1. Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science: David M
Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science: David M. Ceperley, Duane J. Johnson, Jeongnim Kim
Solving electronic structure problem is a key step
Understand fundamental properties of condensed matter and molecular systems
Predict and design new materials and devices
Perform multi-scale and multi-physics simulations of complex systems
Very strong economic and intellectual interest
Materials by design: how do we make better batteries, solar cells, strong alloys,  materials for alternative energies?
Can we make predictions when experiment is difficult, costly or impossible?
What is the microscopic origin of superconductivity, magnetism,…?
The kernel for these questions: the solution of the many-body Schrödinger equation to high accuracy (0.01 eV for example) and the computation of thermodynamic properties.
NCSA Strategic Planning Presentation (April 20,2010)

2. Bottlenecks/Issues to Achieving Objectives
Need large-scale HPC resources, e.g.,
DMC simulations of liquid H2O
Free-energy calculations of hydrogen-helium mixtures
Need efficient software on the current and future architectures
Parallel computing on large-scale SMP clusters
Heterogeneous computing, e.g. GPU clusters
Need collaborative environments
The ES problem requires multi-scale approaches: not a single theoretical framework nor code can handle the complexity and the length- and time-scale of the problems.
Data exchanges between codes and applications are essential.
New discoveries demand modern tools to analyze, archive and mine exploding simulation data.
NCSA Strategic Planning Presentation (April 20,2010)

3. Cyberinfrastructure Challenges in Reaching the Objectives: H2 storage
H2 binding energy to benzene
Motivations: search for carbon-based hydrogen storage media
Challenges: accurate prediction of small binding energies of H2
Ingredients and stages
Structural model from experiments and simple theories
Mean-field electronic structure method to build an optimal many-body wavefunction for quantum Monte Carlo
Diffusion Monte Carlo calculations
Stochastic optimization to determine the bond length and binding energy
Beaudet et. al. JCP 129,  (2008)
1.53(1) mHa
6.33(15) Bohr R
High-performance ES software
Data standards for multiple applications
Data analysis and mining tools
Knowledge and education tools
NCSA Strategic Planning Presentation (April 20,2010)

4. Cyberinfrastructure Challenges in Reaching the Objectives: Free energy of H/He mixtures
Motivations: model the interior of Jupiter and Saturn
Challenges: accurate prediction of EOS and phase diagram of H/He mixtures
Ingredients and stages
Born-Oppenheimer MD at various He concentrations, temperatures and pressures
Coupled ion-electron Monte Calro (CIEMC) calculations
Free-energy integration with CIEMC
Three views of the interior of Saturn
Taken from: Fortney J. J., Science 305, 1414 (2004).
High-performance ES software
Data standards for multiple applications
Data analysis and mining tools
Knowledge and education tools
M. Morales et. al., PNAS 106: (2009)
NCSA Strategic Planning Presentation (April 20,2010)

5. Challenges in Reaching the Objectives for the ES community in the US
The US has developed many of the ES methods and numerical algorithms in the last decades and has led the development of HPC software.
Recent Gordon Bell winners include Qbox, DCA++, WL-LSMS.
But, development of production codes has moved to Europe and Asia and very few open-source community codes are originated from the US research institutions.
Why can we capitalize what we have achieved ?
Individual University groups are typically too small.
Code development is not usually considered a first rate research, so non-tenured faculty are not advised to go this route.
Corporate research has vanished.
No supports to maintain software.  
NCSA Strategic Planning Presentation (April 20,2010)

6. Strategic Planning Process
We need a coordinated national program to
Develop algorithms and quality software on all computing platforms
Develop data standards and collaboration tools
Maintain software for the current and future architectures
Train developers and users
Payoffs in terms of both basic and applied science are potentially very large.
NCSA Strategic Planning Presentation (April 20,2010)

7. Strategic Planning Process
NCSA Strategic Planning Presentation (April 20,2010)

8. Reference slide (Discipline or Topic Reports, Papers, Committee & Workshop Reports, People Consulted……. )
NCSA Strategic Planning Presentation (April 20,2010)