Big Compute Podcast : HPC and Diversity: Life lessons from Irene Qualters

In the Big Compute Podcast episode, Gabriel Broner interviews Irene Qualters about her extensive career in high-performance computing (HPC) and her impactful contributions to the field. Irene Qualters, an early pioneer in HPC, started her career at Cray Research, working closely with Seymour Cray, and eventually became president of the company. Her work at Cray included developing the first commercially successful auto-parallelizing compiler, which significantly contributed to Cray's success by enhancing computational performance. After 20 years at Cray, she transitioned to the pharmaceutical industry, working at Merck, where she envisioned using computational models to transform drug development and reduce reliance on animal trials. Her passion for computer science led her to the National Science Foundation (NSF), where she supported scientific advancements and international collaborations, including funding research on HIV virus simulations and gravitational wave detection. Currently, she is the Associate Laboratory Director for Simulation and Computation at Los Alamos National Lab. Throughout her career, Irene has emphasized the importance of diversity in thought and experience, advocating for the next generation of leaders to embrace diverse perspectives to tackle the world's most challenging problems.