Dr. Sergei Gleyzer, associate professor of physics and astronomy, has been named chief science officer for The University of Alabama High Performance Computing and Data Center, a state-of-the-art research facility that is set to open in early 2027.
Gleyzer is an internationally recognized scholar in particle physics, artificial intelligence and quantum computing. In his new leadership role, he will shape the scientific vision for the facility and help guide strategic investments in high-performance computing capabilities that support interdisciplinary discovery, workforce development and economic growth across The University of Alabama System and beyond.
“During his time as interim director of the HPC center, Dr. Gleyzer demonstrated exceptional leadership, and he already understands the scale, complexity and opportunity for our center,” said Fernanda Foertter, executive director of the High Performance Computing and Data Center. “As chief science officer, he will lead the scientific direction of the center and help to guide the roadmap that will take us to the bleeding edge of what’s possible in computational science and research.”
In his role as chief science officer, Gleyzer will lead proposal development and award capture, with an emphasis on interdisciplinary research and expanding the University’s footprint in quantum computing. He will also oversee project allocation of computing resources and lead efforts to promote the center’s scientific impact through targeted programming and science communication.
Gleyzer’s background includes work on “new physics” phenomena at the CERN particle physics laboratory in Switzerland. He has been a key member of the team that discovered the Higgs boson in 2012 and currently leads research into its rare decays and the nature of dark matter using data from the Large Hadron Collider.
Gleyzer has an extensive publication record that includes 1,018 publications and 12,8019 citations and greater than $15 million in external research funding. He directs the UA Data Science Laboratory, which is known for developing novel machine learning approaches, including techniques to probe dark matter through strong gravitational lensing. His work has had direct impact on other fields, such as astronomy, mathematics and quantum computing.
In 2024, Gleyzer was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society for pioneering efforts in machine learning in particle physics and was named 2025 Senior Distinguished Researcher at Fermilab, an honor awarded to one tenured faculty member internationally each year.
“In this new role, I look forward to leading the scientific direction of the new HPC center and strategically positioning it to leverage key emerging technologies, such as AI and quantum computing, to advance a variety of critical applications at the University of Alabama and the region,” said Gleyzer.
Gleyzer is the founder of the Inter-experimental LHC Machine Learning Working group, the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) Machine Learning Forum and the Machine Learning for Science (ML4SCI) and HumanAI Foundations.
Gleyzer earned his doctorate from Florida State University in 2011.