Gil Weigand, a driving force behind supercomputing, honored

Gil Weigand, who helped make supercomputing a cornerstone of the science-based Stockpile Stewardship Program, has been awarded the first James R. Schlesinger Award by Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman.

Weigand was a founder of the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI), which has evolved into today’s Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) Program. In accepting the award, Weigand credited scientists and engineers at Lawrence Livermore and the national labs for making the programs successful. The recent awards ceremony was part of Bodman’s first Secretarial Honor Awards.

The citation accompanying the award read in part, "It is because of Dr. Weigand’s vision and determination that the United States is the world leader in high-performance computing, that the Department of Energy leads the country with the best scientific and computing tools and scientists, and that we are able to certify our nuclear weapons stockpile without underground nuclear testing.

"Throughout his tenure at the Department of Energy, he has led the development and use of next-generation scientific and technical tools that provide the foundation of today's Stockpile Stewardship program. From this leadership position, he conceived and implemented the Department’s most successful technical program to date, the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI)."

Furthermore, "Dr. Weigand’s contributions have impacted more that stockpile stewardship. High-performance computing and simulation, at the ASCI level, pervades all areas of science and engineering. In addition to the scientific accomplishments of the ASCI program, Dr. Weigand’s efforts have provided reassurance in the safety and security of the weapons stockpile and the protection of this nation."