Roscoe C. Giles, III is an American physicist and

computer engineer Computer engineering (CE, CoE, or CpE) is a branch of engineering specialized in developing computer hardware and software. It integrates several fields of electrical engineering, electronics engineering and computer science. Computer engine ...

. He was the deputy director of

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

's Center for Computational Science. He is also a professor of computer and electrical engineering at Boston University College of Engineering,Faculty profile
Boston University Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, retrieved May 7, 2010. with a joint appointment in physics.Faculty profile
Boston University Department of Physics, retrieved 2010-05-07.

Early life and family

Giles grew up in a neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, and attended high school in nearby Hyde Park at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. His first exposure to computers was through access to the School of Education's IBM 1620. Giles' grandfather and namesake was Roscoe Conkling Giles, the first Black person to earn a degree from

Cornell University Medical College Weill Cornell Medicine (; officially Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University), originally Cornell University Medical College, is the medical school of Cornell University, located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in Ne ...

Academic biography

Giles earned his bachelor's degree in Physics at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

in 1970. In 1975 he received his doctorate from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

, becoming the first African American to earn his Ph.D. in

theoretical physics Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain, and predict List of natural phenomena, natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental p ...

from that school. At Stanford, he worked with

Sidney Drell Sidney David Drell (September 13, 1926 – December 21, 2016) was an American theoretical physicist and arms control expert. At the time of his death, he was professor emeritus at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) and senior fello ...

on the

Stanford Linear Accelerator Center SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, originally named the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in Menlo Park, California, Menlo Park, Ca ...

(SLAC). He was a research associate at

SLAC SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, originally named the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, is a federally funded research and development center in Menlo Park, California, United States. Founded in 1962, the laboratory is now sponsored ...

and the

MIT Center for Theoretical Physics The MIT Center for Theoretical Physics (CTP) is the hub of theoretical nuclear physics, particle physics, and quantum information research at MIT. It is a subdivision of MIT Laboratory for Nuclear Science and Department of Physics. Research CTP ...

before becoming an assistant professor at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

from 1979 to 1985, at which point he joined the

faculty as an associate professor, and was promoted to full professor in 1999.

Research area of interest

Advanced computer architectures, distributed and

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. ...

, and computational science

Other activities

In 2002 Giles was the chair of the

Supercomputing Conference SC (formerly Supercomputing), the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis, is the annual conference established in 1988 by the Association for Computing Machinery and the IEEE Computer Society. I ...

in Baltimore, becoming the first African American to take this role. In 2004 he became the first faculty member to serve on the BU board of trustees. Roscoe Giles is the founder and executive director for the Institution of African American E-Culture. This foundation was developed to deal with the problem of the

digital divide The digital divide is the unequal access to information technology, digital technology, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, and the internet. The digital divide worsens inequality around access to information and resources. In the Information ...

, or the lack of access to information technology by minority groups and other poor communities in the US. Giles was also a team leader in the

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

's National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (NPACI) Education, Outreach and Training group, through which students and teachers learned to use advanced computing systems for understanding, modeling and solving problems. As of 2010, he is the chair of the

United States Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and energy production, the research and development of nuclear power, the military's nuclear w ...

's Advanced Scientific Computing Advisory Committee.ASCAC Members Bio's
(sic), retrieved 2010-05-07.

Awards and honors

In 2000 Giles won the

A. Nico Habermann Award The Computing Research Association (CRA) is a 501(c)3 non-profit association of North American academic departments of computer science, computer engineering, and related fields; laboratories and centers in industry, government, and academia enga ...

offered by the

Computing Research Association The Computing Research Association (CRA) is a 501(c)3 non-profit association of North American academic departments of computer science, computer engineering, and related fields; laboratories and centers in industry, government, and academia enga ...

for "outstanding contributions aimed at increasing the numbers and/or successes of underrepresented groups in the computing research community".2000 CRA A. Nico Habermann Award Winner Dr. Roscoe Giles

, retrieved May 7, 2010. In 2004 he was listed by the Career Communications Group as one of the "50 Most Important Blacks in Research Science"..

References

External links

Computer Scientists of the African Diaspora: Roscoe Giles
Scott Williams,

State University of New York at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo (commonly referred to as UB, University at Buffalo, and sometimes SUNY Buffalo) is a public research university in Buffalo and Amherst, New York, United States. The university was founded in 1846 a ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Giles, Roscoe 21st-century African-American academics 21st-century American academics American computer scientists Boston University faculty MIT Center for Theoretical Physics people MIT Center for Theoretical Physics faculty Stanford University alumni University of Chicago alumni Living people 1949 births