Jack Joseph Dongarra (born July 18, 1950) is an American
computer scientist
A computer scientist is a scientist who specializes in the academic study of computer science.
Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation. Although computer scientists can also focus their work and research on ...
and mathematician. He is a University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Computer Science in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at the
University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (or The University of Tennessee; UT; UT Knoxville; or colloquially UTK or Tennessee) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee, United St ...
. He holds the position of a Distinguished Research Staff member in the Computer Science and Mathematics Division at
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is a federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1943, the laboratory is sponsored by the United Sta ...
University of Manchester
The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...
, and is an adjunct professor and teacher in the Computer Science Department at
Rice University
William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University, is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. Established in 1912, the university spans 300 acres.
Rice University comp ...
. He served as a faculty fellow at the Texas A&M University Institute for Advanced Study (2014–2018). Dongarra is the founding director of the Innovative Computing Laboratory at the University of Tennessee. He was the recipient of the
Turing Award
The ACM A. M. Turing Award is an annual prize given by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for contributions of lasting and major technical importance to computer science. It is generally recognized as the highest distinction in the fi ...
in 2021.
Education
Dongarra received a BSc degree in mathematics from
Chicago State University
Chicago State University (CSU) is a Historically black colleges and universities, predominantly black (PBI) public university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It includes an honors program for undergraduates and offers bachelor's and master ...
in 1972 and a MSc degree in
Computer Science
Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...
from the
Illinois Institute of Technology
The Illinois Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Illinois Tech and IIT, is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Tracing its history to 1890, the present name was adopted upon the m ...
in 1973. In 1980, he received PhD in
Applied Mathematics
Applied mathematics is the application of mathematics, mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and Industrial sector, industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a ...
from the
University of New Mexico
The University of New Mexico (UNM; ) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1889 by the New Mexico Territorial Legislature, it is the state's second oldest university, a flagship university in th ...
under the supervision of
Cleve Moler
Cleve Barry Moler (born August 17, 1939) is an American mathematician and computer programmer specializing in numerical analysis. In the mid to late 1970s, he was one of the authors of LINPACK and EISPACK, Fortran libraries for numerical compu ...
.
Research and career
Dongarra worked at the
Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne National Laboratory is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in Lemont, Illinois, Lemont, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1946, the laboratory is owned by the United Sta ...
until 1989, becoming a senior scientist. He specializes in numerical algorithms in
linear algebra
Linear algebra is the branch of mathematics concerning linear equations such as
:a_1x_1+\cdots +a_nx_n=b,
linear maps such as
:(x_1, \ldots, x_n) \mapsto a_1x_1+\cdots +a_nx_n,
and their representations in vector spaces and through matrix (mathemat ...
,
parallel computing
Parallel computing is a type of computing, computation in which many calculations or Process (computing), processes are carried out simultaneously. Large problems can often be divided into smaller ones, which can then be solved at the same time. ...
, the use of advanced computer architectures, programming methodology, and tools for parallel computers. His research includes the development, testing, and documentation of high-quality mathematical software. He has contributed to the design and implementation of the following open-source software packages and systems: EISPACK, LINPACK, the
Basic Linear Algebra Subprograms
Basic Linear Algebra Subprograms (BLAS) is a specification (technical standard), specification that prescribes a set of low-level routines for performing common linear algebra operations such as vector space, vector addition, scalar multiplicati ...
ScaLAPACK The ScaLAPACK (or Scalable LAPACK) library includes a subset of LAPACK routines redesigned for distributed memory MIMD parallel computers. It is currently written in a Single-Program-Multiple-Data style using explicit message passing for interpro ...
Message Passing Interface
The Message Passing Interface (MPI) is a portable message-passing standard designed to function on parallel computing architectures. The MPI standard defines the syntax and semantics of library routines that are useful to a wide range of use ...
(MPI), NetSolve,
TOP500
The TOP500 project ranks and details the 500 most powerful non-distributed computing, distributed computer systems in the world. The project was started in 1993 and publishes an updated list of the supercomputers twice a year. The first of these ...
Performance Application Programming Interface
In computer science, Performance Application Programming Interface (PAPI) is a portable interface (in the form of a library) to hardware performance counters on modern microprocessors. It is being widely used to collect low level performance met ...
(PAPI). These libraries excel in the accuracy of the underlying
numerical algorithm
Numerical analysis is the study of algorithms that use numerical approximation (as opposed to symbolic manipulations) for the problems of mathematical analysis (as distinguished from discrete mathematics). It is the study of numerical methods t ...
s and the reliability and performance of the software. They benefit a very wide range of users through their incorporation into software including
MATLAB
MATLAB (an abbreviation of "MATrix LABoratory") is a proprietary multi-paradigm programming language and numeric computing environment developed by MathWorks. MATLAB allows matrix manipulations, plotting of functions and data, implementat ...
,
Maple
''Acer'' is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the soapberry family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated si ...
,
Wolfram Mathematica
Wolfram (previously known as Mathematica and Wolfram Mathematica) is a software system with built-in libraries for several areas of technical computing that allows machine learning, statistics, symbolic computation, data manipulation, network ...
,
GNU Octave
GNU Octave is a scientific programming language for scientific computing and numerical computation. Octave helps in solving linear and nonlinear problems numerically, and for performing other numerical experiments using a language that is mostly ...
, the
R programming language
R is a programming language for statistical computing and data visualization. It has been widely adopted in the fields of data mining, bioinformatics, data analysis, and data science.
The core R language is extended by a large number of so ...
,
SciPy
SciPy (pronounced "sigh pie") is a free and open-source Python library used for scientific computing and technical computing.
SciPy contains modules for optimization, linear algebra, integration, interpolation, special functions, fast Fourier ...
, and others.
With Eric Grosse, Dongarra pioneered the distribution via email and the web of numeric open-source code collected in Netlib. He has published approximately 300 articles, papers, reports, and technical memoranda, and he is the co-author of several books. He holds appointments with
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is a federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1943, the laboratory is sponsored by the United Sta ...
and the
University of Manchester
The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...
, where he has served as a Turing Fellow since 2007.
Awards and honors
In 2004, Dongarra was awarded the IEEE Sid Fernbach Award for his contributions in the application of high-performance computers using innovative approaches. In 2008, he was the recipient of the first IEEE Medal of Excellence in Scalable Computing. In 2010, Dongarra was the first recipient of the SIAM Activity Group on Supercomputing Career Prize. In 2011, he was the recipient of the IEEE Computer Society Charles Babbage Award. In 2013, he was the recipient of the ACM/IEEE Ken Kennedy Award for his leadership in designing and promoting standards for mathematical software used to solve numerical problems common to high-performance computing. In 2019, Dongarra received the SIAM/ACM Prize in Computational Science. In 2020, he received the IEEE Computer Pioneer Award for leadership in the area of high-performance mathematical software.
Dongarra was elected a
Fellow
A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...
of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...
(AAAS), the
Association for Computing Machinery
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional membe ...
(ACM), the
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) is a professional society dedicated to applied mathematics, computational science, and data science through research, publications, and community. SIAM is the world's largest scientific soci ...
(SIAM), and the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines.
The IEEE has a corporate office ...
(IEEE) and a foreign member of the
Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...
and a foreign member of the
Royal Society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
(ForMemRS). In 2001, he was elected a member of the US
National Academy of Engineering
The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...
for contributions to numerical software, parallel and distributed computation, and problem-solving environments. In 2023, Dongarra was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in recognition of his distinguished and continuing achievements in original research in the field of high-performance computing. In 2024, Dongarra received an Honorary Doctorate degree from the Department of Informatics,
Ionian University
The Ionian University (IU; ) is a university located in the Ionian Islands (region), Ionian Islands, Greece. It is one of the newest institutions of Higher Education in Greece, created in 1984 pursuant to presidential order 83/84 ΦΕΚ 31 Α/2 ...
.
Dongarra received the 2021
Turing Award
The ACM A. M. Turing Award is an annual prize given by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for contributions of lasting and major technical importance to computer science. It is generally recognized as the highest distinction in the fi ...
"for pioneering contributions to numerical algorithms and libraries that enabled high performance computational software to keep pace with exponential hardware improvements for over four decades.". His
algorithm
In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of Rigour#Mathematics, mathematically rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific Computational problem, problems or to perform a computation. Algo ...
s and software are regarded to have fueled the growth of
high-performance computing
High-performance computing (HPC) is the use of supercomputers and computer clusters to solve advanced computation problems.
Overview
HPC integrates systems administration (including network and security knowledge) and parallel programming into ...
and had significant impacts in many areas of
computational science
Computational science, also known as scientific computing, technical computing or scientific computation (SC), is a division of science, and more specifically the Computer Sciences, which uses advanced computing capabilities to understand and s ...
, from
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...
to
computer graphics
Computer graphics deals with generating images and art with the aid of computers. Computer graphics is a core technology in digital photography, film, video games, digital art, cell phone and computer displays, and many specialized applications. ...