Tirthak Patel is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Rice University and the Director of Positive Technology Lab, conducting systems-level research at the intersection of quantum computing and high-performance computing (HPC). His research explores the trade-offs among factors affecting reliability, performance, and energy efficiency, in recognition of which he has received the ACM-IEEE CS George Michael Memorial HPC Fellowship and the NSERC Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship (CGS D-3).

His work has also been nominated for the best paper award at several highly selective conferences, including Supercomputing (SC) and ICCAD. The tools, datasets, and methodologies from his work are largely open-sourced, as an important facet of his work is to make scientific research accessible. Prior to joining Rice University, he received his Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from Northeastern University.