In 2018, Bader was recognized as one of the most impactful authors in the history of the IEEE International Conference on High-Performance Computing, Data, and Analytics (HiPC).

While at UMD in 1992, Bader was awarded a NASA Graduate Student Researchers Fellowship by Gerald Soffen, project scientist for the Viking missions to Mars at Goddard Space Flight Center.

[15] In 2004, Bader contributed to discussions with Dean Richard DeMillo that led to the development of Georgia Tech's Computational Science and Engineering (CSE) initiative.

[12][35][36] In 2010, Bader was a lead investigator on the Nvidia Echelon project, a $25 million DARPA Award through the Ubiquitous High Performance Computing (UHPC) program.

[21] The four-year research collaboration with Nvidia covered work to develop new GPU technologies required to build the new class of exascale supercomputers.

[20] In 2011, Bader began working with the Georgia Tech Research Institute on the Proactive Discovery of Insider Threats Using Graph Analysis and Learning (PRODIGAL) project.

Following this, the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) invited Bader to serve as a panelist at the NITRD High End Computing (HEC) Interagency Working Group (IWG) and Big Data Senior Steering Group (SSG) "Supercomputing and Big Data: From Collision to Convergence" Panel, at the 27th IEEE and ACM Supercomputing Conference (SC15) in Austin, Texas, on November 18, 2015.

[10] In May 2020, Bader joined the leadership team of the NSF-sponsored Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub as its inaugural seed fund steering committee chair.

[4][47] In 1998, while at the University of New Mexico, Bader sought to build a supercomputer running Linux using consumer off-the-shelf parts and a high-speed low-latency interconnection network.

The prototype utilized an Alta Technologies "AltaCluster" of eight dual, 333 MHz, Intel Pentium II computers running a modified Linux kernel.

[7][48] Though Linux-based clusters using consumer-grade parts, such as Beowulf, existed prior to the development of Bader's prototype and RoadRunner, they lacked the scalability, bandwidth, and parallel computing capabilities to be considered "true" supercomputers.

A study by Hyperion Research estimates that the use of these supercomputers in product development in the automotive, aircraft, and pharmaceutical industries has generated an economic value of over $100 trillion in 25 years.

"[4] Larry Smarr, a UC San Diego Distinguished Professor Emeritus, founding director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, and NAE member also cited Bader's early and continuing contributions to the development of Linux HPC as having "enormous historic resonance.