Don Aldridge, a former research executive at IBM Canada, has joined Queen’s University on a full-time basis as the executive director of the High Performance Computing Virtual Laboratory (HPCVL), and senior adviser, advanced computing and data analytics.

Mr. Aldridge, Sci’82 and MBA’84, returned to Queen’s in January 2015 on a six-month secondment from IBM to serve as an adviser on a number of research and computing projects.

“We are pleased Mr. Aldridge has chosen to remain at Queen’s following his successful six-month term,” says Steven Liss, Vice-Principal (Research). “Mr. Aldridge will use his extensive understanding of advanced research computing to promote business development and collaboration, foster partnerships and create an environment to attract, retain and support top academic talent.”

During his career at IBM Canada that spanned more than 30 years, Mr. Aldridge worked closely with the higher education research community across Canada, introducing programs such as the IBM ThinkPad University and building IBM’s life sciences unit in Canada. In 2012, he was instrumental in launching the IBM Canada Research and Development Centre. He has worked with both medical research and cyberinfrastructure organizations throughout Canada and beyond, as well as having experience with many funding agencies and government departments, both federal and provincial.

The Office of the Vice-Principal (Research) also announced that outgoing HPCVL executive director Kenneth Edgecombe will move into the new role of chief technical officer for HPCVL. Since 1997, Dr. Edgecombe played an important role in building HPCVL into an innovative research environment and one of the top research support facilities in Canada.

In his role as chief technical officer, Dr. Edgecombe will continue to focus on the technical advances and developments, particularly related to secure data and health-related informatics, which have been vital for HPCVL’s success. He will also leverage the skills and capabilities of HPCVL to support advanced computing applications in Eastern Ontario, and across the province and country.

HPCVL is a consortia of four universities, led by Queen's University. The group specializes in secure, advanced computing resources and support for academic and medical clients. The high performance data centre supports Canadian research groups, many headed by Canada Research Chairs, internationally recognized researchers and medical research leaders. More information