On September 16, 2024, RC dedicated the new Afton computing cluster to the memory of John F. Hawley (1958-2021), late Professor of Astronomy who was a leading researcher in computational astrophysics. He also served in the Office of the Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences for nine years, first as Associate Dean for the Sciences and later as Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. The ceremony featured some remarks by Josh Baller, Associate Vice President for Research Computing, and Scott Ruffner, Director of Infrastructure for Research Computing, along with a recorded message from Provost Ian Baucom.

John received his PhD in Astronomy from UIUC in 1984 with a dissertation on numerical studies of accretion disks around black holes. He moved to the California Institute of Technology as a Bantrell Fellow postdoc in the summer of that year. He was deeply involved with the national supercomputing centers from the earliest days. He returned to Illinois in October 1985 to prepare some “showcase” applications for the January 1986 opening of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, housed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. John served on advisory committees and review panels for the national centers throughout his career.

He moved to UVA in the fall of 1987 as an assistant professor in the Astronomy Department, where he continued his research on numerical simulations of black-hole accretion disks. At UVA he met Steven Balbus, with whom he collaborated on an important series of papers from 1991 to 1992 that unraveled one of the fundamental mysteries of accretion-disk dynamics. They were jointly awarded the Shaw Prize in Astronomy in 2013 for these discoveries.

Even though he primarily used the national centers for his own research, John was devoted to promoting computational science from the beginning of his time at UVA. In April of 2001, he chaired a University-wide committee whose outcome was the acquisition of the University’s first “Beowulf” cluster in May of 2002. From 2006-2008, John worked with other faculty to repurpose part of what at the time was research computing software support within ITS into the first dedicated group for more advanced research computing support. The new group was given the name UVACSE (University Alliance for Computational Science and Engineering) and Andrew Grimshaw, Professor of Computer Science, was its first director. James Hilton, then VP for IT, provided budgetary support and made the group answer to a faculty-led Computational Science Advisory Council.

John continued to serve on committees such as UCIT (University Committee for Information Technology), other advisory committees, and multiple task forces, working with other faculty on projects related to computational education and hardware acquisition. This culminated in the purchase in 2014 of the University’s first high-end computational resource, Rivanna, a goal he had sought for years. Ivy, the first shared resource for sensitive data processing, was also initiated through the work of these committees.

Even with his strong advocacy for hardware, John was an even stronger champion of developing a professional support group for research computing. He often stated that while hardware was important, what really mattered was people. The University has responded by building Research Computing into the acclaimed group it is today.