UW President Joins DOE Advisory Committee on Computing

University of Wyoming President Ed Seidel has been named to an important committee that advises the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on scientific computing and its applications.

In his new role on the 30-member Advanced Scientific Computing Advisory Committee, Seidel will provide expert advice in the fields of applied mathematics, computer science, computational science, high-performance computing facilities and their applications to topics of national importance to DOE’s Office of Science.

“I’m honored to become a part of this group of international leaders in computing and applications to help advance DOE’s Advanced Scientific Computing Program,” says Seidel, who was sworn in as a member this week before the committee’s July meeting. “We in Wyoming certainly understand the importance of energy in the future of our state and nation, and it’s great being a part of the group advising this critical federal agency on its long-range scientific computing plans, priorities and strategies that underpin research and development in all areas of DOE’s mission.”

DOE’s Office of Science has a nearly $8 billion budget to fund research and development at U.S. universities and national laboratories.

Before becoming UW’s 28th president in July 2020, Seidel was the vice president for economic development and innovation for the University of Illinois System. His long record of leadership experience includes more than three years as director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was among the original co-principal investigators for Blue Waters, a federally funded project that brought one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers to Urbana-Champaign.

He also directed the Office of Cyberinfrastructure and led the Directorate of Mathematical and Physical Sciences as National Science Foundation (NSF) assistant director. He oversaw national programs in astronomy, chemistry, materials science, mathematical sciences and physics. The Office of Cyberinfrastructure is responsible for national programs supporting advanced computing environments, software, computer networking and their application for addressing complex problems in science and engineering. Seidel led the launch of new programs in computational and data-intensive science and engineering and the NSF-wide Cyberinfrastructure Framework for 21st Century Science and Engineering.