Reflections on science, technology, and computing — leavened by personal experience


Our fascination with large instruments and massive computing often blinds us to discovery via many instruments at smaller scales.

If you cannot recreate an idea from its elementary components, you do not really understand it — knowing something is not the same as knowing the name of something.

My time as NCSA director was exhilarating and exciting, as an incredible team invented the future. That is – and always will be – NCSA’s mission.

Evolution or revolution, it’s the persistent question. Can we build reliable exascale systems from extrapolations of current technology or will new approaches be required? There is no definitive answer, as almost any approach might be made to work at some level with enough heroic effort. The bigger question is what design would enable the most…