The Speakers

Tabitha Samuel is the Interim Director and HPC Operations Group Leader at the National Institute for Computational Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She has over 16 years of experience in advanced research computing, spanning user support and systems programming to executing and advancing the overall vision and mission of a nationally recognized supercomputing center. An active Research Computing and Data (RCD) community member, Tabitha is co-PI of the Building Research Innovation at Community Colleges (BRICCs)-Pathways, focusing on creating meaningful pathways for collaborative research computing between community colleges and research-intensive R1 universities. She is also the co-founder of Tennessee Research, Education, and Computing Collaborative (TRECC), a platform for collaboration and regional advancement in cyberinfrastructure for RCD professionals in Tennessee. Tabitha also serves on the Position Committee of the Coalition for Academic Super Computing. She is also the chair of the ACM Practice and Experiences in Advanced Research Computing (PEARC) Conference Series, and will be its co-general chair in 2026.

Tabitha earned her PhD in Computer Science from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where her research focused on using natural language processing techniques to improve vocabulary comprehension and retention in children. In her free time, Tabitha loves to go on awe-inspiring adventures around the world (using miles and points, of course!), cook world cuisine, and play tabletop RPGs.