SCIENCE

"This award is national recognition of this innovative degree program," Dr. Sharobeam said. "We have participated (in the SC '10 Conference) for the past four years and this award is presented annually to faculty demonstrating leadership in the development of computational science curricula. Professor Manson gave a great presentation. The award comes at a perfect time with our first students graduating in December."

Students Laielli and Page are conducting research supported by the National Science Foundation and working closely with the Blue Waters Project, which is expected to produce the world's largest supercomputer in 2011. The Blue Waters supercomputer will have the ability to perform 10 quadrillion calculations per second. Laielli and Page's research involves petascale modeling on sediment transport. Through the use of these super-fast computers, scientists are able to work with massive datasets to create math models that describe scientific phenomena.

"The work we are doing in computational research is cutting edge," Dr. Kesselman said. "It is gratifying to see it receive such well-deserved national acclaim."