think that it’s important for practicing scientists to be paying attention to and participating in the policy debates; It’s one of the reasons why I joined the AAAS,” Gropp said. “They really are active there.”
Gropp’s election comes on the heels of his being named of HPCWire’s people to watch in 2013. “It’s a stellar group … those are people who are causing things to happen,” he said. Gropp is also the chief applications architect for the Blue Waters petascale supercomputer, the General Chair for Supercomputing '13 and has recently been appointed the Thomas M. Siebel Chair in Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
“I think part of this recognition has been due to the environment that I’m in here (at CSL),” Gropp said. “I love being here. I’ve never worked so hard, but I’m having a blast and it’s great to work with all the people here.”