JuWinHPC: Jülich Women in HPC

Why are there not more women working in HPC? What started with this simple question resulted in the powerful international initiative “Women in High Performance Computing” (WHPC: https://womeninhpc.org). The members of this network are working for more equality, diversity, and inclusion in the HPC community. The initiative is active at conferences such as SC and ISC, offers workshops and mentoring programmes, and aims to raise more awareness in the HPC community with the slogan “diversity creates a stronger HPC community”.

In early 2018, WHPC started with a number of groups and organizations committed to WHPC's vision and the mission to develop a programme for local chapters and affiliates. On five continents, many institutions and organizations (such as PRACE) are already working together with WHPC. While there are already several chapters in the USA, only a few have been established in Europe so far.

A team of local WHPC members recently started the process of establishing a local WHPC chapter at Forschungszentrum Jülich, the “Jülich Women in HPC” (JuWinHPC). The group's main goal is to strengthen the local community of women involved in HPC. On 28 July, JuWinHPC held its kick-off meeting as the first of a series of regular informal meetings. While the members of the chapter can use the meetings to meet new colleagues or to strengthen existing contacts, the founders are already working on further tasks behind the scenes. They aim to gain a better understanding of the gender imbalance and ensure that women in the field are more visible.

Although the network was founded by women, anyone interested in the topic of equal opportunities is welcome to join. More information can be found at: https://fz-juelich.de/en/ias/jsc/juwinhpc.

Contact: Dr. Ruth Partzsch (formerly Schöbel)

from JSC News No. 290, 8 August 2022