Adapted from an article by the Computing Research Association.

The Computing Research Association (CRA) Board of Directors recently selected Dan Reed—University of Utah Presidential Professor emeritus in computational science and affiliate faculty in the Scientific Computing and Imaging (SCI) Institute—as the recipient of the 2026 CRA Distinguished Service Award.

Reed received the award for his sustained and transformative contributions to the computing research community through technical innovation, national policy leadership, and extensive professional service.

“I was humbled and grateful to be recognized for helping advance science and technology policy,” Reed said. “At a time when public support for science is increasingly being questioned, it has never been more important for everyone to help make the case.”

 Reed is the second member of the SCI community to receive the service award—Executive Director Manish Parashar earned the 2024 honor in part for “his unique blend of technical knowledge, leadership, and ability to find consensus in service of getting big things done.” Parashar offered similar praise for this year’s award winner.

“Professor Reed (Dan) is an outstanding scientist, a community leader, and a mentor. His many foundational and translational research contributions, coupled with his policy leadership and national and community service, have helped transform the field of high-performance scientific computing over the years and helped shape national policy,” Parashar said.

Across more than four decades, Reed has helped shape the evolution of high-performance computing, national cyberinfrastructure, and U.S. science and technology policy, with leadership roles spanning academia, industry, and government.

“Professor Reed’s contributions to the computer research community, coupled with his innovative individual research, extensive policy service, and his collaborative spirit have had significant positive impact for our community, sustained over four decades,” said Charlie Catlett, Senior Computer Scientist at Argonne National Laboratory.

Reed’s influence on the field has been widely recognized.

“Dr. Reed has been a global thought leader in advanced scientific computing for forty years,” said Jack Dongarra, Research Professor emeritus at the University of Tennessee.

Through his technical achievements and policy leadership, Reed has played a pivotal role in advancing high-performance computing from a specialized capability into foundational infrastructure for science, commerce, and society.

A Career of Transformative Service

Reed’s career reflects a rare combination of deep technical impact and national leadership in computing research.

His contributions include:

• Shaping the Computing Research Community: As a member of the CRA Board of Directors (1998–2009) and board chair (2005–2009), Reed helped guide federal computing research strategy and led the proposal to create the Computing Community Consortium, fostering high-impact research and community visioning.
• Advancing National Cyberinfrastructure: As director of National Center for Supercomputing Applications and chief architect of TeraGrid, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Reed helped design one of the nation’s first distributed supercomputing infrastructures, laying the groundwork for today’s NSF program ACCESS that serves thousands of researchers.
• Influencing Science and Technology Policy: Reed has served on the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and numerous National Academies activities. He most recently chaired the National Science Board, where he helped secure passage of the CHIPS and Science Act while guiding NSF strategy on workforce, competitiveness, and research priorities.
• Bridging Academia, Industry, and Government: During his tenure at Microsoft, Reed led the Technology Policy Group and helped pioneer partnerships enabling NSF to provide Azure cloud resources to support academic research.

Supporters also emphasized the breadth of Reed’s impact across research, policy, and community leadership.

About the Award

The CRA Distinguished Service Award recognizes individuals who have made outstanding service contributions to the computing research community in government affairs, professional societies, publications, conferences, and leadership.

The CRA Committee on Awards – Selection reviews nominations and recommends recipients to the CRA Board of Directors, which votes on the awardees at its February Board meeting.