Spotlight Falls on Accelerator Science in Next NERSC@50 Seminar

Particle accelerators are among the most complex, largest, and most expensive machines ever built, with applications ranging from discovery science to national security, industry, and medicine. Progress in particle accelerator research is intimately linked to progress in the calculations of beam particle trajectories via a carefully tailored series of elements that create the electric and magnetic fields that accelerate and guide the particles. Computer simulations are thus naturally an integral part of this research. In his talk “Faster! Faster! Highlights in Particle Accelerator Research at NERSC,” Berkeley Lab Senior Scientist Jean-Luc Vay will present highlights of particle accelerator simulations performed at NERSC over the past decades as well as ongoing work and future directions for the field. The talk is part of the NERSC@50 seminar series celebrating NERSC’s 50th anniversary and will take place on Monday, August 12, at 1:30 p.m. PDT on Zoom. 

Jean-Luc Vay has been a user of NERSC since he joined Berkeley Lab as a postdoc at the end of 1996. He is now a senior scientist and head of the Advanced Modeling Program in the Accelerator Technology & Applied Physics Division, where he leads theoretical and computational research on beams, plasmas, particle accelerators, and fusion energy. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, a senior member of IEEE, and recipient of the 2013 US Particle Accelerator School Prize for Achievement in Accelerator Physics & Technology, 2014 NERSC Award for Innovative Use of High-Performance Computing, 2022 ACM Gordon Bell Prize, and 2023 Berkeley Lab Director’s Achievement Award in the Scientific Team section.