April 6, 2018
Jason Sommerfield has been appointed director of PSC’s Facilities Technology Group, succeeding J. Ray Scott. In his new position, Sommerfield will be responsible for leading the deployment and operation of high-impact resources for computation and data analytics serving national communities.
Sommerfield first began working at PSC in 1999. In his tenure at the center he has made vital contributions to advanced systems and provided strong technical management across PSC’s high performance computing (HPC) systems. From 2012 to 2015 he worked in industry on cutting-edge storage systems, acquiring additional perspective and expertise before returning to PSC in 2015.
Sommerfield’s group currently manages Bridges, which converges HPC, artificial intelligence, and Big Data; Anton 2, a special purpose supercomputer for biomolecular simulation; Olympus, an advanced cluster serving a community modeling infectious disease; and the Brain Archive. Through Sommerfield’s group, PSC also integrates and supports hardware infrastructure from other groups at Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh and other institutions.
“Jason brings vast technical depth that’s essential to drive PSC’s innovative computing resources,” said Nick Nystrom, interim director of PSC. “He has a strong team, and the continuity of this transition will serve PSC both today and into the future.”
Scott is moving on to a new position with Carnegie Mellon University’s Computing Services, which is expected to allow for ongoing, valuable collaboration with PSC.