Features:

VIJAY SAMALAM STEPS UP AS SDSC EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
by Tim Curns, Editor

The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego announced that Dr. Vijay Samalam has been appointed SDSC executive director. In this role, Dr. Samalam will report to SDSC director, Dr. Francine Berman.

Dr. Samalam joined SDSC in 2003 as program director of networking. Previous to coming to SDSC, Dr. Samalam was vice president for architecture and chief technology officer for Lucent Technologies’ core switching division, where he oversaw the development of the company’s next generation optical network. He also worked for more than a dozen years with GTE Laboratories.

Before entering the data communications industry, Dr. Samalam researched and taught at the University of Florida where his main focus was solid-state physics.

HPCwire had a chance to ask Dr. Samalam about his new position and potential responsibilities.

HPCwire: What was the process that led you to become the new executive director at SDSC? Why do you think you are the best person for the job?

Vijay Samalam: I have been acting executive director since this past spring. SDSC can be thought of as a company that combines the characteristics of a research institution and an IT company. SDSC is in the forefront of some of the most cutting edge research in biology, physics, chemistry, and earthquake engineering while at the same time acting as an IT enabler. I have been both a researcher and have worked for many years in the high tech industry and this unique combination is particularly useful for meeting the challenges of this job.

HPCwire: Why did you want this job? What are you most passionate about?

VS: NSF centers like SDSC face some exciting challenges in the next few years as the face of high end computing changes from simply utilizing cycles to distributed computing and data management. At the same time new communities of domain scientists are realizing that IT can be a powerful enabler in their research. SDSC is in a unique position to not only provide cycles and storage but also act as IT consultants to these new communities as they establish their own cyber infrastructures. All of this makes for an extremely dynamic and challenging environment and this, I think, is the main reason I decided to accept this job.

HPCwire: You formerly worked for Lucent Technologies. How does working for SDSC differ from working in the commercial industry?

VS: There are similarities and differences, though from a day to day point of view I would stress that the similarities outweigh the differences. One of the major differences is that our customer base at SDSC consists of all the researchers practicing in the US academic institutions. In Lucent the customer base was much narrower with well defined interests. Servicing the SDSC customer base is much more of a challenge because of their diverse requirements.

HPCwire: What will be your primary duties as Executive director and how might these duties change over the next few years?

VS: My primary duty is to help director Fran Berman run SDSC daily and make sure that SDSC operates smoothly and provides the necessary help and expertise to our customers. SDSC is noted internationally for the IT help it provides to domain scientists and my job is to make sure that we continue to do an excellent job.

HPCwire: What hurdles or frustrations do you see popping up in this position?

VS: The hurdles are the usual. During times of high federal deficits funding is always a challenge especially when it is coupled with fierce determination to be the very best. SDSC has done a remarkable job so far and has led the way in promoting science and our aim is not lower standards in anyway in the coming years.

HPCwire: Speak a bit on the importance of a national cyberinfrastructure and what obstacles you see facing an implementation of such a project?

VS: Establishing a national cyber infrastructure is not a single project. Rather it can be described as establishing an IT infrastructure so that domain scientists can very easily use IT tools to further their science. Different sets of scientists might use the infrastructure differently but the common goal is to make IT tools easy to use and transparent. This is extremely challenging since IT has been until recently recognized as a set of high end tools that only a select few understand. Domain scientists have been telling us that they would like all of IT to be as simple to use and as transparent as Matlab. Our goal in SDSC is to make Cyber infrastructure as transparent as Matlab.

HPCwire: What other goals do you have planned while in this position? How closely will you be working with Fran Berman?

VS: I will be working extremely closely with Fran Berman. We share the same set of ideals about the future of SDSC and we are passionate about the same set of goals. It has been an unalloyed pleasure working with her so far, and I am looking forward to supporting her as she leads SDSC into some exciting times in the coming years.

HPCwire: I'm sure the entire community will be watching. We wish you luck Dr. Samalam. And congratulations!