SCIENCE

The American Chemical Society (ACS) Science & the Congress Project invites news media to attend a luncheon briefing on “Supercomputing for Science and Competitiveness.” It will be held Thursday, March 17, from noon to 1:30 p.m. in Room 210-212 of the Capitol Visitors Center (Senate side). Please RSVP to http://tinyurl.com/Exascale.

The briefing focuses on the need for the United States to have greater supercomputing capability to tackle the 21st century national priorities in security, energy and the environment. Federal agencies, in partnership with the private sector, are asking what a national effort should look like that will take the United States to the next level — the exascale — in its ability to address issues such as stockpile stewardship, climate modeling and prediction, understanding combustion and developing advanced materials. Fundamental new ideas, architectures and algorithms are required. Panelists for this briefing will describe the benefits of more capable supercomputers and the tremendous technical hurdles that need to be overcome to reach the exascale.

Co-hosted by The Senate Science and Technology Caucus, the briefing will feature the following panelists and an open discussion:

Opening remarks:

Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN)

Senator Mark Udall (D-CO)

Moderator: David Dean, U.S. Department of Energy

Panelists:

Thom Dunning, Jr., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Thomas Zacharia, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Richard Arthur, G.E. Research

Katherine Yelick, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory