Science and engineering impact

The sustained-petaflop computing power provided by the Blue Waters project will allow scientists and engineers to make extraordinary leaps in knowledge and discovery.

Many research teams have already begun to achieve results using the Early Science System, 15% of the full Blue Waters system that was available for research use in spring 2012. Illinois biophysicist Klaus Schulten use the ESS to study the HIV protein capsid in atomic detail and reported that, "Not in our wildest dreams could we have imagined the greatness of the new...machine. We are sure Blue Waters will make science and engineering history." Read more about some of the outstanding results achieved using the Blue Waters Early Science System.

More than 30 teams with Petascale Computing Resource Allocations are preparing to use the full Blue Waters system. They will conduct petascale research aimed at gaining new insights into hurricanes and tornadoes, supernovae, the formation of galaxies, earthquakes, and more.

Sort teams by area of study:
Astrophysics/Cosmology | Biophysics/Chemistry | Earth Sciences | Engineering | High-Performance Computing | Physics | Weather and Climate | complete list

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Complete list of PRAC teams

Ab initio models of solar activity
Principal investigator(s): Robert Stein, Michigan State University

Accelerating nano-scale transistor innovation
Principal investigator(s): Gerhard Klimeck, Purdue University;  Thomas Hacker, Purdue University;  Mathieu Luisier, Purdue University

Breakthrough petascale quantum Monte Carlo calculations
Principal investigator(s): Shiwei Zhang, College of William and Mary

Computational chemistry at the petascale
Principal investigator(s): Monica Lamm, Iowa State University

Read the Access story: ...And the sky is blue

Computational relativity and gravitation at petascale: Simulating and visualizing astrophysically realistic compact binaries

Principal investigator(s): Manuela Campanelli, Rochester Institute of Technology

Direct numerical simulation of fully resolved vaporizing droplets in a turbulent flow
Principal investigator(s): Said Elghobashi, University of California-Irvine

Enabling breakthrough kinetic simulations of the magnetosphere via petascale computing
Principal investigator(s): Homayoun Karimabadi, University of California-San Diego;  Kevin Quest, University of California-San Diego;  Amitava Majumdar, University of California-San Diego

Read the Access story: Understanding space weather with Blue Waters

Enabling large-scale, high-resolution, and real-time earthquake simulations on petascale parallel computers

Principal investigator(s): Liqiang Wang, University of Wyoming

Enabling science at the petascale: From binary systems and stellar core collapse to gamma-ray bursts
Principal investigator(s): Peter Diener, Louisiana State University

Evolution of the small galaxy population from high redshift to the present
Principal investigator(s): Thomas Quinn, University of Washington

Formation of the first galaxies: predictions for the next generation of observatories

Principal investigator(s): Brian O'Shea, Michigan State University

Read the Access story: Leaving the dark days

Hierarchical molecular dynamics sampling for assessing pathways and free energies of RNA catalysis, ligand binding, and conformational change
Principal investigator(s): Thomas Cheatham, University of Utah;  Darrin York, Rutgers University;  Carlos Simmerling, State University of New York at Stony Brook;  Adrian Roitberg, University of Florida;  Ross Walker, San Diego Supercomputer Center

Lattice quantum chromodynamics on Blue Waters
Principal investigator(s): Robert Sugar, University of California, Santa Barbara

Read about Robert Sugar's recent results using the Blue Waters Early Science System

Modeling heliophysics and astrophysics phenomena with a multi-scale fluid-kinetic simulation suite
Principal investigator(s): Nikolai Pogorelov, University of Alabama in Huntsville

Peta-Cosmology: galaxy formation and virtual astronomy
Principal investigator(s): Kentaro Nagamine, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Petascale computations for complex turbulent flows

Principal investigator(s): Pui-Kuen Yeung, Georgia Institute of Technology

Petascale design and management of satellite assets to advance space based earth science
Principal investigator(s): Eric Wood, Princeton University;  Patrick Reed, Pennsylvania State University

Petascale multiscale simulations of biomolecular systems
Principal investigator(s): Gregory Voth, University of Chicago;  Benoit Roux, University of Chicago

Petascale plasma physics simulations using PIC codes
Principal investigator(s): Warren Mori, University of California-Los Angeles

Petascale quantum simulations of nano systems and biomolecules
Principal investigator(s): Jerzy Bernholc, North Carolina State University

Petascale research in earthquake system science on Blue Waters

Principal investigator(s): Thomas Jordan, University of Southern California

Read the Access story: Preparing for the big one

Petascale simulation of turbulent stellar hydrodynamics
Principal investigator(s): Paul Woodward, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

Read the Access story: Powering new discoveries

Petascale simulations of complex biological behavior in fluctuating environments
Principal investigator(s): Ilias Tagkopoulos, University of California-Davis

Simulating vesicle fusion on Blue Waters
Principal investigator(s): Vijay Pande, Stanford University

Super instruction architecture for petascale computing
Principal investigator(s): Rodney Bartlett, University of Florida

System software for scalable applications
Principal investigator(s): Ewing Lusk, University of Chicago;  William Gropp, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Testing hypotheses about climate prediction at unprecedented resolutions on the NSF Blue Waters system
Principal investigator(s): Benjamin Kirtman, University of Miami;  William Large, University Corporation For Atmospheric Research;  David Randall, Colorado State University;  Cristiana Stan, Institute of Global Environment and Society

Read the Access story: 'People's lives are affected'

The computational microscope

Principal investigator(s): Klaus Schulten, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Read about Klaus Schulten's recent results using the Blue Waters Early Science System
Read the Access stories: Virus unmasked, Getting the rabbit in the hat, and Powering new discoveries

Type Ia supernovae
Principal investigator(s): Stanford Woosley, University of California Observatories;  Michael Zingale, State University of New York at Stony Brook;  John Bell, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Read about Stanford Woosley's recent results using the Blue Waters Early Science System

Understanding tornadoes and their parent supercells through ultra-high resolution simulation/analysis
Principal investigator(s): Robert Wilhelmson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Read the Access story: When tornadoes attack

Using petascale computing capabilities to address climate change uncertainties
Principal investigator(s): Donald Wuebbles, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign;  Xin-Zhong Liang, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign