Marija Vranic wins 2022 PRACE Ada Lovelace Award
Marija Vranic is the winner of the 2022 PRACE Ada Lovelace Award for her outstanding impact on High-Performance Computing (HPC) in Europe. Dr. Vranic has not only pioneered techniques for simulating extreme plasmas, but she is also actively involved in improving the visibility of women in physics and HPC — for instance, by reducing the gender imbalance of invited speakers at scientific conferences and mentoring the Women in Physics student group at IST.
Marija is a researcher of IPFN's Group of Lasers and Plasmas and an invited professor at the Physics Department of Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon.
Launched in 2016, the PRACE Ada Lovelace Award is annually awarded to a female scientist who makes an outstanding contribution to and impact on HPC in Europe and the world, and serves as a role model for women who are at the start of their scientific careers. The awardee is announced at the annual PRACE Scientific and Industrial Conference (PRACEdays) and is invited to participate in the concluding plenary Panel Discussion.
The award is named after the Countess of Lovelace, a British mathematician who lived in the 19th century and among else worked with Charles Babbage on the Machine they called the Analytical Engine – one of the first precursors of computers. Many historians regard Ada Lovelace’s contribution to this mechanical calculator as the very first algorithm – and herself as the first person to be rightly called a programmer.
