Biography

Dr. Patrick Dreher

Dr. Patrick Dreher holds appointments as both a Research Professor in the Department of Computer Science and as an Associate Faculty member in the Department of Physics at NC State.   He also holds a Research Affiliate appointment in the Department of Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In 2018 NCSU became the first university in North America to establish an IBM Q Hub as part of the global IBM Q Network, a collaboration between IBM and top Fortune 500 companies, national research labs and leading universities to advance quantum computing.  In January  2019, the University appointed him as the Chief Scientist for the NC State IBM Q Hub tasked with advancing NC State’s quantum computing research and education initiatives.   He also currently serves as the Assistant Director of the Data Science Initiative at the University.

He received his B.S. in physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, an M.S. in physics from the University of Chicago, and his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana. He also earned an M.B.A. from Rensselaer with a concentration in R&D management.

Dr. Dreher has over 25 years of research experience in the application of computing technologies to science and engineering research problems.  His work in cloud computing has included development of early techniques for embedding cloud systems within supercomputers to fully exploit their HPC hardware capabilities.  His current research interests are focused on the intersection of quantum computing and cloud computing, especially applied toward high energy, nuclear and many-body condensed matter physics problems.

Dr. Dreher has also held significant R&D management positions in academia at MIT and NC State, in government at DoE research labs and in industry supporting the DoD high performance computing programs in science and engineering.  He has served on numerous peer review panels for the Department of Energy, the DoD HPC Modernization Program and the National Science Foundation including the NSF Taskforce Advisory Committee on Campus Cyberinfrastructure. 

Research Areas

  • Cloud Computing
  • Quantum Computing
  • Scientific and High Performance Computing

Education

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute                     Physics  Minor  Math   B. S.                 June 1975

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute                     Physics                        M. S.                 June 1976

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute                     R&D Management       M.B.A.           August 1977

University of Illinois,  Urbana                          Physics                        Ph.D.             October 1991

Awards

  • IBM Faculty Award - 2009, 2010, 2016

Publications

                                                                     Selected Publications and Invited Talks

Quantum Computing

P. Dreher, Y.H. Oh, M. Ramasami, "Accessing the IBM Q Quantum Computing Hardware Platforms and Simulators Using a Container-Based Cloud Computing Implementation", submitted to 2019 CLOSER Conference
P.Dreher, "The IBM Q Initiative as a Resource for High Energy Physics Quantum Computing", Invited Talk, Conference on Next Steps in Quantum Science for HEP , Fermilab, Sept 12-14, 2018
P. Dreher, SU(2) Lattice Gauge Pair Hopping Constructs Suitable for Implementation on Quantum Computers , Presentation at the 36th Annual International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, Michigan State University, July 2018
P. Dreher, "Challenges Implementing non-Abelian SU(2) Quantum Chromodynamics Gauge Links on a Universal Quantum Computer" (to be published in Proceedings of the 36th Annual International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory - LATTICE2108 22-28 July, 2018) arXiv:1811.01309 [hep-lat]

Cloud Computing

P. Dreher, D. Nair, E. Sills, M. Vouk, “Cost Analysis Comparing HPC Public Versus Private Cloud Computing”, Cloud Computing and Services Science, 6th International Conference, CLOSER 2016, Rome, Italy, April 23-25, 2016, Revised Selected Papers, ISBN 978-3-319-62594-2, Springer, (2017) p. 294-316.
P. Dreher, Mladen Vouk, W. Scullin, “Toward a Proof of Concept Implementation of a Cloud Framework on Blue Gene Supercomputers for Computational Physics Applications”, XXVI IUPAP Conference on Computational Physics (CCP2014), Journal of Physics: Conference Series 640 (2015) 012063
G. Mathew, P. Dreher, M. Vouk,  "Integrating VCL into a Re-Configurable Cloud Computing Layer on an IBM BG/P Supercomputer," Proceedings ICACON 2014, 2nd international IBM Cloud Academy Conference, 2014, Atlanta, GA May 8-9, 2014