DOE Funds New Center for Computational Materials Sciences

October 22, 2015

Gabriel Kotliar, credit Rutgers University

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced that Brookhaven Lab will host a new center devoted to developing computational tools to advance materials science. With $12 million in funding from DOE’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences over the next four years, this center will be led by Gabriel Kotliar of Rutgers University and Brookhaven, with additional partners from the University of Tennessee and Ames Laboratory. Center scientists will develop next-generation methods and software to accurately describe electronic properties in complex strongly correlated materials as well as a companion database to help scientists predict targeted properties with energy-related application to thermoelectric materials. 

“Strong correlated materials pose an outstanding challenge in condensed matter science, as they fall outside the so-called ‘Standard Model’ of solid state physics,” Kotliar said. “Developing tools to increase our understanding of these most interesting substances–ranging from battery materials to nuclear fuels, high-temperature superconductors, and high-performance thermoelectrics (which can be used to convert heat into electricity)–could result in the development of important new technologies.” 

The award is one of three announced by DOE for computational materials science research aimed at integrating theory and computation with experiment to provide the materials community with advanced tools and techniques. The projects are expected to develop open-source, robust, validated, user-friendly software and databases cataloging the essential physics and chemistry of certain classes of materials so the broader research community and industrial scientists can use these resources to accelerate the design of new functional materials. The awards directly support the goals of the Materials Genome Initiative, an effort to reduce the time it takes for laboratory-based discoveries to be deployed as new advanced materials, with the ultimate aim of revitalizing American manufacturing.

To learn more visit: www.bnl.gov/newsroom/news.php?a=11777

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