Manish Parashar Wins the 2024 CRA Distinguished Service Award
By Matt Hazenbush, Director of Communications
The Computing Research Association (CRA) has selected Dr. Manish Parashar as the recipient of the 2024 CRA Distinguished Service Award in recognition of his multi-faceted and highly impactful service to the computing research community.
Parashar is the Director of the Scientific Computing and Imaging (SCI) Institute, Chair in Computational Science and Engineering, and Presidential Professor in the School of Computing at the University of Utah. He recently completed an Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) assignment as the Office Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure.
The CRA Distinguished Service Award, now in its 36th year, recognizes service in the areas of government affairs, professional societies, publications or conferences, and leadership that has a major impact on computing research.
“Manish has brought extraordinary advances to computing research, both through his work in academia and in his highly impactful service to NSF” said Tracy Camp, CRA Executive Director and CEO. “His long list of career achievements exemplifies what the CRA Distinguished Service Award is all about, and I’m thrilled that we can present him with this honor.”
One of the world’s top scientific and technical leaders in computational and data-enabled science and engineering, Parashar’s accomplishments, particularly in the field of cyberinfrastructure, have brought about global benefits to computing research and to society as a whole.
“I am extremely honored to receive this recognition from the Computing Research Association,” said Parashar. “It’s humbling to be singled out by CRA for this award, which, over the years, has recognized the contributions of so many leaders in our community. I deeply appreciate this recognition.”
A Leader Across Domains
The number and variety of Parashar’s contributions to the computing research community are a testament to his unique blend of technical knowledge, leadership, and ability to find consensus in service of getting big things done.
Parashar received his PhD in computer engineering from Syracuse University and was a postdoctoral researcher in computer sciences at the University of Texas at Austin before joining the faculty at Rutgers University, where he ultimately became a Distinguished Professor in 2015. He joined the faculty of the University of Utah as Presidential Professor of Computer Science in 2021, also becoming the Director of Scientific Computing & Imaging (SCI) Institute and Chair in Computational Science and Engineering.
As a researcher, Parashar has played a vital role in establishing autonomic computing as a discipline within computer science. His work has also made significant contributions to formalizing the concept of translational computer science–the application of theoretical knowledge and research findings from computer science to practical solutions.
“Over the years, I have been privileged to have had the opportunity to actively engage with an amazing group of colleagues and collaborations, at the National Science Foundation, the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House, and most recently at the University of Utah. I share this recognition with each one of these individuals,” said Parashar. “As we embrace the disruptive power of AI and other technologies, I look forward to continuing my journey towards the democratization of cyberinfrastructure and science.”
Parashar has served the community in a variety of leadership roles through his involvement with the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) and the IEEE Computer Society, serving in numerous leadership positions in technical committees and task forces, editorial boards, and conferences and workshops, and championing diversity and support for early career researchers. He is the Founding Chair of the Technical Consortium on High Performance Computing (TCHPC), Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems (TPDS), and Chair of the IEEE Computer Society Committee on Open Science and Reproducibility.
As a public servant, Parashar led NSF’s Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC) from 2018 to 2023 as a rotator from the research community, during which time he led a number of significant initiatives. He spearheaded OAC’s set of strategic blueprints that translated a 2016 National Academies study on NSF’s role in the future of advanced cyberinfrastructure into real-world action. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Parashar led NSF’s rapid response to stand up the COVID-19 High-Performance Computing (HPC) Consortium, which within weeks was offering access to shared computing resources to scientists to advance our understanding of the SARS-CoV2 virus.
Based on the success of the COVID-19 HPC Consortium, Dr. Parahar led US inter-agency discussions to advance the concept of a National Strategic Computing Reserve (NSCR)–a set of cyberinfrastructure resources that can be made available in times of national or global need, which is now in a one-year pilot. He also served as co-chair of the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) Task Force, which sought to develop a plan for a national AI research resource to democratize access to the cyberinfrastructure needed for AI research. In his last six months with NSF, Parashar worked tirelessly to make the NAIRR a reality, taking part in many congressional and executive-branch briefings.
Congratulations, Dr. Parashar!
Please join CRA in congratulating Dr. Parashar on winning the 2024 CRA Distinguished Service Award!
If you’re among the many who have worked or interacted with Dr. Parashar over the course of his impactful career, consider reposting our announcement of his award on LinkedIn and share your thoughts on how his work has contributed positively to the computing research community.
