As the capabilities of HPC and AI infrastructure continue to expand, we’re seeing more than just faster systems. We’re entering a real step change — a structural shift in how research is conceived, conducted, and scaled.
GPU architectures are evolving rapidly. The demands for power, advanced cooling, and workload complexity are increasing — and they’re reshaping the entire infrastructure stack.
AI is no longer a niche application. It’s now central to mainstream research — across modelling, simulation, pattern recognition, and predictive analytics. And HPC is no longer just about tightly coupled codes. It’s also about managing vast, data-rich pipelines — and making them work, end to end.
At UNSW, I’ve been saying for a while now: every researcher is a GPU user. Whether you’re submitting a task to NCI or typing into a prompt box at OpenAI — you’re still hitting a GPU.
This rapid shift in demand is forcing us to rethink how we design, fund, and manage national research infrastructure. And while international collaboration remains critical, there’s growing attention on questions of data governance, platform access, and long-term investment — particularly around capacity Australia can control and build on.
Today’s panel brings together leaders from across our landscape. We’ll explore how these changes are playing out on the ground — and what they mean for the way we plan, support, and scale research across the sector.
Dr Emily Kahl
Dr Emily Kahl is a Supercomputing Applications Specialist at the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre. Emily develops and maintains software for molecular simulation, with a specific focus on GPU-accelerated computing and machine learning methods in quantum chemistry. She is also an advocate for open-source software in computational science, and the code she has developed for atomic and molecular simulation has seen widespread use by Australian and international researchers.
Dr Kate Michie
Dr Kate Michie is Chief Scientist of the Structural Biology Facility at UNSW Sydney. She leads national efforts in integrating deep learning and high-performance computing to protein structure and design, working to establish Australia’s first open-access AI platform for structural biology. Kate founded the Australian Computational Structural Biology Node with the Australian BioCommons and authored the 2025 National Roadmap for Computational Structural Biology Infrastructure. Her research combines molecular structure, wet-lab experimentation, machine learning, and research computing to accelerate biological discovery and capability building across the life sciences.
Dr Ghulam Murtaza
Dr. Ghulam Murtaza is a leader at the intersection of research and artificial intelligence. As Head of Member Engagement and Services at Intersect, he spearheads the Advanced Analytics and AI (3AI) team, one of the pioneer AI teams in the research sector. Under his guidance, the 3AI team has delivered numerous high-impact projects, from embedding AI into complex research workflows to developing national AI-ready infrastructure in collaboration with the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC). Ghulam’s work is built on a deep technical foundation, including a PhD from UNSW in Machine Learning for Network Systems, giving him a unique blend of research expertise and commercial acumen that he brings to the panel.
Andrew Wellington
Andrew is Associate Director (HPC) at the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI). After starting his career in enterprise IT and software development, he has been instrumental in the design, installation, and management of NCI’s high performance computing systems including Gadi, the current peak HPC system. Andrew’s deep understanding of technical systems and research requirements has allowed him to support NCI’s work to advance cutting edge scientific discovery across Australia.
Gin Tan
Gin Tan is the Associate Director of Monash eResearch. She began her career in both enterprise and research computing, eventually finding her true passion in high-performance computing (HPC). Over the past eight years at Monash University, Gin has been instrumental in the development and deployment of a new HPC cluster and has since grown into a technical leadership role. She enjoys diving deep into the technical aspects of her work while also excelling at translating complex needs into practical, effective solutions.
Ben Chiu
Ben is the Director, Services, for ARDC, and is responsible for the strategic direction, cybersecurity posture, and delivery of ARDC’s infrastructure services portfolio, including the Nectar Research Cloud, and Research Data Australia just to name a few.
He is also a Think Tank member for CSIRO’s Data61 National AI Centre, a board director for Sexual Health Victoria and for Latrobe Business School, and is extremely passionate about AI governance, cybersecurity, data ethics and digital infrastructure.