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Betsy A. Riley

Betsy Riley -- Technical Information Communications Specialist for the Computer Science and Mathematics Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) -- has held a variety of positions at ORNL since joining the ORNL staff in 1974. Her current position, begun in 2003, involves directing the various CSM websites, oversight of exhibits and special events, and coordination of special reporting to DOE. In addition, Betsy is webmaster of the DOE Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) website scidac.gov and organizer of the 2006 and 2007 SciDAC conferences.

Her previous position (begun October 1, 1998 as Technical Assistant to the Division Director) included a variety of operational duties, stewardship of the CSM website, and management of User and Application Services for ORNL supercomputers.

She came to CSM from the Center for Computational Science (CCS), which she joined in 1993 as Manager of User Services, a position which involved managing the CCS user services staff, a group of computational researchers with PhD's in a variety of scientific disciplines. The CCS was one of two high performance computing research centers established by the Department of Energy (DOE) in 1993. CCS users included researchers working on Grand Challenge projects and industrial projects of comparable scope in a parallel supercomputing facility employing new and state-of-the-art (often beta) hardware and software. In this position Ms. Riley was also responsible for providing information communication between the CCS, users, and the DOE; this includes oversight of all aspects of CCS computer usage.

While with the CCS (a new division of ORNL), Ms. Riley helped to define the nature and character of CCS, developing user policies and operating procedures and producing the first printed annual report for the division. She was also responsible for establishing and maintaining the CCS web site, the first web site within the ORNL firewall to be approved for external access.

Prior to joining CCS, Ms. Riley was a section head in the Computing and Telecommunications Division where she led computer graphics development and support efforts, setting corporate directions in computer graphics. She was responsible for introducing computer graphics tools to graphic artists, and for bringing color film production and computer animation capabilities to the corporation. She was also instrumental in providing scientific visualization functions by establishing the VizLab. She represented ORNL and Y12 at the DOE Computer Graphics Forum, served as elected industry representative on the National Computer Graphics Association board of directors, and served as president of the ISSCO Users Group (ISSCO was a computer graphics software vendor). Earlier, as a computing staff member, she provided programming and graphics support, primarily to engineers and researchers involved in designing advanced superconducting magnets for the fusion projects. She is a computer scientist (BA, magna cum laude, Mathematics and Computer Science, Murray State University).