Luis W. Alvarez Fellowship in Computing Sciences

As employees of Berkeley Lab, Alvarez fellows work in a research environment synonymous with scientific excellence. Sixteen Nobel prizes are associated with Berkeley Lab. Eighty Lab scientists are members of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), seven of whom are computational scientists and applied mathematicians. Eighteen engineers have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering, four of whom work in the Berkeley Lab Computing Sciences area. Four Berkeley Lab researchers have received IEEE Sidney Fernbach Awards for being pioneers in the development and application of high-performance computers for the solution of large computational problems. Fifteen Berkeley Lab scientists have won the National Medal of Science, our nation’s highest award for lifetime achievement in fields of scientific research, and one received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.

Berkeley Lab is also home to six Department of Energy (DOE) National User Facilities:

• Advanced Light Source (ALS),
• Energy Sciences Network (ESnet),
• Joint Genome Institute (JGI),
• National Center for Electron Microscopy (NCEM),
• Molecular Foundry,
• and National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC).

These centers give thousands of researchers access to some of the most advanced tools in modern science, including light sources, supercomputers, high-speed networks, and nanoscience research facilities.

Whether running extreme-scale simulations on a supercomputer or applying machine learning or data analysis to massive datasets, scientists today rely on advances in and integration across applied mathematics, computer science, and computational science, as well as large-scale computing and networking facilities, to increase our understanding of ourselves, our planet, and our universe.

Berkeley Lab's Computing Sciences Area researches, develops, and deploys new tools and technologies to meet these needs and to advance research in our core capabilities of applied mathematics, computer science, and computational science. In addition to fundamental advances in our core capabilities, we impact such areas as materials science, chemistry, biology, astrophysics, climate change, combustion, fusion energy, high performance computing (HPC) systems, and network technology.

Some Computing Sciences research areas include the following:

• Developing scientific applications and software technologies for extreme-scale and energy-efficient computing
• Developing mathematical modeling for complex scientific problems
• Designing algorithms to improve the performance of scientific applications
• Researching digital and post-digital computer architectures for science
• Advancing extreme-scale scientific data management, analysis, and machine-learning
• Developing next-generation machine learning and AI approaches for science
• Advancing quantum computing technologies, software, algorithms, and applications
• Evaluating or developing new and promising HPC systems and networking technologies
• Researching methods to control and manage dynamic circuit networks
• Developing large-scale visualization and analytics technologies
• Managing scientific data in distributed environments

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