Paul Messina

Biography
Paul Messina is Advisor to the Associate Laboratory
Director and Lab on Exascale at Argonne National
Laboratory. Since 2015, he has been Project Director for
the U.S. Department of Energy Exascale Computing Project.
From 2008-2015, he served as Director of Science for the
Argonne Leadership Computing Facility. Dr. Messina served
as Distinguished Senior Computer Scientist at Argonne and
Advisor to the Director General at CERN (European
Organization for Nuclear Research) from 2002-2004.
From 1987-2002, he was founding Director of the Center for Advanced Computing Research, Assistant Vice President for Scientific Computing, and Faculty Associate for Scientific Computing at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). While at Caltech, he held a joint appointment at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as manager of High-Performance Computing and Communications. Dr. Messina led the DOE-NNSA Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative while on leave from 1999-2000.
At Caltech, he served as Principal Investigator for the CASA gigabit network testbed, Chief Architect for the National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure, principal investigator for the Scalable I/O Initiative, and co-principal investigator for the National Virtual Observatory and TeraGrid. In 1990, he conceived, formed, and led the Concurrent Supercomputing Consortium, which created and operated the Intel Touchstone Delta, at the time the world’s most powerful scientific computer.
Dr. Messina earned his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Cincinnati. From 1973-1987, he held a number of positions in the Applied Mathematics Division and was founding Director of the Mathematics and Computer Science Division at Argonne.
In 2014, Dr. Messina was named Argonne Distinguished Fellow, the laboratory’s highest scientific and engineering rank. He was awarded the Thomas Hart Benton Mural Medallion from Indiana University in 2013, the U.S. DOE Distinguished Associate Award in 2001, and an honorary Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from the University of Lecce in 1997.
From 1987-2002, he was founding Director of the Center for Advanced Computing Research, Assistant Vice President for Scientific Computing, and Faculty Associate for Scientific Computing at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). While at Caltech, he held a joint appointment at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as manager of High-Performance Computing and Communications. Dr. Messina led the DOE-NNSA Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative while on leave from 1999-2000.
At Caltech, he served as Principal Investigator for the CASA gigabit network testbed, Chief Architect for the National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure, principal investigator for the Scalable I/O Initiative, and co-principal investigator for the National Virtual Observatory and TeraGrid. In 1990, he conceived, formed, and led the Concurrent Supercomputing Consortium, which created and operated the Intel Touchstone Delta, at the time the world’s most powerful scientific computer.
Dr. Messina earned his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Cincinnati. From 1973-1987, he held a number of positions in the Applied Mathematics Division and was founding Director of the Mathematics and Computer Science Division at Argonne.
In 2014, Dr. Messina was named Argonne Distinguished Fellow, the laboratory’s highest scientific and engineering rank. He was awarded the Thomas Hart Benton Mural Medallion from Indiana University in 2013, the U.S. DOE Distinguished Associate Award in 2001, and an honorary Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from the University of Lecce in 1997.
Presentations