by Angela Guess
A recent release out of the National Science Foundation states, “Scientists increasingly rely on computers to gain insights about the world through simulations, data analytics or visualizations. These computational investigations typically rely on scientific software that makes it possible to perform virtual experiments and explore laboratory research data with reliable, reproducible results, whether one is using a desktop computer or the nation’s most powerful supercomputers. Today, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced two major awards to establish Scientific Software Innovation Institutes (S2I2). The awards, totaling $35 million over 5 years, will support the Molecular Sciences Software Institute and the Science Gateways Community Institute, both of which will serve as long-term hubs for scientific software development, maintenance and education.”
The release goes on, “The Molecular Sciences Software Institute, led by Daniel Crawford, professor of chemistry at Virginia Tech, will fund an interdisciplinary team of software scientists who will develop software frameworks, collaborate with code developers and cyberinfrastructure centers, and partner with industry in support of the computational molecular sciences community. ‘The Molecular Sciences Software Institute will serve as a nexus for science, education and cooperation serving the community of computational molecular scientists — a broad field that includes biomolecular simulation, quantum chemistry and materials science,’ Crawford said. ‘Ultimately, the institute will enable computational scientists to tackle problems that are orders of magnitude larger and more complex than those currently within our grasp, and will accelerate the translation of basic science into new technologies essential to the vitality of the economy and environment’.”
Photo credit: Virginia Tech