Alan Chalker, Ph.D., is Director of Strategic Programs at the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC). In this role he is responsible for many of OSC’s innovative efforts and initiatives, including in the areas of business development and relationship management. Chalker also coordinates many of the center’s grant proposals and manages a variety of research projects, as well as the Open OnDemand platform, which is utilized by research computing centers worldwide. 

Additional oversight responsibilities for Chalker include OSC’s regular participation in numerous conferences and events (such as the Ohio State Fair and SC Conference Series) and OSC’s Summer Institute programs for middle- and high- school students (of which he is an alumnus). Chalker also oversees OSC’s public outreach activities, including educational tours of OSC’s data center and the presentation/activity book “What’s So Super About Supercomputing?”  

Previously, Chalker was responsible for AweSim (OSC’s industrial engagement program) and a team of researchers who worked on projects and training for the Department of Defense’s (DoD) High Performance Computing Modernization Program. Prior to OSC, Chalker spent five years as the lead controls engineer with a public company, Embrex Inc. 

In 1998, Chalker earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from The Ohio State University. He received a doctoral degree in biomedical engineering at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2005.