The decision that brought supercomputing expert Ian Karlin to Queen’s took shape in an unexpected place: an old fire lookout perched on a four-storey tower in the mountains of Oregon. The morning after the United States election, he and his wife went camping with their border collies, staying in the unique accommodation high above a sweep of evergreens. They had planned to unplug and enjoy the quiet, unobstructed view.

But gazing out, he couldn’t help thinking about what the political moment might mean for the country’s science landscape. He reached for his phone and began scrolling. It was then, he spotted a post by Ryan Grant, head of the Computing at Extreme Scale Advanced Research (CAESAR) Laboratory at Queen’s, who shared that the university was hiring to support its expanding supercomputing research efforts.

"When my wife and I looked at the posting Ryan had shared, it felt as if the role had been written for me," says Karlin. "It lined up almost exactly with the direction my work had been moving."

The opportunity was too good to ignore. Within days, he applied.
 

Karlin’s role at NVIDIA expanded on years of high-performance computing leadership

Karlin’s arrival at Queen’s follows years of working on the leading edge of advanced computing, most recently as a principal engineer at NVIDIA, the company regarded worldwide as the leader in advanced computing chips, and the driving force behind much of today’s artificial intelligence technology. As a senior member of the company’s accelerated computing product group, he engaged with major laboratories across the United States, Japan, and Europe, helping teams clarify what they hoped to achieve and shaping the technology that could get them there.

He served as technical lead for two upcoming US supercomputers, Doudna at NERSC (no, not NSERC) and Mission at Los Alamos National Laboratory. His work on the NERSC system focused on helping researchers advance large-scale simulation and modeling, develop complex experimental and AI-driven workflows, and support time sensitive computing tied to real time instrumentation, like telescopes.

"Supercomputers give researchers the power to model the world in ways that would be impossible otherwise," says Karlin, who has joined Queen’s as a Mitchell Chair in Supercomputing. "The thrill of tuning applications on a huge machine feels to me like what a pilot or race car driver must feel pushing their machines to the limits. Seeing the results the simulations our computers help create, improve severe weather forecasts, medical research, engineering designs for cars and aircraft. These are all real benefits for society."

Karlin has worked on other major systems before joining NVIDIA, previously serving as Principal High Performance Computing Strategist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, where he led benchmarking and performance evaluation for El Capitan, currently the world’s most powerful supercomputer.

California was also where he first spent time with Grant. They had collaborated from afar on a couple of projects, but their first extended face-to-face conversation came in Monterey, where they met for dinner to celebrate winning an IEEE best paper award. That personal connection, paired with a growing desire to return to a research setting, made the Queen’s opportunity feel like it had arrived at exactly the right moment.

"I always knew I wanted to return to a more research-focused role," says Karlin. "After years in industry, I missed being closer to the scientific questions that drive this field."
 

Advancing global supercomputing expertise at Queen’s

Ian Karlin (right) with Queen's graduate students Shaina Smith, Ethan Shama, and Ali Farazdaghi from the Computing at Extreme Scale Advanced Research (CAESAR) Laboratory.

Karlin got the job, and by October 2025 he and his wife had settled in Kingston to start a new chapter. It brought him into the heart of Queen’s effort to elevate Canada on the world stage in advanced computing, and to strengthen our digital sovereignty and data security infrastructure.

“I can’t think of a better person at a better time to join the team here at Queen’s,” says Ryan Grant. “Dr. Karlin is a world leader in application readiness and large systems, the perfect complement to our existing supercomputing systems software research efforts and expertise in supercomputing infrastructure.”

For Karlin, one important challenge ahead is that many modern systems are now limited by how much power they can use, so finding ways to make computing more energy-efficient has become essential. Another major focus is the rise of heterogeneous systems, where different types of processors work side-by-side to handle different kinds of tasks, whether they involve AI, traditional computer simulation, or other large-scale data work. Much of his work has looked at how to make these mixed systems efficient, usable, and able to support a wide range of scientific and industry needs.

At Queen’s, Karlin will also collaborate with Grant’s CAESAR lab, which builds the software that makes the world’s largest computers work and is the largest group of experts on exascale systems in Canada. His arrival also comes at an important time for the university, following a memorandum of understanding between Queen’s and Bell to build and operate a next generation artificial intelligence supercomputing facility.

Helping students understand what the field can offer is a priority for him as well.

"The student experience starts with understanding what this field can do and finding the parts of it that genuinely interest you," he says. "From there, hands-on projects build confidence and open the door to ideas we might not have imagined. As Canada expands its ambitions in advanced computing, we want Queen’s students to be ready to help shape what comes next."

Ian Karlin’s appointment reflects the growing national need for secure, domestic supercomputing capacity to support advanced research and innovation. Queen’s is positioned to strengthen Canada’s computing and AI ecosystem by aligning infrastructure, expertise, and partnerships that serve researchers while also enabling industry to develop, test, and scale advanced technologies in Canada.

“Ian Karlin’s expertise reinforces Queen’s ability to contribute to Canada’s advanced computing capacity and its ambitions to attract global talent,” says Nancy Ross, Vice-Principal (Research). “By investing in sovereign supercomputing and the people who make it possible, Queen’s is supporting research excellence, data security, and the conditions needed for Canadian innovation to scale and deliver broad public benefit.”