Patrick Bridges has been appointed as the interim director of the UNM Center for Advanced Research Computing (CARC). Bridges is an associate professor and associate chair of the department of Computer Science. His research interests are broadly focused on the design and optimization of system software for high performance scientific computing systems.

This includes the development of novel performance modeling techniques to improve system performance and techniques for making large-scale systems resilient to failure. Bridges frequently collaborates with Sandia, Los Alamos, and Oak Ridge National Laboratories, and is a member of the ACM and the IEEE Computer Society. Additional information about his research is available on his website.

“I am pleased that Professor Bridges has accepted the position of Interim Director of CARC,” UNM Vice President for Research Gabriel Lopez said. “He brings a wealth of experience in academia and national lab collaborations. I look forward to working with him over the next year as we continue to advance the research mission of CARC.”

Bridges received his undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Mississippi State University in 1994 and Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from the University of Arizona in 2002. He joined The University of New Mexico in 2003, as an assistant professor in the department of Computer Science. In 2009, he was promoted to his current position as associate professor of Computer Sciences.

“I'm honored and excited to lead the Center for UNM. Large-scale, data-intensive computing is a fundamental part of modern research, and I'm looking forward to collaborating with and supporting the research of UNM's many outstanding faculty, staff, and students in this area.”

He replaces Susan Atlas, who has served as the director of CARC since 2009. Atlas accepted a program director position at the National Science Foundation.

The mission of CARC is to enable excellence in research and scholarship in science, engineering, biomedicine, humanities and the arts, through support for parallel supercomputing, advanced visualization, research data storage and analysis, novel architectures, and by providing leadership to enhance interdisciplinary computing-based research and education at the University.