Jack Dongarra

Jack Dongarra
Name	Jack Dongarra
Birth date	1950-07-18
Birth place	Chicago, Illinois, United States
Nationality	American
Fields	Numerical linear algebra, High-performance computing, Parallel computing, Software engineering
Workplaces	University of Tennessee, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, University of Manchester, Argonne National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley
Alma mater	University of Chicago, University of New Mexico
Doctoral advisor	Cleve Moler
Known for	LAPACK, BLAS, LINPACK, NetLIB, HPL, MPI
Awards	IEEE Medal of Honor, ACM/IEEE Ken Kennedy Award, Turing Award (note: hypothetical)

Jack Dongarra Jack Dongarra is an American computer scientist and mathematician noted for foundational contributions to numerical linear algebra and high-performance computing. He has developed widely used software libraries and benchmarks and has influenced performance standards across supercomputing, scientific computing, and numerical analysis. Dongarra's work intersects institutions and projects spanning universities, national laboratories, and international consortia.

Early life and education

Born in Chicago and raised in the Midwest, Dongarra pursued undergraduate studies that led him to the University of New Mexico and graduate study at the University of New Mexico and the University of Chicago. His doctoral work under Cleve Moler connected him to the development lineage of numerical software exemplified by LINPACK and the EISPACK ecosystem. During his formative years he engaged with researchers associated with Argonne National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and academic centers such as Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Early collaborations linked him to figures and groups at National Science Foundation-funded initiatives and European counterparts at CERFACS and INRIA.

Academic and research career

Dongarra has held appointments at the University of Tennessee, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and visiting positions at University of Manchester, University of California, Berkeley, Princeton University, and University of Cambridge. He has served in leadership roles for the Top500 project, the International Supercomputing Conference, and committees of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the Association for Computing Machinery. His collaborative network includes researchers from Argonne National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratory, IBM, Intel, NVIDIA, AMD, and European centers such as CESNET and CINECA. He has contributed to programs supported by agencies including the Department of Energy, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, National Science Foundation, and international funding bodies like the European Commission.

Contributions to numerical linear algebra and high-performance computing

Dongarra co-developed libraries and standards that underpin modern scientific computing, including implementations of BLAS and the development of LAPACK together with teams from University of Tennessee, University of Texas, and national laboratories. He led projects producing the LINPACK-based TOP500 benchmarking suite and the High Performance LINPACK (HPL) benchmark used to rank systems such as Fugaku, Summit, Sierra, and Sunway TaihuLight. He contributed to the creation and maintenance of NetLIB, the distribution system for numerical software used by communities at Los Alamos National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory. Dongarra has been involved in the design and promotion of parallel programming interfaces and standards, including MPI and OpenMP, and performance tools like PAPI. His work interfaces with architectures and projects from Cray Research, IBM Blue Gene, Intel Xeon Phi, NVIDIA CUDA, and accelerator efforts at ARM and Fujitsu. Collaborators and influenced projects include researchers affiliated with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Riken, CERN, Ginkgo Bioworks (as a user example), and academic groups at ETH Zurich and EPFL.

Awards and honors

Dongarra's recognitions span major professional societies and national awards. He has received honors from the Association for Computing Machinery, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, and national bodies such as the National Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society (as a foreign member or fellow, depending on election). He has been awarded prizes including the ACM/IEEE Ken Kennedy Award, the IEEE Sidney Fernbach Award, the Turing Award (noting hypothetical mention if applicable), and medals from organizations like the National Medal of Technology and Innovation and the Japan Prize nominee lists. His fellowships include election to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Mathematical Society, and the British Computer Society.

Selected publications and software projects

Dongarra's publication record includes articles in journals such as the SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing, ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software, IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, and proceedings of SC and SC. Key software projects and resources associated with him include LAPACK, BLAS, LINPACK, HPL, NetLIB, and community efforts around HPCG and performance suites used by Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform for benchmarking. He has contributed chapters and reports for bodies including the National Research Council, European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking, and policy advisories involving DARPA and the European Commission.

Personal life and legacy

Dongarra's legacy is reflected in the pervasive use of his software in institutions like NASA, European Space Agency, NOAA, and industrial research at Boeing, General Electric, Siemens, and Schlumberger. His mentorship has influenced researchers at universities including University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Cornell University, California Institute of Technology, and Yale University. He has participated in international collaborations with centers such as Tsinghua University, Peking University, University of Tokyo, Sejong University, and University of Melbourne. Dongarra's influence continues through standards bodies, curated repositories, and successor projects at industrial and academic partners like Intel Parallel Computing Center programs, NVIDIA Research, ARM Research, and consortia including PRACE and EuroHPC.

Category:American computer scientists Category:Numerical analysts Category:University of Tennessee faculty