Michael E. Papka

Michael E. Papka is an Argonne Senior Scientist and Distinguished Fellow. He serves as the deputy associate laboratory director for Computing, Environment, and Life Sciences (CELS) and the division director of the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF). His leadership focuses on leveraging high-performance computing to advance scientific discovery and innovation.

Within the CELS directorate, Mike supports programmatic efforts across Argonne that rely on advanced computing, bridging computational resources with scientific research needs. At ALCF, he oversees a U.S. Department of Energy user facility that hosts some of the world’s most powerful supercomputers, enabling groundbreaking research across various scientific domains through open science initiatives.

As the founding co-director of the George Crabtree Institute for Discovery and Sustainability—a collaboration between the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) and Argonne—he supports advancing research, fostering innovation, and developing a diverse scientific workforce to address key societal challenges.

In addition to his roles at Argonne, Mike is the Warren S. McCulloch Professor of Computer Science at UIC. He directs the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) and is the computer science lead for the interdisciplinary CS+Design program. 

Mike earned a B.S. in physics from Northern Illinois University, an M.S. in computer science and electrical engineering from UIC, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Chicago.