NERSC Marks 50 Years of Accelerating Science

When the high performance computing (HPC) center, now known as the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), was founded in 1974, President Richard Nixon was on his way out of office, Muhammad Ali and George Foreman were facing off in the jungle, and Stephen King’s novel Carrie had just been published. Personal computing was in its infancy, and the first microprocessors had been on the market for less than a year. Since then, both the world and the world of computing have changed dramatically – but one thing remains the same. After 50 years of accelerating scientific discovery, NERSC remains at the leading edge of HPC for science.

Since users at NERSC’s ancestor, the Controlled Thermonuclear Research Computing Center (CTRCC) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, began using a borrowed CDC 6600 system for their work, the center has been through many changes: four different names, three locations, five directors, and 31 systems.

Through it all, NERSC systems and staff have supported research across the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE SC) and provided essential computing services and data storage for work in basic energy sciences, biological and environmental research, high-energy physics, fusion energy sciences, nuclear physics, and advanced scientific computing. Today, NERSC is the DOE SC’s most scientifically productive HPC center, serving more than 10,000 users worldwide, appearing as a reference in more than 2,000 papers per year, and supporting the research of seven Nobel Prize-winning scientists or projects and counting.

“NERSC’s 50th anniversary is a time to celebrate what has been accomplished and also look forward to the exciting changes coming in the next decade,” said NERSC Division Director Sudip Dosanjh. “We are proud of helping enable seven Nobel Prizes and of supporting thousands of users – for many users, their first experience with supercomputing was at NERSC.”

A Milestone to Celebrate

Since kicking off the 50th anniversary year at the Supercomputing conference in November 2023, the NERSC community, past and present, has observed the milestone in various ways, from staff trivia competitions to tours of NERSC’s state-of-the-art facility. A series of commemorative seminars by NERSC users has illuminated some of the durable partnerships through which NERSC has supported particular projects and research arcs over time, including in the fields of genomics, Earth system modeling, and mapping the Universe in 3D.

NERSC’s 50th year culminates with the three-day NERSC Annual User Meeting on October 22–24 at the Residence Inn Berkeley. This special edition of the yearly gathering will commemorate how NERSC has contributed to science over five decades, as well as ways in which the center is a powerhouse for current research and will continue to blaze trails in HPC for science. Speakers will present topics like the future of AI for science, integrated research infrastructure, quantum computing, and other novel technologies, and a broad selection of world-changing user projects. Observing the breadth and depth of NERSC’s achievement and influence through a range of lenses, the event will also include a presentation from the California Poet Laureate on the legacy and promise of NERSC and its systems, a NERSC art contest celebrating the beauty found in many scientific visualizations produced on NERSC systems, and a poster session through which NERSC users can network and share their current research.

Looking to the Next 50 Years

As the NERSC community of staff, users, alumni, and friends commemorates the milestone of 50 years of scientific computing, science marches on – and NERSC is at the forefront, looking toward and laying the groundwork for the next 50 years.

NERSC is leading in the exploration and adoption of novel technologies that may define the next generation of HPC for science and accelerate discovery even further. But even as the center prepares to stand up its next system, currently known as NERSC-10, for user access in 2027, eyes are already on the horizon for systems of the future, which may incorporate technologies as new to us now as microprocessors were in 1974.

“We are continually transforming as our mission continues to evolve and technology disruptions occur,” said Dosanjh. “The mission space of NERSC is expanding to include complex workflows from experimental and observational science and AI in addition to simulation and modeling. We are also anticipating significant changes in technology in the next several decades as we reach the end of Moore’s Law; and are investigating a number of disruptive technologies, including quantum computing, so that we can continue to provide significant increases in computing capability.”

In addition to new technologies, it’s people that move computing forward. NERSC holds team science as both a value and a goal, and Dosanjh said that NERSC staff are at the heart of the center’s work and progress. “I am humbled to be working with such an amazing group of people at our user facility,” he said. “Our staff have deep experience in HPC and they are very dedicated to our mission to support open DOE science.” On a broader scale, NERSC’s leadership through partnerships with users, vendors, and other DOE facilities also support a stronger future across scientific computing: “Collaborations with the science community, computer vendors, and other ASCR facilities will be keys to success.”