Wave functions for the breakup of a system of three charged particles illustrate the first complete solution to a fundamental problem in quantum physics. More details may be found here and here.

In 1999 NERSC celebrated 25 years of leadership in high performance computing. Looking back over these 25 years, the evolution and growth of computer technology-in particular, high performance computing power-has been truly astonishing. Yet an even more surprising fact is how remarkably constant the original vision of NERSC has remained: to provide a national user community access to a unique scientific facility, by adapting and advancing technology and by delivering excellent services. In the 1990s we have seen significant and sometimes revolutionary changes in how this vision was implemented: the transition to massively parallel supercomputer technology and the addition of intellectual services in 1996 fundamentally reshaped NERSC. From this long-term perspective, 1999 was a typical year for NERSC. While making rapid strides in integrating new technologies, we continued to maintain the highest standards of service, and again enabled our community of users to attain unprecedented new scientific results.

One of the highlights of the year was the successful completion of the NERSC-3 procurement, which will result in the acquisition of an IBM SP with more than 3 Tflop/s peak performance. The machine is arriving at NERSC in two phases. The installation of Phase 1 resulted for the first time in an aggregate computing resource at NERSC of more than 1 Tflop/s. The completion of Phase 2 by the end of 2000 will more than quadruple the amount of computing power available to our users, when compared to our computational resources in 1998.

This year brought us a wealth of scientific results, many of which are documented in this annual report. Most notable is the first cover story in Science with both simulation and visualization carried out at NERSC. I expect many more to follow, enabled by NERSC-3 resources. While funding for the Grand Challenge projects is being phased out, this DOE program has forged large-scale collaborations which will last well into the future. Many of the projects have created a software infrastructure, often with help from NERSC staff, which will make it much easier to harness the power of future generations of distributed memory machines. Thus I believe that we are on the verge of harvesting a great scientific return from the investment into highly parallel technology.

In 1999 DOE announced a new policy of broader scientific peer review for the use of NERSC. A new NERSC Policy Board was established to help chart the future of the facility. Proposals to use NERSC are now subject to peer review, and a Program Advisory Committee (PAC) has been established to conduct the peer review process. I am excited about this major policy change, because the new advisory structure helps to strengthen NERSC's role as a unique facility in the DOE Office of Science, and will improve further the quality of computational science carried out at NERSC.

The pace of innovation will continue in 2000. We just welcomed the new Distributed Systems Department into the NERSC Division at Berkeley Lab, and I expect to leverage the new staff's expertise by starting a significant new computational grid project in 2000. The delivery of NERSC-3, Phase 2 will require us to relocate our computational facility to Berkeley Lab's new Oakland facility, which is currently under construction. Moving equipment (again!) and then operating it at the new site with most of our staff remaining in Berkeley will be a challenge. At the same time, we are facing political challenges to maintain and hopefully increase the role of computing in the DOE Office of Science.

	Horst D. Simon, Division Director of NERSC.

With these exciting times ahead of us, I am grateful to our DOE Office of Science sponsors for their continued endorsement of our ambitious plans. I would like to thank our clients, in particular the NERSC Users Group and its executive board members, for their continued support, especially for their willingness to help when-ever needed. My special thanks and congratulations, as always, go to the NERSC staff for their skill, dedication, and tireless efforts to make NERSC the best scientific computing resource in the world.