Illinois computer science professor Marc Snir has been chosen to direct theMathematics and Computer Science Division (MCS) at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL).  Snir, the Michael Faiman and Saburo Muroga Professor in computer science, has been a leader in shaping high performance computing (HPC) architectures and parallel programming, including contributions to IBM’s SP and Blue Gene systems and to MPI, the standard communications library used in HPC.  At MCS, he will be directing over 200 researchers and staff members, who are working on projects ranging from algorithm development and software design in key areas like optimization, to exploration of new technologies such as distributed computing and bioinformatics, to numerical simulations in challenging areas like climate modeling.  Snir will continue to hold his appointment as professor of computer science. He will divide his time between MCS and the University of Illinois and will continue to be associated with the Blue Waters project.

“Argonne is one of the most prestigious national labs, conducting significant research across many key disciplines.  This is a rare and outstanding opportunity, not only for Marc, but also for the Department of Computer Science and the College of Engineering.  The potential for new collaborations between our two world-class institutions is exciting,” said Rob A. Rutenbar, the Abel Bliss Professor of Engineering and computer science department head. 

A distinguished researcher and scholar, Snir chaired the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign from 2001 to 2007.  While at Illinois, he has also co-directed the Intel and Microsoft Universal Parallel Computing Research Center, was the first director of the Illinois Informatics Institute, is the Associate Director for Extreme Scale Computing at NCSA, and is co-PI of the Blue Waters petascale computing project.  In addition, Snir co-chaired the National Research Council’s Committee to Study the Future of Supercomputing, and he is a co-author of its influential 2004 report, “Getting Up to Speed: The Future of Supercomputing.”