IDIA is pleased to welcome Bryan Johnston as our new Project Manager, leading the compute infrastructure portfolio.
In this role, Bryan is responsible for delivering and coordinating several major infrastructure priorities, while strengthening project governance and integration across IDIA’s broader technical portfolio. He will ensure these activities are well coordinated across IDIA, its partners, and the broader stakeholder community.
Bryan brings substantial experience in supercomputing, scientific cyberinfrastructure, and technical programme leadership, with a career dedicated to advancing research computing capacity across Africa. As Senior Technologist within South Africa’s National Integrated Cyber-Infrastructure System (NICIS), he led the HPC Ecosystems Project, which redistributed decommissioned Tier 1 High-Performance Computing (HPC) systems into entry-level clusters across the continent. To date, this initiative has developed more than 35 HPC sites, coupled with training programmes for users and system administrators, and the creation of a virtual community of practice now spanning over 550 members worldwide.
His work has consistently focused on building sustainable, user-centred HPC capacity and inclusive communities, empowering African researchers to participate meaningfully in global HPC. Bryan has served in multiple international HPC leadership roles, including as Africa Regional Chair for ACM SIGHPC Education and Co-Chair of the PEARC Workforce Development Track. He has contributed to curriculum development, workforce roadmaps, and partnerships such as integrating African HPC sites into the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid with CERN.
Bryan holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology and has been recognised with several international leadership awards, including recognition as an NSTF-South32 finalist for Science Diplomacy for Africa and receiving the 2024 HPCwire Readers’ Choice Award for Outstanding Leadership in HPC.
Bryan joins IDIA at an important stage in the Institute’s development, as we build on the achievements of our first ten years and look ahead to the next phase. His appointment also comes at a time of transition for IDIA, as we continue to process the loss of our colleague and friend, Professor Rob Simmonds. Bryan will help take forward a number of strategic technical programmes that Rob helped shape, ensuring that this important work continues to progress.
We are very pleased to have Bryan joining the IDIA team and look forward to working with him as we continue to advance IDIA’s strategic technical programmes and research computing infrastructure.
Welcome to IDIA, Bryan!
