NERSCPowering Scientific Discovery for 50 Years

DESI Shares Largest 3D Map of the Universe Yet

Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument releases data on 18.7 million galaxies, quasars, and stars — the largest dataset of its kind ever shared. » Read More

More Efficient Fusion

So-called “slow waves” waste energy in fusion reactions. Recent simulations successfully tested a new method to stop their formation. » Read More

NERSC Launches IBM Quantum Innovation Center

NERSC users can now apply to access quantum computing resources through a partnership with IBM. » Read More

AI Shows Promise for Mapping Disease Progression

» Read More

Quantum Computing Partnership Extended

After a successful first year punctuated by strong scientific results, NERSC’s partnership with QuEra Computing has been extended. » Read More

National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center

NERSC is the mission scientific computing facility for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, the nation’s single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences.

Computing at NERSC

Now Computing

Some of the science now being computed at NERSC

Numbers not changing? Check the center status page for information.

Project System Nodes Node Hours Used
Lattice QCD search for physics beyond the standard model
 High Energy Physics
 PI: Rajan Gupta, Los Alamos National Laboratory
perlmutter 576
Optimization studies of LBNF neutrino beamline and hadron absorber complex
 ASCR Leadership Computing Challenge
 PI: Igor Rakhno, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
perlmutter 256
High Performance Simulations for Regional Scale Earthquake Hazard and Risk Assessments
 Advanced Scientific Computing Research
 PI: David Mccallen, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
perlmutter 256
Partnership Center for High-fidelity Boundary Plasma Simulation: SciDAC-4 Center
 Fusion Energy Sciences
 PI: Choongseok Chang, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL)
perlmutter 128
A Digital Twin for Spatiotemporal experiments
 Basic Energy Sciences
 PI: Subramanian Sankaranarayanan, Argonne National Laboratory
perlmutter 100
Continuing studies of plasma based accelerators
 High Energy Physics
 PI: Frank Tsung, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)
perlmutter 64

Did You Know?

When did NERSC start naming flagship systems in honor of scientists?

Three black monolith-like cabinets dominate a fish-eye view of a data center.

This Cray T3E 900 was the first in a long line of NERSC flagship systems named for scientists.

Since NERSC moved to Berkeley Lab in 1996, the Department of Energy’s primary scientific computing facility has named all of its supercomputers after scientists.

The naming tradition started in the late 1990s with NERSC’s flagship Cray T3E system. It was called “MCurie” in honor of Marie Curie, the French-Polish physicist and chemist known for her pioneering research on radioactivity. In November 1997, MCurie was the fifth most powerful supercomputer in the world. The system had 512 processors and a theoretical peak speed of 461 billion calculations per second (461 Gigaflop/s). At the time, it was the nation’s most powerful supercomputer for unclassified research.