Dr. Horst Simon

Bio : Dr Horst Simon is an internationally recognized expert in the development of parallel computational methods for the solution of scientific problems of scale.  His research interests are in the development of sparse matrix algorithms, algorithms for large-scale eigenvalue problems, and domain decomposition algorithms. His recursive spectral bisection algorithm is a breakthrough in parallel algorithms. He has 40 years’ experience in high performance computing and numerical algorithms. He has worked in industry (Boeing, SGI), in research labs (NASA Ames, Berkeley Lab), and in universities (Stony Brook Univ., UC Berkeley)

Prior to joining ADIA Lab as its inaugural Director in 2022, Dr Simon was at Berkeley Lab from 1996, having served previously as Deputy Director for Research, Associate Laboratory Director for Computing Sciences, and Director of NERSC. In his role as Deputy Director, Dr Simon was instrumental in the creation of new concepts such as Cyclotron Road and CalCharge that support energy innovation and forge stronger connections of the national labs with industry. He has been honoured twice with the prestigious Gordon Bell Prize, in 2009 for the development of innovative techniques that produce new levels of performance on a real application (in collaboration with IBM researchers) and in 1988 in recognition of superior effort in parallel processing research (with others from Cray and Boeing). He has received the ACM SC

Test of Time Award, and the SIAM CSE Career Award. He is a member of the team publishing the biannual TOP500 list of most powerful supercomputers, and he is a SIAM Fellow.

Dr. Leandro Aolita

Bio : Prof. Dr. Leandro Aolita is the Chief Researcher of the Quantum Research Center (QRC) at the Technology Innovation Institute (TII), Abi Dhabi, UAE. There, he is the technical head of Abu Dhabi’s cutting-edge applied-research efforts on quantum technologies, through its Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC).  More precisely, he is responsible for advancing quantum computing hardware, software, and algorithms, quantum communications and sensing technologies, as well as quantum information and physics theory.

Previous to his position as Chief Researcher, Dr. Aolita served as the Executive Director of the Quantum Algorithms division at TII. And prior to joining TII, he was a tenured Associate Professor of Physics at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, where he was grantee of several institutions, including the competitive Serrapilheira Institute. Previously, he has been a Marie Curie Fellow at the Free University of Berlin and a Juan de la Cierva Fellow at the Institute of Photonic Sciences in Barcelona. Dr. Aolita has co-authored over 80 scientific papers and filed 2 patents. He obtained his PhD in Physics in 2008, and his thesis was recognized with the "Prize to the Best Brazilian PhD Thesis in Physics of the Year" by the Brazilian Physics Society in 2009.