Simulating the Life Cycle of a Cell with NCSA’s Delta
Researchers gained new insights into the essential processes of life by simulating the full cycle of a bacterial cell on NCSA’s Delta supercomputer.
Srikant Named NCSA’s New Director
R. Srikant took over responsibilities as NCSA director at the start of 2026.
New Broadening Participation Allocations Now Available on Blue Waters Supercomputer—Apply by March 1
This new category is open to faculty and research staff at U.S. academic institutions who have not previously been a PI on a research allocation on the Blue Waters system.
NCSA’s Blue Waters project provides $1.08 billion direct return to Illinois’ economy
Editor’s note: The original version of this article had inaccurate funding information related to the construction of the National Petascale Computing Facility. It has been corrected. The National Center for
Gravitational Waves Detected 100 Years After Einstein’s Prediction
For the first time, scientists have observed ripples in the fabric of spacetime called gravitational waves, arriving at the earth from a cataclysmic event in the distant universe. This confirms
A Direct Bridge
An algorithm developed by University of Arkansas engineers aids both computational scientists and experimentalists exploring the atomic scale structure of materials.
Behind the Scenes of ‘Hubble 3D’
Narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, this documentary film takes viewers through distant galaxies as it tells the story of the repair and upgrade of the Hubble telescope.
NCSA Researcher Simulates Entire Life Form
A recent simulation of the satellite tobacco mosaic virus is a striking first. There’s never been a computer simulation of an entire life form in atomic detail. Until now.
Hunt for the Supertwister
Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign collaborated with visualization experts at NCSA in an effort to shed light on how the most violent tornadoes form and to create
Playing the Supercomputer Game
When Sony later released the Linux Kit for the PS2, interest in the machines spread beyond the gaming community to a seemingly unlikely place: the National Center for Supercomputing Applications
NSF Creates TeraGrid
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $53 million to four U.S. research institutions to build and deploy a distributed terascale facility (DTF).
NCSA Hits One Million CPU Hours in a Month
August 1999 marked the first time usage of a National Science Foundation high-performance computer topped one million normalized CPU hours in one month.
Newsweek Features NCSA
Champaign-Urbana makes an appearance on Newsweek’s top tech cities list, due in-part to NCSA.
Eli Lilly Develops Asthma Drug
David Herron of Eli Lilly and Company harnessed high-performance computing to aid the fight against asthma from the moment the company joined NCSA’s Industrial Program, now the Private Sector Program,
3D Volumetric Rendering of Mummy
The University of Illinois’ World Heritage Museum received a donated Egyptian mummy in 1989. An interdisciplinary team, including NCSA, then worked to better understand the mummification process and to determine
Thunderstorm Visualization Debuts at SIGGRAPH
The visualizations of thunderstorms that an NCSA team built in 1989 were not only palatable, they were beautiful and hugely informative. The animation of a thunderstorm as it forms debuted
Help Desk is available from 7 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., seven days a week, 365 days a year.