Sunita Chandrasekaran, User Group Chair of the OpenACC Organization and Professor at University of Delaware, is leading the charge on the high-tech frontier, fearless in the face of complexity.
She led an international team that stress-tested the world’s first exascale computer, capable of performing a staggering quintillion calculations per second. Now, she’s exploring the intersection of AI and the high-performance computing (HPC) that powers it — all while preparing her students to thrive at top technology and business firms.
Her leadership and mentorship have earned widespread recognition. An associate professor at UD, she holds the David L. and Beverly J.C. Mills Career Development Chair in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences in the College of Engineering. She also serves as vice chair of Delaware’s AI Commission and contributes to the Advanced Scientific Computing Advisory Committee at the U.S. Department of Energy.
Now, Chandrasekaran has been selected to receive a prestigious global honor. ACM, the world’s largest computing society, has named her the 2025 recipient of its SIGHPC Emerging Woman Leader in Technical Computing Award. The award will be presented at the SC25 Conference this November in St. Louis, Missouri.