By Matt Hazenbush, Director of Communications and Member Engagement
This announcement is also featured on the CRA Bulletin
The Computing Research Association (CRA) is pleased to announce that William D. (Bill) Gropp has been named Chair of CRA’s Computing Community Consortium (CCC), pending approval from the National Science Foundation (NSF) once the ongoing government shutdown concludes. Gropp is expected to serve as CCC Chair through June 30, 2028.
Gropp has long been an influential leader in high-performance computing (HPC) and in shaping national research directions in computing. He joined the CCC Council in 2020 and the CCC Executive Committee in 2021, has served on the CRA Board of Directors since 2023 as one of the IEEE Computer Society’s representatives, and is currently Vice Chair of CRA’s Government Affairs Committee. He was the 2022 President of the IEEE Computer Society and continued to serve on its Executive Committee in 2023.
“Bill’s leadership and vision have made a profound impact on both the computing research community and the national research landscape,” said Tracy Camp, Executive Director and CEO of CRA. “His deep technical expertise and collaborative approach will help ensure that CCC continues to play its vital role in advancing visionary, high-impact computing research.”
We thank former CCC Chair Nadya Bliss (Arizona State University) for her many years of contributions to CCC (2017-2025).
A Leader in High-Performance Computing
Bill Gropp is completing an eight year term as Director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he also holds the Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering.
Under his leadership, NCSA has strengthened its national role in advanced computing, notably through initiatives such as Delta and DeltaAI, NSF-funded supercomputing resources designed to accelerate discovery and innovation in artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Gropp’s research interests span high-performance computing, scalable numerical algorithms, and programming models for scientific computing. He is well known for his pioneering work in developing PETSc, a widely used library for solving scientific computation problems, and MPI, the Message Passing Interface standard — the dominant programming model for parallel computing worldwide.
“Throughout my career, I’ve been driven by the transformative power of computing to tackle society’s hardest challenges,” said Gropp. “I look forward to working with colleagues across CCC and CRA to build on that tradition — enabling computing research that is bold, collaborative, and deeply relevant to national and global priorities.”
Gropp is a Fellow of AAAS, ACM, IEEE, and SIAM, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. In 2024, he was named one of HPCwire’s “35 HPC Legends” and received the ACM Software System Award for his contributions to the MPICH implementation of MPI.
Leadership and Vision within CCC
Within CCC, Gropp has played a pivotal role in advancing the computing research community’s engagement with national priorities. As a member of the CCC Executive Committee since 2021, he has guided the Consortium’s strategic direction and strengthened its nominations process. He has also served as a co-author on nine CCC and CRA responses to federal Requests for Information (RFIs) and co-led the development of the Setting a Course for Post-Moore Software Performance, a 2024-25 CRA Quadrennial Paper. Together, these and other efforts reflect Gropp’s enduring commitment to fostering collaboration among academia, government, and industry to ensure the continued leadership of U.S. computing research.
About the Computing Community Consortium (CCC)
The Computing Community Consortium (CCC), a programmatic committee of CRA supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), enables the pursuit of innovative, high-impact computing research that aligns with pressing national and global challenges.
CCC is:
- A responsive, respected, and visionary organization that promotes the development of innovative computing research.
- A powerful convener that brings together thought leaders from industry, academia, and government to articulate and advance compelling research visions.
- An effective communicator with policymakers, the public, and the broad computing research community about the substance and importance of those visions.
Stay connected with CCC for the latest insights, publications, and opportunities to engage by subscribing here.
