Thomas Zacharia
Associate Laboratory Director
Oak Ridge National Laboratory and
Vice President, Science and Technology
University of Tennessee

Dr. Thomas Zacharia is the Associate Laboratory Director for Computing and Computational Sciences (www.ornl.gov/ornlhome/leadership/zacharia_bio.shtml) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Vice President for Science and Technology (http://president.tennessee.edu/staff/zacharia.html) at the University of Tennessee. He leads the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s agenda in advanced scientific computing in advancing science, national security, energy security, and sustainable development. His vision and leadership has transformed ORNL into a world leader in computing, making the Laboratory home to the most powerful computer systems in the world; thus greatly increasing ORNL's capability to support national priorities in areas such as climate change, sustainable energy technologies, nanotechnology, and biotechnology.

Zacharia organized and built a computing directorate that has a balanced portfolio of projects and funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, Homeland Security and the Intelligence Community; more than 250 new staff have been recruited and hired into the computing directorate over the last 5 years. In 2004, Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham awarded the National Leadership Computing Facility to a world-class team led by Zacharia to “Deliver major research breakthroughs, significant technological innovations, medical and health advances, enhanced economic competitiveness, and improved quality of life for the American people. . .” Zacharia established a successful student outreach program that has trained 84 under-represented and minority students in math and science. Over the last 5 years, the directorate has mentored more than 270 students and more than 130 post doctoral fellows.

Zacharia is a Fellow of the American Welding Society. He is the recipient of several scientific and technical awards including the A. F. Davis Silver Medal Award and two William Spraragen Awards from the American Welding Society; the Champion H. Mathewson Co-Author Citation Award from the American Society for Metals; and three ORNL Technical Achievement Awards. Dr. Zacharia is also the recipient of a number of leadership awards, including the 2001 ORNL Leader of the Year Award. Zacharia regularly serves on scientific, professional, academic, and civic boards. In 2006, he was appointed by the Secretary of Energy to the DOE Advanced Scientific Computing Advisory Committee (www.er.doe.gov/ASCR/ASCAC/ASCAC.html). He also serves on the advisory board of the Research Center at Jülich, the High Performance Computing Advisory Board of the Council on Competitiveness, and the NSF’s Foundation-wide Advisory Committee for Cyberinfrastructure. Zacharia is actively engaged with the community in communicating the Lab agenda locally, regionally, and nationally. He has given more than 100 presentations to civic groups, academic groups, technical societies, and technical conferences and workshops.

Zacharia is a Professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at the University of Tennessee and serves as the Director of the UT-ORNL Joint Institute for Computational Sciences (JICS). Under his leadership UT and ORNL have established a growing and visible partnership with the National Science Foundation in computing and computational sciences.

Dr. Zacharia received his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Karnataka Regional Engineering College in 1980. He received his Masters in Materials Science from the University of Mississippi in 1984, and a Ph.D. in Engineering Science from Clarkson University in 1987.

Contact Information:
Thomas Zacharia, Ph. D.
Associate Laboratory Director
Computing and Computational Sciences
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
One Bethel Valley Road
Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6163
Phone: 865-574-4897
Fax: 865-574-4839
email: zachariat@ornl.gov