NERSC's mission is to accelerate the pace of scientific discovery in the Department of Energy Office of Science (SC) community by providing high-performance computing, information, and communications services. NERSC has a threefold strategy for increasing researchers' productivity:

• Providing leading-edge platforms and services that make NERSC the foremost resource for large-scale computation within DOE.
  
  
• Introducing the best new computer science tools to SC researchers.
  
  
• Providing intellectual services (for example, development of innovative algorithms, simulations, and visualization techniques) that make these complicated technologies useful for computational science.
  
  
  

DIRECTOR'S PERSPECTIVE

YEAR IN REVIEW

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
  Applied Mathematics
    Berkeley Lab AMR
  Amazing Algorithm Pulls Digits Out of
  Computer Science
    Sharing Data in Parallel: netCDF
    Communication for Clusters: M-VIA and MVICH
  ACTS Toolkit Provides Solutions to Common Computational Problems
    Grid Security: Akenti and BRO
    Distributed Visualization of Terascale Datasets: Visapult
  Grid Applications Win SC2000 Competition
    A Microscopy Channel for the Internet: DeepView
    Real-Time Grid Monitoring and Analysis Tools: NetLogger and Pipechar
  Deb Agarwal Named One of "Top 25 Women of the Web"
    Efficient Distributed Storage Access: STACS
    Benchmarking and Performance Analysis
  Computational Science
    HENP Software Development
    Visualization for Comparative Genomic Analysis: VISTA
    Calculating the Electronic Structure of Large Systems
    Merging the Best Climate Models

SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS

  Basic Energy Sciences

• Direct Numerical Simulation of Turbulent Combustion in HCCI Engines
• Numerical Simulations of Grain Boundaries, Buried Interfaces, and Catalytic Surfaces
• Molecular-Based Simulation of Complex Fluids
• Modeling Molecular Processes in the Environment: In Isolation, in Liquids, on Surfaces, and at Interfaces
• Ab Initio Investigation of Dynamical Electronic Response and Many-Body Effects in Solids
• Computational Studies in Molecular Geochemistry and Biogeochemistry
• Photonic Band Gap Materials
• Electronic Structure and Simulation Calculations of Reactive Chemical Systems
• Fluid and Tracer Transport in Self-Affine Rough Fractures
• Quantum and Classical Simulations of Clusters, Nanostructured Materials, and Friction Control
• Quantum Monte Carlo for Electronic Structure of Combustion Systems
• Semiclassical Simulations for Reaction Dynamics: Methodological Studies and Biological Applications
• Magnetic Materials: Bridging Basic and Applied Science
• Computational Semiconductor Physics

  
Biological and Environmental Research

• Studies of Decadal Climate Dynamics and Predictability
• Simulating Ocean Carbon Sequestration
• Theoretical Study on Catalysis by Protein Enzymes and Ribozyme
• Computational Structural Genomics
• Computational Studies of Protein Folding
• Breaking the Scalability Limit of Parallel Molecular Dynamics: Simulating the Fastest Folding Proteins in Atomic Detail
• Parallel Implementation of Enhanced Atmospheric and Oceanic Dynamical Cores in the Next-Generation NCAR CCSM
• PCMDI: Interpreting Differential Temperature Trends at the Surface and in the Lower Troposphere
• Large-Eddy Simulations of Marine Boundary-Layer Clouds for Climate Studies and Investigations of Global Aerosols
• Coupled Parallel Climate Model (PCM) Applications to Climate Change Prediction for the IPCC and the National Assessment: High Resolution Studies

  
Fusion Energy Sciences

• Numerical Tokamak Turbulence Project
• LLNL Magnetic Fusion Energy Supercomputing
• Simulation of Intense Beams for Heavy-Ion Fusion
• University of Maryland Fusion Energy Research
• 3D Modeling of Fusion Plasmas
• Magnetohydrodynamic Codes for Fusion Applications
• Plasma Confinement, Stability, Heating and Optimization in Stellarators and Tokamaks
• Equilibrium, Stability, and Transport Studies of Toroidal Magnetic Confinement Systems
• Lattice Boltzmann Simulations for Divertor Physics and Turbulence

  
High Energy and Nuclear Physics

• Phenomenology with O(a) improved lattice QCD
• Continuing Studies of Plasma-Based Accelerators
• Cosmic Microwave Background Data Analysis: The BOOMERANG Long Duration Balloon Flight
• Lattice QCD Monte Carlo Calculation of Hadron Structure
• Exploration of Hadron Structure Using Lattice QCD
• STAR Detector Simulations and Data Analysis
• Variational and Green's Function Monte Carlo Calculations of Light Nuclei
• Advanced Computing for 21st Century Accelerator Science and Technology
• QCD at Finite Baryon Number Density and Finite Isospin Density
• Weak Matrix Elements with Domain Wall Fermions
• High-Temperature QCD with Three Flavors of Improved Kogut-Susskind Quarks

  
Advanced Scientific Computing Research and Other Projects

• High Precision Arithmetic and Applications
• Numerical Simulation of Turbulent Reacting Flows
• Linear Algebra Algorithms on High Performance Computers
• A Numerical Study of Acceleration-Driven Fluid Interface Instabilities
• Global Optimization Approaches to Protein Fold Refinement and Tertiary Structure Prediction for D. Radiodurans
• Electron-Atom and Electron-Molecule Collision Processes
• Metastability in Materials Science and Scalability of Parallel Discrete Event Simulations
• Sparse Linear Algebra Algorithms and Applications for MPPs

APPENDIX A: NERSC Policy Board
APPENDIX B: NERSC Program Advisory Committee
APPENDIX C: NERSC Users Group Executive Committee
APPENDIX D: Scientific Computing Applications Council
APPENDIX E: Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research