Mathematical, Information, and Computational Sciences in the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research

The mission of the Mathematical, Information, and Computational Sciences (MICS) program, is to discover, develop, and deploy the computational and networking tools that enable researchers in the scientific disciplines to analyze, model, simulate, and predict complex physical, chemical, and biological phenomena important to the Department of Energy.

Funding Opportunities

Applied Mathematics supports mathematical and computational research that facilitates the use of the latest high-performance computer systems in advancing our understanding of science and technology. This program supports research at academic institutions.

These pilot projects test, validate, and apply collaboratory tools in partnership with other DOE programs The Materials MicroCharacterization Collaboratory provides remote access to electron beam microcharacterization of material; the Diesel Combustion Collaboratory links researchers to develop the next generation of clean diesel engines.

This program supports innovative advancement in computer performance and computational science techniques.

This Program addresses the fundamental issues of scalable and secure networks that are capable of delivering to scientific application end-to-end performance in order of magnitude several times greater than today's Internet or commercial data network. Advanced network features include gigabit/sec throughput, network agility, service differentiation, smart network security, observability and controllability.

SciDAC is a five-year program to develop the Scientific Computing Software and Hardware Infrastructure needed to use terascale computers to advance its research programs in basic energy sciences, biological and environmental research fusion energy sciences, and high-energy and nuclear physics. This ambitious program was launched in FY 2001.

ESnet provides infrastructure and leading-edge network services in support of DOE's missions, including the distributed computing capabilities needed for forefront scientific research. ESnet holds a leadership role in the worldwide Internet community in planning and implementing the transition to the next generation Internet Protocol, IPv6.

NERSC, located at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, operates one of the nation's most powerful unclassified computing resources. Funded by the Office of Science, NERSC supplies computing cycles and intellectual expertise to scientific researchers in the U.S. and their international collaborators.

The ACRTs support hardware and testbeds for both application pilots and fundamental research. Because many of the issues to be investigated only appear in the computer systems at significantly larger scale than the hardware's design point, the ACRTs must procure/develop software to manage the largest scale systems possible. Therefore, these systems are managed as research programs and not as information technology investments.

Topical Computing Facilities

Scientists at Northeastern University are using NERSC's Cray T3E to study the complicated spontaneous pattern formation processes occurring during the growth of solids. The image illustrates eutectic two-phase cells, or colonies, which form during the directional solidification of a binary eutectic alloy with a ternary impurity.

This picture demonstrates particle trajectories and electrostatic potentials from a 3D implicit tokamak plasma simulation employing adaptive mesh techniques. The boundary is aligned with the magnetic field which shears around the torus. The strip in the torus is aligned with the local magnetic field and is color mapped with the local electrostatic potential.

Results of simulations of equi-atomic CuZn in fcc lattice formations. In the visualization, the large spheres represent Cu atoms and the small spheres represent Zn atoms. The excess charge on each atom is represented by the blue-red color spectrum. Blue is mapped to atoms with the maximum positive charge while red is mapped to those with the highest negative charge. Green is the midrange.