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And what we learned was that instead of the half a dozen variants we talk about, he found about 20,000 variants, of which there were about 20 that were even more significant.

What we learned from this analysis will help us develop new vaccines as well as new therapeutics that attack the virus in a much more complex way as opposed to just the spike protein. Because the goal ultimately is to eradicate COVID.

Frontier will be used to design new materials, whether it's for quantum computers or whether it is for fusion reactors, new small modular reactors or lightweight materials, batteries. This laboratory is known for materials, and using computers to design new materials for these applications is huge.

But it will also look at fundamental studies of astrophysics and climate change and weather predictions. The possibilities are limitless. So that's the science piece.

If you go back to 2009 when Jaguar was the fastest supercomputer in the world, which is a machine here, we could have built a Frontier-class machine using Jaguar technology. Except for one small detail: It would have required three big nuclear reactors to power the computer.

That would be prohibitively expensive. What this machine and the innovation that led to this machine have done is that instead of three gigawatts, Frontier uses 15 megawatts.

It's a 200-fold reduction in energy consumption. And why is that important? Even though this is the fastest supercomputer in the world, small components, the GPUs and CPUs in this machine, are going to be sold for people's laptops and desktops or even data centers.

So imagine the power energy savings and carbon footprint savings that is derived from the 200-fold reduction in energy consumption for the same performance. That's just huge.

You should care because America is No. 1 again. We can all agree that's a good thing. Two, it's going to solve amazing science, which is important. And it's going to advance society. Three, it has already created new technologies that is going to have ubiquitous use in society.

So, it is a game-changer.

Is Frontier your baby?

There are many, many people who had to work diligently to make Frontier happen. When you see the computer, you naturally think about all the computer scientists and engineers who designed and built this machine, but there's a backstory here about our technicians, our engineers, all our facilities staff who worked tirelessly during COVID.

This was before we had vaccines, before we understood about COVID. They came into work every day to make sure that all the power and cooling that is necessary to deploy this machine was there.

When did the vision for Frontier start?

It all depends on whether you want to go to genesis or not. The vision of Oak Ridge National Laboratory as a world leader in supercomputing was proposed and established in 2004. And since then, we have delivered a successive number of supercomputers. In fact, we have deployed 10 supercomputers for the Department of Energy and a few others for other agencies during that time, and firmly established Oak Ridge National Laboratory as the premier institution when it comes to leading in supercomputers.

Now specifically, the vision for an exascale supercomputer, which Frontier is the first of its kind. Frontier is the first machine that has had the compute capability to do one quintillion calculations: That's 18 zeros after 1.

No one else before and no one else after will be the first computer or the first institution to break that barrier. Much like Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier, there's only one Frontier and one Oak Ridge National Laboratory that'll break the exascale barrier. To me, that is an amazing feat.

During COVID, did you ever doubt whether Frontier would come together?

Never. We are not in the doubting game. It requires a conviction.

The reason why I say that in jest is that when you think about a machine this complicated, if you allow self-doubt and fear to creep in, it will be very, very difficult. Now, that doesn't mean that we just sort of blindly say we can do it. We knew the challenges, we understood the risks, but the reason that we were confident that we would deliver the machine – actually one year ahead of schedule – was because of our staff.

We have, as I said before, a talented, experienced group of people who've been here before. Even during the days – and I will admit there were days when I thought this is not going to happen – they knew that they had met these kinds of obstacles in previous supercomputers, they had the experience of working through some of those challenges, and they had the expertise and know-how among them. So it is a belief based on prior experience that guides you and gives you the confidence to deliver the machine.

So does this feel like good timing for you to step down? Was that part of your decision to retire?

Retirement is not connected with delivery of Frontier, even though if you have to retire it's always good to retire on the top, right?

No, I have had a long, productive career. I've been here 35 years, 5½ years, by the time I retire, as lab director. I think you want to leave when you think that the lab is in good shape, and I personally look at the timing for retirement as a time when you ask the question, do you have the strongest team here to continue to move the laboratory forward in their own way?

The lab will continue to prosper, it'll prosper differently perhaps with a new director, which is what it should be. These positions, you can stay too long. New people need to come in with their own ideas, passion, purpose, to move this laboratory forward. That's part of it, but it's also the case that I'm in a stage in my career where I have other interests and I would like to pursue other interests.

To identify a successor, UT-Battelle has formed a search committee, said Sara Shoemaker, ORNL media relations manager. It's co-chaired by Mark Peters, Battelle’s executive vice president for national laboratory management and operations, and Stacey Patterson, the outgoing vice president for research, outreach, and economic development at the University of Tennessee. The 16-member committee has been receiving input and recommendations from laboratory staff and colleagues via a public website and is considering candidates.

So is planning already happening for the next supercomputer?

Yes. The need for the next supercomputer is established by the Department of Energy, so they're going through that process. Innovation doesn't stop, and so we are actively thinking and planning about what does the next supercomputer look like, how do we make it even more of an innovative engine for the scientific community that we serve?

Is that something the DOE would assign to ORNL or would you bid for that?

There are, in my opinion, few institutions in the United States that can take on these kinds of challenges. We happen to be one of them with a demonstrated track record.

What are some of the improvements or opportunities in whatever the next supercomputer is?

I think we will continue to explore how we can serve the artificial intelligence and machine learning community, which would require an even tighter coupling between computation and data.

It sounds like you will stick around until the next director is hired, is that right?

Yes, I will do everything that I can to make it a very smooth and orderly transition.

It's not like I'm leaving to something else. This has been our home for 35-plus years. We owe everything that we have to this laboratory. So I am deeply committed to making sure the lab continues to thrive.

What are the challenges for the next director?

I should never profess to tell the next person what he or she should be doing, but I'm sure that this is a laboratory that came into being during a difficult period in human history, and rose up to that occasion. Sixty, seventy thousand people from all walks of life, from all parts of the country and even the world came here. They gave of themselves,  they trudged through the mud pits here because they knew they were part of something bigger than themselves.

And what they did shaped human history, not only by winning the war, but nuclear medicine came out of here, isotopes for security, safety, medicine, deep space exploration came out of here. Nuclear energy came out of here. Advanced materials came out of here. The list goes on. Every one of those things have a character about how it has shaped human history and evolution.

And I'm sure the next person who comes into this role will have a deep appreciation for what this laboratory has done over its past almost 80 years of existence. Every day, remarkable people coming in to pursue their life's work, with a singular goal of being good stewards of taxpayers' money, supporting DOE's mission and in so doing advancing our national priorities and changing the world. That sense of history and that commitment to continue to move the laboratory forward by supporting the staff here at the laboratory I think is going to be a key objective to whoever sits in this chair.

I think the lab is healthy, the lab has almost 6,000 staff, that's a high watermark, $2.3 billion-$2.4 billion, that is a high watermark.

Given the news you're aware of in terms of the bipartisan infrastructure law, the Inflation Reduction Act, CHIPS Act, etc., the lab is well positioned to not only serve the national missions but also be an anchor facility in partnership with the University of Tennessee and TVA for regional innovation and regional competitiveness. I think the lab is in great shape.

You mentioned the lab's role as a leader in the region in partnership with TVA and UT.  Bringing Techstars here is an example of that partnership. How would you evaluate it so far?

I think that Techstars has been a remarkable success in the one instance and also it's an unfolding story in another instance.  

It's a remarkable success because in my time here, I've been here 35 years, I think it is truly the first time that I recall where the three CEOs and the three institutions came together with an intentionality to put East Tennessee on the map as an innovation capital, an innovation city. That is huge, because I think for any great success to be achieved, first and foremost you have to believe.

It's the first time we are doing Techstars, and we had a really remarkable set of companies who came, spent 13 weeks or so here. There are a couple of those companies who have already said they want to be in our community and try to grow their business here. Like everything else, we will learn from all the good things that happened, and we will also see opportunities where we can improve. And that will reflect into the second cohort and the third cohort.

Is there more the three institutions can do together?

Absolutely, and we are. The relationship between UT and ORNL has never been more vibrant, never been more robust. There are more joint appointments, more graduate students, more research engagement between the two institutions than ever before. So that's something that's going to continue, I'm sure, even with the next person.

Likewise, our partnership with TVA, particularly in the area of energy transitions, is huge. As the nation's largest public utility and with economic development as a key mandate, TVA has a unique and important role, and together with Oak Ridge is positioned to have a huge impact in our pursuit of energy transitions for the future.

Anything else you want to say that we haven't talked about?

The lifeblood of any institution or any ambition to lead is the workforce. And the workforce is not just scientists and engineers, it is all of the workforce. For us to achieve, in my mind, a very realistic, realizable goal, we also have to have a commitment for education from pre-K all the way to graduate education without any bias. I think the future of manufacturing is going to be trained technicians in AI and machine learning.

It's about creating a narrative, creating an excitement and enthusiasm for our communities to have the requisite education and training, and also being more inclusive. Being intentional about reaching out to the local communities, creating a pipeline for opportunities is critical for us to achieve this goal.

I'm just a lucky guy. I came here thinking, I'll be here for a two-year post-doc position and I'll go somewhere else. And to build a 35-year career I'm blessed, and our family is blessed. I'm deeply thankful for not only the institution but for the community, the greater Knoxville area community, that allowed us to be part of the community, live and grow. Hopefully I will continue to find ways to contribute, because I don't have any hobbies.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: ORNL director: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Frontier supercomputer