Arthur S. Bland

Buddy Bland is the director for the Leadership Computing Facility project, which is tasked with installing a Cray petaflop supercomputer by the end of 2008. He previously served as director of operations for the National Center for Computational Sciences (NCCS) from 1996 until June 2006. Buddy has worked in high-performance computing his entire career. He joined the staff at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in 1984 as the system programmer/administrator for the Cray X-MP system. He managed the Supercomputing Systems Section, which later became the UNIX System Section, until 1992, when he moved to the newly formed Center for Computational Sciences as the computing resources manager. In that position he installed the Kendall Square KSR-1 and Intel Paragons and oversaw the development and installation of the file storage systems and networks to support the NCCS. In 1996 Buddy was appointed director of operations of the NCCS. In that role he has managed the operation of the computer center through the life of a series of computers, including the IBM Power3, IBM Power4, Compaq AlphaServer SC, SGI Altix, Cray XD1, Cray X1, Cray X1E, and Cray XT3. He is the ORNL representative on the High Performance Storage System Executive Committee.

Prior to joining ORNL, Buddy was a captain in the U.S. Air Force, serving at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico and at Keesler Air Force Base in Mississippi. He has B.S. and M.S. degrees in computer science from the University of Southern Mississippi.