NERSCPowering Scientific Discovery for 50 Years

Congratulations to the Winners of the NERSC Science as Art Competition

With 70-plus eye-popping entries, we couldn't pick just one. » Read More

David Baker Wins Nobel Prize for Chemistry

A computational biologist and prolific user of NERSC systems, David Baker has been awarded a Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work in computational protein design. » 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

Magnifying Deep Space Through the 'Carousel Lens'

Using the Perlmutter supercomputer, DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys, and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, researchers identified a rare and revealing gravitational lens. » Read More

Tropical Cyclones Intensify Due to Warming Atmosphere

Tropical cyclones have grown more intense near global coastal regions. A new study found that hotter air interacting with humidity and wind shear is likely the culprit. » 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

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Project System Nodes Node Hours Used
Calibrated and Systematic Characterization Attribution and Detection of Extremes
 Biological & Environmental Research
 PI: Mark Risser, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
perlmutter 64
Continuing studies of plasma based accelerators
 High Energy Physics
 PI: Frank Tsung, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)
perlmutter 16
Toward exascale computing of electron-phonon couplings for finite-temperature materials design
 Basic Energy Sciences
 PI: Feliciano Giustino, University of Texas at Austin
perlmutter 16
Large Model Training with Second-order Optimization
 Advanced Scientific Computing Research
 PI: Zhao Zhang, Rutgers University - New Brunswick
perlmutter 16
Energy Exascale Earth System Modeling (E3SM)
 Biological & Environmental Research
 PI: Lai-Yung Ruby Leung, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)
perlmutter 16
High-Latitude Application and Testing (HiLAT) of Earth System Models & Regional Arctic System Model
 Biological & Environmental Research
 PI: Hailong Wang, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)
perlmutter 15

Did You Know?

NERSC Resources Have Played a Part in Seven Nobel Prize Winning Discoveries

George Smoot

George Smoot

Seven Nobel Prize-winning researchers or teams have used NERSC resources in their work, including two Berkeley Lab astrophysicists who made breakthrough discoveries about the nature of the Universe.

George Smoot, professor of physics at UC Berkeley and an astrophysicist at Berkeley Lab, won the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physics for his cosmic microwave background radiation data analysis. Smoot used NERSC supercomputers to confirm predictions of the Big Bang theory.

Saul Perlmuter

Saul Perlmutter

Saul Perlmutter, a professor of physics at UC Berkeley and a faculty senior scientist at Berkeley Lab, was awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize for Physics for his 1998 discovery that the Universe is expanding at an accelerating rate. He confirmed his observations by running thousands of simulations at NERSC, and his research team is believed to have been the first to use supercomputers to analyze and validate observational data in cosmology. Our flagship high performance computing system is named Perlmutter in his honor.

Read more about Nobel-prize winning science NERSC has supported over the years.