SC Research Portfolio: Critical Questions that need Answers

Advanced scientific computing is key to accomplishing the missions of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). It is essential to the design of nuclear weapons, the development of new energy technologies, and the discovery of new scientific knowledge. All of the research programs in DOE's Office of Science -- in Basic Energy Sciences, Biological and Environmental Research, Fusion Energy Sciences, and High-Energy and Nuclear Physics -- have identified major scientific questions that can only be addressed through advances in scientific computing.

• Can we predict the effects of cracking, aging and fatigue on materials?
• Can we improve the efficiency and specificity of the catalysts that produce the materials of the modern world?
• Can we predict the structure and function of proteins from a knowledge of the DNA sequence?
• Can we reliably predict the evolution of the earth's regional climates decades and centuries into the future?
• Can we control the instabilities that lead to the loss of power in fusion devices?
• Can we design more efficient heavy-ion accelerators for inertial fusion?
• Can we design more powerful particle accelerators for high-energy physics?
• Is the Standard Model of particle physics complete?

As the lead government funding agency for basic research in the physical sciences, the Office of Science (SC) has a special responsibility to ensure that its research programs continue to advance the frontiers of science.