NERSC Celebrates 40 Years at the Forefront

This year, the Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) is celebrating yet another milestone: its 40^th anniversary.

Since its founding in 1974, NERSC has become the primary high-performance computing facility for scientific research sponsored by the DOE's Office of Science. Located at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), NERSC serves 5,000 scientists at national laboratories and universities around the world researching problems in energy, climate modeling, environmental studies, materials science, astrophysics, chemistry, genomics and more.

“Having been affiliated with NERSC for nearly two decades, it’s been an honor to support a world-class facility that helps researchers use our high performance computing resources to shed light on some of nature’s most challenging mysteries,” said Horst Simon, Berkeley Lab Deputy Director and former NERSC director (1996-2006). “Over its 40-year history, NERSC and its staff have developed an outstanding reputation for providing high-end computing systems and comprehensive scientific client services. Looking ahead, we are excited to continue this tradition in support of DOE’s missions.”

Throughout 2014, NERSC will pay tribute to its supercomputing roots with a number of activities and events. To get the celebration started, we combed through our archives to put together a 2014 calendar that showcases the history of NERSC’s supercomputers in photos and trivia. »Download the NERSC 2014 40th anniversary calendar (PDF | 4.3MB). Calendar can be printed at letter (8½" x 11") and tabloid (11" x 17") sizes.

We have a number of exciting events planned for this year, with more to come:

• NERSC Users’ Group annual meeting, February 3-6, including “A Celebration of Science & Technology,” February 4-5, at Berkeley Lab. Speakers include Horst Simon, Berkeley Lab Deputy Director, and Bill Kramer, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, who will discuss NERSC’s contributions to the world’s supercomputing community.  For more information: http://www.nersc.gov/users/NUG/annual-meetings/nug-2014/agenda
• “How HPC Has Transformed Science & Our Lives," May 28, Berkeley Lab. Speakers to include Nobel Laureates and other prominent scientists who have computed at NERSC.
• SC 2014, November 16-21, New Orleans, LA: NERSC will once again have a strong presence in the DOE booth with dozens of scientific posters and presentations, including an historic timeline.