NHR Women in HPC (NHR|WHPC) chapter
SC`25 | Travel Grants
We are proud to announce that the NHR Association is awarding 5 travel grants to attend the SC'25 conference.
Please refer to the call for applications for more information. The application deadline is September 19, 2025. Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions via scholarship@nhr-verein.de.
WHPC Chapter National High Performance Computing Alliance (NHR, Germany)
Welcome to the newly established NHR Women in HPC (NHR|WHPC) chapter.
Our chapter is an organisation that fulfills the WHPC mission locally and wants to support women and the vision of WHPC in their communities. Having identified regional needs and resources they set up a programme of activities. For further information about our mission's statement and objectives, please refer to the accompanying presentation or contact us via whpc-orga@nhr-verein.de.
Our Mission
With the NHR Chapter, we want to connect and support the NHR employees and users who are scientists at German universities, in line with our mandate. We also welcome all other scientists and supporters of WHPC who are active in Germany.
The chapter will help us build a broad and strong community and better promote diversity, equality, inclusivity and a supportive culture in NHR and throughout Germany.
Our Goals
- We aim to actively support minorities and promote women professionals, students, researchers and faculty working in academia or industry in Germany.
- Our focus will be on providing networking opportunities, support and resources (such as mentorship, travel grants and campaigns).
- We specifically focus on advocating for gender equity initiatives within German HPC communities. Identifying challenges faced by women in HPC across different regions of Germany to gather insights, perspectives and feedback.
- Based on regular feedback, surveys, reviews and evaluations from diverse perspectives, our chapter will ensure its long-term success and sustainability by continuously refining the chapter's activities, strategies, and initiatives, to ensure that they are realistic, impactful, and responsive to the needs of women in HPC in Germany.
Join us and become a member
> Register as a member of NHR|WHPC >
The call for member participation is open across all of the NHR centres and Germany in general. The membership application is free, quick, and easy!
Register at WHPC by selecting the chapter "National High Performance Computing Alliance (NHR) (Germany)".
If you’re already an individual member of WHPC and want to affiliate with our chapter, you will be able to go to a newsletter and then update your membership and mailing preferences by clicking on the "update preferences" link at the bottom.
> Subscribe to our Mailing list >
Subscribe to the NHR|WHPC chapter members' mailing list and stay informed about the latest news.
To get involved in our chapter activities, you can attend our upcoming events and volunteer your skills and expertise by contributing to our initiatives, speaking at events, or mentoring others.
Chapter Representatives
You can contact the representatives via whpc-orga@nhr-verein.de
Chapter Founder and Committee Lead
- Ayesha Afzal | NHR@FAU
- Franka Derwisch | NHR Office
Chapter Representatives from all NHR Alliance Members
- Ayesha Afzal | NHR@FAU
- Anita Ragyanszki | NHR@ZIB
- Bai-Xiang Xu | NHR4CES@TUDa
- Charlotte Debus and Jasmin Hörter | NHR@KIT
- Diana Göhringer | NHR@TUD
- Michaela Kemper | PC2
- Sarah Neuwirth | NHR@SW
- Sandra Wienke | NHR4CES@RWTH
- Stefanie Mühlhausen, Martin Skowronek, and Narges Lux | NHR@Göttingen
NHR Office: Monique Drees and Franka Derwisch
Upcoming Events
Chapter monthly meetings
Every second Tuesday of the month at 1:00 p.m. CEST.
Next meetings:
- July 8, 2025
- September 9, 2025
- November 11, 2025
Euro-Par 2025 | Dresden | August 25–29, 2025
Ayesha Afzal and Marta Garcia, founders of two WHPC chapters, will co-organize a special WHPC session featuring invited talks by both early-career and established female researchers in HPC.
Stay tuned for updates on our chapter's activities.
Previous Events
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ISC 2025 | Hamburg | June 10-13, 2025
We are proud to be part of the conference events:
- NHR | WHPC Travel Grant
Our congratulations to the recipients of the NHR|WHPC Chapter Travel Scholarship for attending the ISC'25 conference (€1,000 each). The exchange with and the presentation of the research topics at the WHPC Poster Session were particularly noteworthy.
Georgia Psychou "Neuromorphic computing: Brain inspired concepts, platforms, and their role in HPC"
Ekaterina Zossimova "Accelerating Brain Simulations using High Performance Computing"
Iris Christadler "Increasing Female Attendance and the Geo-INQUIRE Training Program" - WHPC | Tech Talk | Hall H, Booth L01 | June 10 at 6:45 PM
Ayesha Afzal delivered a remarkable presentation during the Tech Talk at ISC 2025, about the milestones and founding of our NHR|WHPC Chapter. - WHPC | Poster Submission Our chapter founder, Ayesha Afzal, continued to support WHPC events, serving once again as ISC WHPC Poster Chair. Check out her feature in the WHPC April Newsletter
- Meet and Greet: Cristin Merritt and Ayesha Afzal | Foyer D–G | June 12 at 2:00 PM
Here you had the possibility to connect with HPC experts in an informal setting and learn more about WHPC. - Women in HPC Poster Pitch & Awarding | Hall E | June 11 at 1:00 PM
🏆Congratulations to Keshvi Tuteja on winning the WHPC Poster Award 🎉
What an outstanding achievement! With her poster on the topic of pyGinko: A Sparse Linear Algebra Operator Framework for Python, our NHR Fellow Keshvi Tuteja won the award for the best WHPC poster at the ISC25 conference. She was competing against 14 talented female scientists. Our heartfelt congratuations and continued success. - A special shout-out was given by WHPC to her institutions, NHR@FAU and NHR Alliance, featured in WHPC merchandise.
WHPC | Sofa Talk on “Empowering Women’s Visibility in HPC" | NHR Booth J10 | June 12 at 10:30 AM
Our chapter's Sofa Talk featured (co-)founders of all European WHPC Chapters: NHR|WHPC, MAR, Central European, JuWinHPC, ideas4hpc Swiss — and the WHPC Executive Committee Advisor
Topic: What strategies can be implemented to enhance the visibility of women at conferences? June 10, at 13 PM Outstanding individuals met for the NHR Sofa Talk at ISC'25 to discuss this topic and share their experiences. We are particularly pleased about the inputs from: Nages Sieslack,Christin Merritt, Eleanor Broadway, Karina Pesatova, Marta Garcia, Christian Manzano, Gülcin Gedik, Michaela Bleuel, Theresa Pollinger, Lena Lange, Lucie Kavka, Judith Carl, Monique Drees. Ayesha Afzal did a great job moderating the discussion. The event ran well past its scheduled time. We are happy to share the results with you and are looking forward to your feedback.
Discussion outcomes:
"All women employed in the domain of high-performance computing (HPC) are members of Women in HPC, irrespective of their specific role or function".
- Women should approach other women to inquire about their interest in participation as panellists, speakers, presentations at HPC conferences.
- Women should nominate each other, or themselves. This approach eliminates the need for preliminary inquiries into potential interest in speaking, which fosters enhances inclusivity.
- Increase the panel moderation by women, a practice that serves to reduce the perceived barriers for women to engage in the discussion.
- Include a diversity section in every conference to foster a sense of inclusivity and safety among participants, thereby enhancing their motivation to engage, e.g. in recent years, there has been a notable increase in female participation in the ISC.
- Childcare services be made available, or that a "bring your kids" policy be implemented, to facilitate conference participation.
Supercomputing Conference 2024 (Atlanta, GA | Nov. 17-22, 2024)
We are delighted to have been part of the 2024 Supercomputing Conference events:
- NHR|WHPC travel grants and one-on-one on-site mentoring will be awarded to five successful applicants
- NHR|WHPC chapter talk at the WHPC Workshop 2024 https://womeninhpc.org/events/sc-2024-workshop
- NHR|WHPC chapter meet-up with other WHPC chapters at the 1st WHPC Chapter+Affiliate Meet-Up
- A blog on our chapter's on-site highlights from SC24 was featured on the WHPC website
NHR Conference '24 >>
Darmstadt, Germany | September 09-10, 2024
We announced the inauguration of our NHR|WHPC chapter at NHR Conference 2024.
EuroPar | WHPC Audiorium >>
Madrid, Spain | August 30, 2024 at 10:30-12:30 a.m.
We announced the inauguration of our NHR|WHPC chapter at the WHPC session in EuroPar Conference 2024.
Chapter first meet-up event with its members and JuWinHPC chapter
online | August 29, 2024
We successfully held our first joint online event with all NHR|WHPC members and the JuWinHPC chapter. We had an open debate on providing support and opportunities for chapter members. Each participant introduced themselves, followed by a presentation of the NHR|WHPC chapter by Ayesha Afzal.
Proud and Strong in Computing Conference (PSCC) >>
(online | June 24, 2024 at 4:10 p.m.)
“Women in HPC”, Keynote: Sarah Neuwirth
Chapter kick-off meeting
June 7, 2024
Chapter launch
The NHR Alliance is very proud to announce that we have become a Women in HPC (WHPC) chapter on May 24, 2024. We have now been fully onboarded with adding the chapter's name and mailing list on the WHPC website (Chapters & Affiliates Map, WHPC membership form) and adding chapter leadership contacts representing the chapter (Ayesha Afzal and Dörte Sternel) on the WHPC Chapters Committee (official WHPC chapter mailing lists and slack chapter channels).
ISC High Performance 2024 | Hamburg | May 14, 2024
We had an engaging discussion during the NHR Sofa Talk "Fostering Diversity in HPC" at the NHR booth.
NHR Conference '23 | Berlin | September 19, 2023
Panel Discussion "Women in HPC: Empowering future careers" with Tania Carlin
