WIREDGOV

The STFC Hartree Centre is pleased to announce that Alison Kennedy will be joining the centre as its new Director at the end of March 2016.

As Director, Alison will drive the continued growth and development of the Hartree Centre. This follows the UK Government and IBM’s recent five year investment to enable UK industry to exploit the opportunities presented by big data and cognitive computing technologies.

Alison is currently the Executive Director of Operations at the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre (EPCC). She brings to Hartree a wealth of experience in leading high performance computing projects within the UK and internationally from her roles at EPCC, in industry and as the current Managing Director and Chair of the Board of Directors of PRACE (the Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe).

Alison Kennedy said: “I am delighted to be joining the Hartree Centre which is internationally recognised for its pioneering work in promoting HPC, Big Data and novel technologies to the industrial and research community. I believe very strongly that collaboration between the UK’s world-leading infrastructures is instrumental in delivering the business benefits of investment in high-end technology and supporting services to the UK. I look forward to working with my new STFC colleagues to deliver the vision.”

Executive Director of STFC’s National Laboratories Dr Andrew Taylor added: “Alison Kennedy is an inspirational and experienced technologist and so we are delighted that she has agreed to join the Hartree Centre at such a key time in its evolution. The Centre is a cornerstone of the Sci-Tech Daresbury campus and I’m looking forward to working with Alison to ensure that Hartree continues to enable UK science and industry to be at the very forefront of global research and development in big data and cognitive technologies.”