I am a distinguished scientist at the San Diego Supercomputer Center doing research and development in bioinformatics. I have analyzed DNA sequence data to study human longevity and to characterize the bacteria that infect people and birds. I am also co-principal investigator on an NSF grant to maintain and enhance the CIPRES science gateway, which has been used by more than 50,000 researchers around the world to infer phylogenetic trees using supercomputers. In addition, I am project manager for the Popeye supercomputer, which SDSC operates for the Simons Foundation.

Previously I did research in supercomputer performance analysis. I was principal investigator for NSF- and DARPA-funded studies to evaluate the Tera MTA, a novel computer with a multithreaded architecture. I also co-led the Joint NSF-NASA Initiative on Evaluation of scalable parallel computers.

During the early years of my tenure at SDSC, I held various senior management positions. For several years I was Deputy Director of NPACI, an NSF-funded national partnership led by SDSC. In that capacity I coordinated operation and support of the computational resources within NPACI. In addition, I was Deputy Director at SDSC, responsible initially for the entire research program and subsequently for its technology components.

Before helping found SDSC, I worked at General Atomics as a computational physicist in fission and fusion energy research and development. I have a PhD in engineering science from the California Institute of Technology and a BS in mathematics from Wichita State University.

Besides work, I enjoy outdoor activities such as running, biking, and mountain climbing. My late wife, Mary Baker, was my regular biking companion for many years. Sometimes our kids, Betsy and Gordon, would join us, and Betsy has been my regular climbing companion in recent years. The photos at the top this page are, from left to right: the summit of Mount Dade on a climb that I did with Betsy in June 2019, the National Academy of Engineering induction ceremony for Mary in October 2019, and a bike ride up Kitt Peak with Mary in March 2016. The other photos and adventure blogs under the menu at the upper right are from trips with Mary, Betsy, and Gordon. You can learn more about Mary’s remarkable life at marybaker.engineer.