Hilda Klasky, an R&D staff member in the Scalable Biomedical Modeling group at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been selected as a senior member of the Association of Computing Machinery, or ACM.
ACM is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society; senior members are those who have worked in a relevant field for at least 10 years, have demonstrated technical leadership and have made significant contributions to the field.
Fewer than 10% of ACM’s senior members are female, and Klasky said she hopes her new title will motivate female researchers across computing and computational science.
“Being named a senior member is a great honor and a truly humbling experience. This recognition, bestowed upon me by my peers at the ACM, is particularly meaningful since ACM is one of the most prestigious organizations in computer science. The designation of ‘senior member’ holds significant importance as it acknowledges my career-long contributions,” Klasky said.
Since joining ORNL in 2009, Klasky has engaged in a diverse range of research, encompassing data and process analytics, development and solutions engineering, and systems architecture. Additionally, she has overseen life-cycle project management, supported large-scale technical reviews of safety studies and contributed to the design of in-house solutions aimed at enhancing knowledge sharing and information flow.
Beneficiaries of Klasky’s research include the Veterans Affairs Administration, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Idaho National Laboratory, the National French Electrical Utility (Electricite de France) and Belgium-FANC, among others.
“The ACM’s special interest groups are very supportive,” she said, noting that during COVID the Special Interest Group on Knowledge Discovery in Data was forced to hold its annual conference virtually, but members were allowed to attend for free. “It helped to put everyone’s focus back on professional activities instead of COVID, which was a relief.”
Besides ACM, Klasky is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, or IEEE, and the American Medical Informatics Association, or AMIA, where she volunteers on several professional user groups.
When she’s not working, Klasky enjoys going on hikes in the nearby Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for DOE’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit https://energy.gov/science.
