PHYSICS

Georgetown University physics professor James Freericks was recently recognized by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of its National Leadership Computing System Initiative. The initiative provides federal resources to intensive research projects in the national interest that require the use of enhanced computing systems. “This prestigious award demonstrates the impact of Prof. Freericks' research in computational materials science,” said Jeff Urbach, Chair of Georgetown’s Physics Department. “He has an impressive record of applying innovative approaches to challenging technological problems, and we are thrilled that NASA has decided to devote some of their considerable computational resources to Prof. Freericks and his students and collaborators.” Freericks and his team were awarded 900,000 computational hours to study Mott insulators, strongly correlated materials with electronic properties that can change dramatically with pressure, temperature and other conditions. Mott insulators have the potential to assist the function of tunable electronic devices, which can allow a device to adjust itself to fit the desired mode of operation. These devices are often referred to as “smart electronics” in the military. The 900,000-hour allotment equates to the approximate power of 100 personal computers working together to solve a computer problem nonstop for one calendar year or the power of using one computer nonstop for 100 years. Although Freericks team has no intention of working nonstop for a year, the use of NASA’s supercomputer, a group of 2,048 computers with more than 4,000 gigabytes of memory, will allow the team to solve a complex computational problems that cannot be solved with smaller machines. “This award is a unique opportunity to be able to tackle one of the longest standing unsolved problems in condensed matter physics,” Freericks said. “I am thrilled that NASA has given me this chance to complete this work over the next year, and I hope that the results will have an impact with future researchers who will be able to explore similar types of problems.” NASA awarded approximately 4.65 million hours of supercomputing time this year as part of its computing system initiative. Researchers will use NASA’s Columbia, one of the world’s largest and most productive supercomputers, located in the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division at the AMES Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. Freericks will conduct his research remotely from Washington, D.C., via the internet. For additional information on NAS, visit: its Web site.