Michael E. Papka

Michael E. Papka is a Warren S. McCulloch professor of computer science at the University of Illinois Chicago. At Argonne National Laboratory, he works as a senior scientist, the deputy associate laboratory director for Computing, Environment, and Life Sciences (CELS), and the director of the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility. Additionally, Papka is the director of the Electronic Visualization Laboratory and co-director of the George Crabtree Institute for Discovery and Sustainability. Previously, Papka was a named Presidential Research, Scholarship and Artistry Professor at Northern Illinois University.

Education and career Papka has a physics degree from Northern Illinois University, a master's degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a master's degree and PhD from the University of Chicago.

While studying at UIC, Papka worked at Argonne National Laboratory as an associate scientist (1992–1996) and has been steadily promoted throughout his research career, achieving senior scientist rank in 2012. In his role as a deputy associate laboratory director (2006 – present) for Computing, Environment and Life Sciences, Papka co-directs a research directorate that couples computing-related activities with various science domains whose future depends on computing. His active research includes scientific visualization, large-scale data analysis, and building research infrastructure. His current efforts focused on analyzing the data output of traditional supercomputers, large-scale scientific instruments, and sensor networks to integrate edge and high-performance computing across the computing continuum. As director of the Electronic Visualization Laboratory, he leads an interdisciplinary laboratory that performs research in the areas of high-performance visualization, virtual reality, and networked collaboration. EVL is home to pioneering technologies such as CAVE, SAGE, and CAVE2.

Research Papka's research focuses on data analysis and visualization and has resulted in the collaborative development of techniques and tools for enabling a broad range of scientific discoveries. His most significant contribution is in high-performance computing systems. Papka was lead researcher on the Argonne Teragrid Grid Integration Group and co-lead researcher of an NSF funded project on TeraGrid Early Operations. With the advent of petascale systems, Papka was lead researcher on an NSF funded petascale data active store. He co-authored the heavily cited 2011 International Exascale Software Project Roadmap.

Awards and honors Papka's honors include the Gordon Bell Special Prize for HPC-Based COVID-19 Research (2022) and a Gordon Bell Prize [honorable mention] for scientific visualization (2011). Papka also received the Argonne Distinguished Performance Award for leadership of ALCF and overseeing Aurora's construction (2023), an Argonne Pinnacle of Education Award for his contributions to science education outreach activities (2022), and a Secretary of Energy Achievement Award for marshaling HPC resources for research during the COVID-19 pandemic. He was named an ACM Distinguished Member in 2023.