Larry Smarr is a national leader in scientific computing and internet cyberinfrastructure (CI). After earning his PhD in physics in 1975, he carried out pioneering research on black holes and computational astrophysics. 

Larry has provided national leadership in advanced CI, serving over the last two decades as PI on multiple National Science Foundation CI research grants. These grants were unified in 2023 to form the National Research Platform (NRP), NSF’s largest distributed academic AI / machine learning / data science CI, led by the San Diego Supercomputer Center. 

Larry has also been an innovator in the quantified-self movement, including personalized surgery planning and observation of his gut microbiome ecological dynamics. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, as well as a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has served on top-level advisory committees to NIH, NASA, NSF, and DOE. He is now a distinguished professor emeritus in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of California San Diego.