> This code has to run in parallel, and run fast Then you're certainly not going to get away with writing it all in Python, but it's a very common paradigm to

> This code has to run in parallel, and run fast Then you're certainly not going to get away with writing it all in Python, but it's a very common paradigm to write hotter parts of the code in faster languages and then glue everything together in Python. I don't see why that wouldn't work here. > My thought is to write it in Python, profile it, and if needed, rewrite the slow parts in C That's a very reasonable and common approach if you aren't already confident in which parts will need the extra performance ahead of time. > Should a young PhD student in HPC really be investing all their time in C and not consider Python as a reasonable solution? You should absolutely be using both together, each to their respective strengths. The only thing unreasonable about any of this is the idea of pitting the languages against each other and acting like one needs to win.