Professor Sean Smith to become Director of NCI

Australia's stake-hold in global science, engineering and technology depends critically on maintaining a sharp cutting edge in high performance computing infrastructure and capacity. Professor Sean Smith has been appointed as the new Director of the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) at The Australian National University (ANU). Professor Smith, an internationally prominent computational chemist and nanomaterials scientist, is currently Founding Director of the Integrated Materials Design Centre at UNSW Sydney. Professor Smith has previously served as Director of the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), one of the five major Department of Energy funded nanoscience research facilities in the United States, and as Founding Director of the Centre for Computational Molecular Science at The University of Queensland. Chair of the NCI Board Professor Michael Barber congratulated Professor Smith on his appointment. "I am delighted to welcome Professor Smith to the NCI team," Professor Barber said. "Not only has he been a major user of the NCI in his own right,  he brings highly relevant international experience of the ORNL user facilities to the NCI and an admirable track record in fostering collaboration between computational and experimental innovations as well as between the tertiary sector and industry." ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Brian Schmidt AC, whose own research has benefited from the capacity of the NCI, welcomed the appointment and said Professor Smith was a perfect choice for NCI Director.