---
title: "CARC announces new Associate Director Ylva Pihlström"
description: "The Center for Advanced Research Computing (CARC) welcomes Professor Ylva Pihlström as its new associate director."
type: News
tags:
  - News
date: "2021"
generated:
  by: "process:scripts/port_legacy_pages.py"
  at: "2026-09-10T00:00:00Z"
sources:
  - id: carc-web
    resource: "https://carc.unm.edu/news--events/News/carc-announces-associate-director.html"
    title: "CARC announces new Associate Director Ylva Pihlström (carc.unm.edu)"
    author: "team:unm-carc"
---

# CARC announces new Associate Director Ylva Pihlström

<p class="carc-byline">2021</p>

The Center for Advanced Research Computing (CARC) welcomes Professor Ylva
Pihlström as its new associate director. Pihlström comments, “I'm quite
excited to have the opportunity to work with the outstanding CARC staff toward
enabling the best possible research computing environment at UNM, and to put
UNM in high regard for future students to come to Albuquerque for their
studies.”

![Ylva Pihlström is CARC's new Associate Director](/assets/associate-director-pihlstrom-ylva.jpeg)

*Ylva Pihlström is CARC's new Associate Director*

After receiving her doctorate degree at Chalmers University of Technology in
Gothenburg, Sweden, Pihlström relocated to New Mexico where she began her work
with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Socorro in 2001.
Pihlström has been a valued faculty member of the UNM Department of Physics
and Astronomy for the past 16 years, since 2005. In addition to teaching
courses, she is also an Adjunct Astronomer with the NRAO, Director of the UNM
Campus Observatory, Associate Director of the UNM Center for Astrophysical
Research and Technology, and Associate Chair for Undergraduate Affairs,
Physics and Astronomy.

Pihlström is eager to contribute her expertise in research to the CARC team,
writing, “By being at the front of cutting edge technology application
research I hope I have a good understanding of what colleague researchers may
need, and that my involvement will also aid in making sure UNM students will
have access to HPC to perform the calculations necessary for their PhD
projects.”

Because of Pihlström’s background in astronomical research, she has worked
extensively with high performance computing systems like those housed in CARC.
From analyzing data collected by radio astronomy observatories like the Very
Large Array to modeling the behavior of celestial bodies, astronomical
research produces incredible quantities of data that can only be processed
using high-performance computing.

Pihlström recognizes the increasing importance of high-performance computing
in university settings, commenting, “The university's mission is not only to
provide higher education, but naturally also to generate new knowledge through
university-led research. While every research project is different in its
character, in many fields there is a rapidly growing data throughput and
output, and a need of more complex computing resources to be able to handle
the data and perform necessary calculations and simulations. CARC is crucial
for supplying these computing resources and therefore for bringing the
research mission of UNM forward.”