Director's Introduction
Welcome to the School of Computational Science (SCS) at Florida State University.
Computations have not only joined, but in many cases have superseded, theory and experiments, the two venerable pillars of scientific discovery and technological design. Thus, whether one is studying sub-atomic particles or galaxies, whether one is designing minute nano-composites or huge skyscrapers, whether one is sequencing the human genome or protecting fragile ecosystems, whether one is studying the flow of blood in capillaries or predicting the winds in a hurricane, computations play a central role.
The computations that enable these and myriad other studies depend on the invention, implementation, testing, and application of algorithms and software that computers use to solve scientific and engineering problems. This is the work of computational scientists and forms the basis for the missions of the SCS, which, in short, are to perform cutting-edge interdisciplinary research in computational science, to address the pressing need to train the next generation of computational scientists, and to provide environments for high-performance computing on the FSU campus.
In order to carry out our missions, we have assembled in the SCS a diverse group of faculty who not only have excellent, well-developed research programs of their own, but also interact with other faculty in a synergistic manner so that advances in the computational science of one discipline can influence advances in other disciplines. The SCS is also in the process of implementing innovative graduate degree programs that provide genuine interdisciplinary training in the computational sciences. The SCS also manages several high-performance computer systems.
I am personally very excited about the future of the SCS. In order to maintain its competitive economic, military, and scientific edge, the United States needs to not only do great research in computational science, but needs to train more computational scientists and to train them in new ways that make them more effective as interdisciplinary researchers and teachers. These are exactly the activities of the SCS.
I hope that as you browse through our web pages that you will get a good idea of what we are about and what we are doing. We certainly welcome inquiries from researchers at all levels and especially from prospective students who would like to be a part of the exciting activities of the SCS.
Sincerely,
Max Gunzburger
