Year 1 Progress Report Computational Materials and Chemical Sciences Network Administration
This document reports progress on the project “Computational Materials and Chemical Sciences Network Administration,” which is supported by DOE BES Grant DE-FG02-02ER45990 MOD 08. As stated in the original proposal, the primary goal of this project is to carry out the scientific administrative responsibilities for the Computational Materials and Chemical Sciences Network (CMCSN) of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences. These responsibilities include organizing meetings, publishing and maintaining CMCSN’s website, publishing a periodic newsletter, writing original material for both the website and the newsletter, maintaining CMCSN documentation, editing scientific documents, as needed, serving as liaison for the entire Network, facilitating information exchange across the network, communicating CMCSN’s success stories to the larger community and numerous other tasks outside the purview of the scientists in the CMCSN. Given the dramatic increase in computational power, advances in computational materials science can have an enormous impact in science and technology. For many of the questions that can be addressed by computation there is a choice of theoretical techniques available, yet often there is no accepted understanding of the relative strengths and effectiveness of the competing approaches. The CMCSN fosters progress in this understanding by providing modest additional funding to research groups which engage in collaborative activities to develop, compare, and test novel computational techniques. Thus, the CMCSN provides the “glue” money which enables different groups to work together, building on their existing programs and expertise while avoiding unnecessary duplication of effort. This includes travel funding, partial postdoc salaries, and funding for periodic scientific meetings. The activities supported by this grant are briefly summarized below.