Alison Kennedy has recently been appointed as Strategic Advisor for eInfrastructure (High Performance Computing (HPC) and AI) to the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) in the UK. Until the end of March 2022, she was Director of the Hartree Centre whose mission is to accelerate the adoption of technologies such as HPC, HPDA, AI and quantum computing by UK industry, leading to economic and productivity gains for the UK. Backed by £172m of government money to launch the Hartree National Centre for Digital Innovation, the centre has recently extended its collaboration with IBM Research in this 5 year programme. Prior to joining the Hartree Centre in 2016, Alison held dual roles as an Executive Director of EPCC, the national HPC Centre based at the University of Edinburgh and as Managing Director of the PRACE aisbl (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe).
She has undergraduate degrees in History and in Mathematics and Technology and a post-graduate degree in Business Administration. Alison began her working life as a real-time systems programmer in industry, progressing to roles in project management, software product management and in sales. She has now worked in HPC for almost 30 years, managing large organisations, projects and collaborations in HPC, Data and AI. Alison is a co-founder of the Women in HPC organisation, served as the organisation’s first Chair and currently sits on WHPC’s Advisory Board.