ACM Prize laureate, Prof. Torsten Hoefler, has called for more substantial investment and collaboration in Europe’s supercomputing sector, warning that the continent risks falling further behind the U.S. and China.
The ACM Prize in Computing is an annual award given by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the world’s largest society of computing professionals.
Recall that Torsten Hoefler bagged the award in 2024 and was announced in March 2025 for his contribution to scalable network design in supercomputers.
Speaking at the Heidelberg Laureate Forum, Hoefler, a Swiss-based Computer Scientist, described winning the prize as “an incredible honour,” noting that while Europe has the talent, its efforts remain scattered across many countries.
“North America and Asia focus their strengths on big goals. Europe must do the same, pursuing fewer but larger projects without excessive bureaucracy,” he said.
Hoefler stated that high-performance computing, once reserved for military simulations and drug discovery, now powers artificial intelligence, including training models like ChatGPT.
He cautioned that while AI promises massive efficiency gains, it also risks displacing a wider range of jobs at unprecedented speed.
“Education must be rethought because apprentice-level tasks are increasingly done by machines.
“We must find new ways to train experts,” he said.
Energy efficiency
On energy efficiency, Hoefler said Moore’s Law continues to guide chip development, but Dennard Scaling—the principle that reduced transistor size lowers power use—ended in 2005.
“Future advances will depend on new materials, analogue devices, or breakthroughs in quantum computing,” Hoefler said.
He also urged developing countries, particularly in Africa, to invest in education and theoretical research rather than chasing the biggest machines.
“There is a lot of talent in these countries. Focus on young people, pose challenging problems, and maintain scientific exchanges,” he said.
However, Hoefler called for global collaboration, especially in areas like climate computing, as “it remains crucial for scientific progress”.
