Debra Goldfarb has spent more than three decades shaping the narrative for high performance computing from a niche technology into a strategic tool for governments, research, and industry. Today, as Director of Products and Strategy for Advanced Computing, Simulation, and Quantum Computing at Amazon Web Services, she shapes the company’s HPC, Simulation, and Quantum portfolio. She scouts emerging technologies and guides collaborations with groups such as the Harvard Data Science Initiative, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Riken.
Goldfarb’s path to supercomputing was anything but direct. Initially trained in Chinese studies, she joined International Data Corporation as a sales representative and soon accepted a challenge to build IDC’s first HPC research practice. “What truly drew me in wasn’t the technology itself but the potential impact these machines could have on the world. I was fascinated by how new technologies get adopted, who they serve, and what stands in the way of progress,” she told HPCwire. “I saw that advanced computing had the potential to reshape entire industries, not just through performance gains but through the insights and capabilities it made possible. That initial spark of seeing what supercomputers could enable has guided my entire career since.”
During 16 years at IDC, Goldfarb became a leading voice in HPC, advising governments, vendors, and investors during the post–Cold War contraction in federal funding. Her market analyses, financial, and market share reports helped shift policy makers from seeing HPC as expensive, niche hardware to viewing it as critical infrastructure for global competitiveness and national security, a message she later championed on the Council on Competitiveness HPC Advisory Committee with the slogan “To out-compete, you must out-compute.”
Goldfarb says she has always been driven by the belief that HPC should address meaningful societal challenges. “This motivation led to initiatives like the collaboration between AWS, the Harvard Data Science Initiative, and the Amazon Sustainability Initiative, where we applied large-scale modeling to study ecological tipping points and inform investment and policy for food security and climate resilience,” she noted.
Earlier in her career, this same conviction fueled Goldfarb’s work on the “Missing Middle Initiative” to democratize HPC across the economy, as well as her contributions to the America COMPETES Act, which highlights the national need for HPC integration across the digital supply chain. The Wheeling Initiative, which brought simulation and modeling to disadvantaged high schools, emerged from the same fundamental belief that advanced computing should be accessible to all. Throughout her career, Goldfarb says her focus has consistently been on building bridges between industry, government, and academia through efforts like the HPC User Forum, ensuring advanced computing serves a broader, more meaningful purpose beyond technical achievement.
“This work epitomizes why my love for HPC has never waned. It reminds me that computing is all about expanding human potential and addressing challenges that affect us all,” she said.
Goldfarb has received much recognition for her efforts, including being named an Intel Fellow in 2018, one of only 13 women to hold that title. She also received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the HPC User Forum in 2014 for her contributions in shaping a powerful industry narrative and impacting national and global policy. Other honors include the James Peacock Memorial Award from IDC in 2002, recognizing research innovation and thought leadership in launching a new practice in Bio-IT, and being named one of HPCwire’s People to Watch in 2002 and 2021.
Goldfarb credits her progress to collaboration, noting that “Engagement with the HPC community has been a cornerstone of professional growth throughout my career.” This involvement spans decades of SC conferences, including the early pre-IEEE SC gatherings, and extends to serving as a frequent speaker and contributor at industry, government, and academic events. Advocating for diversity in STEM has been particularly meaningful work for Goldfarb. At SC14, she co-launched the Women in HPC initiative, which opened doors for developing programs focused on empowerment, networking, and career development.
Goldfarb says holding a community-centered viewpoint helps to shape strategic thinking and keeps the focus on expanding human potential through advanced computing. “The greatest value from community engagement comes from listening to those applying HPC in unexpected ways,” she said. “Conversations with researchers in climate modeling, public health, social sciences, and educators bringing simulation tools into classrooms provide essential perspective. These interactions continually reinforce that the true measure of our field isn’t just technical performance or scale, but how effectively these capabilities help people solve meaningful problems.”
Looking back on a career spent steering policy, products, and partnerships, Goldfarb believes the real measure of success is widening the circle of who can benefit from advanced computing: “For me, it’s never been about computers themselves. It’s about what they enable—scientific breakthroughs, innovations across industries from automotive and energy to materials and healthcare. It’s about solving the complex challenges that face us all. What matters deeply is ensuring everyone has access to this power, not just those at major institutions, research centers, and labs. Ideas are democratic—they can come from anywhere—but access to computing historically has not been. This fundamental disparity drove my decision to join AWS as an opportunity to flip this paradigm and truly democratize access to computing power.”