(Press-News.org) The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) announced Bill Gropp, director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, was one of six researchers to receive the 2024 ACM Software System Award for their innovative work on MPICH, a high-performance and widely portable implementation of the Message Passing Interface (MPI) standard.
The ACM Software System Award is presented to an institution or individual(s) recognized for developing a software system that has had a lasting influence, reflected in contributions to concepts, commercial acceptance or both. Created more than three decades ago, MPICH has become the standard bearer for MPI, efficiently supporting different computation and communication platforms and enabling cutting-edge research.
It’s a tremendous honor to receive this award from ACM alongside my colleagues and friends of so many years. It’s humbling to see MPICH have a lasting legacy of which everyone involved can be so proud.
Bill Gropp, NCSA Director
Gropp began developing MPICH in 1992 while working at the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). He built on his previous message-passing software package, Chameleon, which is how MPICH got its name, with “CH” representing its predecessor.
“At ANL, I worked closely with Rusty Lusk, who was an early and active partner on MPICH,” Gropp said. “Sadly, Rusty passed away a few years ago, or he would surely be one of the members recognized with this award.
“Our goal was to implement the new standard and prove it could be done efficiently on all major platforms.”
Over the years, others joined the project, including fellow ACM awardees Pavan Balaji, Rajeev Thakur, Yanfei Guo, Kenneth Raffenetti, and Hui Zhou. All played major roles in the development of MPICH, especially following Gropp’s departure to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
MPICH, “which has powered 30 years of progress in computational science and engineering by providing scalable, robust, and portable communication software for parallel computers,” according to the ACM release, has evolved over the years, meeting the needs of researchers as the environment has shifted. The team released version 4.3.0 in February.
“There aren’t many software products still in wide use 30 years after their initial release,” Gropp said. “It speaks well of the design of both MPICH and the MPI standard that MPICH still supports researchers today, including on our DeltaAI system at NCSA.”
ABOUT NCSA
The National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign provides supercomputing, expertise and advanced digital resources for the nation’s science enterprise. At NCSA, University of Illinois faculty, staff, students and collaborators from around the globe use innovative resources to address research challenges for the benefit of science and society. NCSA has been assisting many of the world’s industry giants for over 35 years by bringing industry, researchers and students together to solve grand challenges at rapid speed and scale.
END
NCSA director Bill Gropp honored with prestigious ACM award
2025-05-02
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
The future of brain activity monitoring may look like a strand of hair
2025-05-02
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The future of electroencephalography (EEG) monitoring may soon look like a strand of hair. In place of the traditional metal electrodes, a web of wires and sticky adhesives, a team of researchers from Penn State created a hairlike device for long-term, non-invasive monitoring of the brain’s electrical activity. The lightweight and flexible electrode attaches directly to the scalp and delivers stable, high-quality recordings of the brain’s signals.
EEG is critical for diagnosing and assessing neurological conditions like epilepsy and brain injuries. In some cases, clinicians need to monitor brain waves for longer periods ...
New gene-editing therapy shows early success in fighting advanced GI cancers
2025-05-02
MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (05/02/2025) — Researchers at the University of Minnesota have completed a first-in-human clinical trial testing a CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing technique to help the immune system fight advanced gastrointestinal (GI) cancers. The results, recently published in Lancet Oncology, show encouraging signs of safety and potential effectiveness of the treatment.
“Despite many advances in understanding the genomic drivers and other factors causing cancer, with few exceptions, stage IV colorectal cancer remains a largely incurable disease,” ...
nTIDE May 2025 Jobs Report: Employment of People with Disabilities Remains in a Holding Pattern
2025-05-02
East Hanover, NJ – May 2, 2025 – The latest National Trends in Disability Employment (nTIDE) report shows that the labor market appears to be in a holding pattern for people with disabilities and people without disabilities, as the economy slows and uncertainty around the tariffs continues. nTIDE is issued by Kessler Foundation and the University of New Hampshire’s Institute on Disability.
Month-to-Month nTIDE Numbers (comparing March 2025 to April 2025)
Based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Jobs Report released today, the employment-to-population ratio for people ...
SCAI honors members for outstanding service and dedication
2025-05-02
WASHINGTON– At the SCAI 2025 Scientific Sessions held in Washington, DC, SCAI President James B. Hermiller, MD, MSCAI, recognized several individuals for their outstanding service, leadership, and contributions to patient care.
“These distinguished honorees have demonstrated an unparalleled commitment to advancing interventional cardiology, shaping the future of patient care, and strengthening our Society,” said SCAI President James B. Hermiller, MD, MSCAI. “Their contributions have left an indelible mark on the field, and we are proud to recognize their achievements.”
Helping ...
NRG Oncology adds new committee leaders in lung cancer and imaging
2025-05-02
NRG Oncology (NRG), a National Cancer Institute (NCI) National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN) group focused on improving outcomes for adults with cancer through multi-center clinical research, recently announced it added two new Chairs to the organization’s Lung Cancer Committee and Imaging Committee.
Kristin Higgins, MD, was appointed as Chair of the NRG Lung Cancer Committee. Dr. Higgins is a thoracic radiation oncologist at City of Hope and the Chief Clinical Officer at the City of Hope Atlanta Cancer Center. Dr. Higgins has been a long-time member of the NRG Lung Cancer Committee and the Principal Investigator of ...
Sun safety declining in Canada amid rise in skin cancer cases
2025-05-02
Despite decades of public health messaging, Canadians are spending more time in the sun and using less sun protection – raising alarms among researchers as melanoma cases continue to climb.
That trend is highlighted in a McGill University-led study that analyzed national survey data collected between 2011 and 2018 from over 77,000 people, representing a weighted sample of 21 million Canadians.
Researchers found that 75 per cent of adult Canadians reported spending at least 30 minutes in the sun on summer days off, with nearly half staying out for two hours or more. Most reported ...
Pennington Biomedical highlights how cellular quality control contribute to insulin resistance related to type 2 diabetes
2025-05-02
Researchers at Pennington Biomedical Research Center have revealed critical insights into how impaired mitochondrial dynamics and quality control mechanisms in skeletal muscle influence insulin sensitivity in patients with Type 2 Diabetes, or T2D. The study, titled "Deubiquitinating Enzymes Regulate Skeletal Muscle Mitochondrial Quality Control and Insulin Sensitivity in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes," was recently published in the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle.
The research team, led by Pennington Biomedical Executive Director Dr. John Kirwan, ...
ACM honors those who shape technology's future
2025-05-02
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, today announced the recipients of three prestigious technical awards. This year’s awardees are recognized for groundbreaking innovations to autonomous systems, cryptography, and software for parallel computers. ACM will present these and other awards at its annual awards banquet on June 14 in San Francisco.
Peter Stone, Professor, University of Texas at Austin, and Chief Scientist, Sony AI, receives the ACM - AAAI Allen Newell Award for significant contributions to the theory and practice ...
ESE and ESPE joint event to call for stronger national and EU action on endocrine disruptors
2025-05-02
Taking place on 14 May 2025, in Copenhagen and online, the event will bring together leading European scientists, policymakers and civil society to address the urgent health and environmental threat from endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs).
The European Society of Endocrinology (ESE), the European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology (ESPE) and the Danish endocrine community will host a high-level event titled: “Minimising the impact of endocrine disrupting chemicals on health and environment: A scientific update following the joint congress of ESPE and ESE 2025.”
The ...
Call for papers: Commemorative collection honoring Dr. Judith Campisi
2025-05-02
"This collection is published in memory of Professor Judith Campisi, a pioneering force in the field of cellular senescence whose groundbreaking work shaped the understanding of senescence in aging, cancer, and tissue homeostasis."
BUFFALO, NY — May 1, 2025 — Aging (Aging-US) invites submissions for a Special Collection dedicated to the theme of cellular senescence, spanning its basic mechanisms, physiological and pathological functions, and clinical applications.
This collection is published in memory of Professor ...