Ministers visit the high-performance computer
Bettina Stark-Watzinger and Angela Dorn as guests at the Lichtenberg High Performance Computer
2023/07/28
The Federal Minister of Education and Research, Bettina Stark-Watzinger, has visited the high-performance computer Lichtenberg II at the TU Darmstadt. She was accompanied by the Hessian Minister of Higher Education, Research, Science and the Arts, Angela Dorn. The ministers learned about energy research projects made possible by the supercomputer – including Clean Circles.
In conversation with the ministers, researchers from TU Darmstadt presented their current projects: Professor Christian Hasse, head of the Institute for Simulation of reactive Thermo-Fluid Systems and co-spokesperson of the Clean Circles, described realistic continental scenarios for the highly energetic and widely available material iron as a storage and transport medium. Vera Krewald, Professor of Theoretical Chemistry and Co-Spokesperson of the DFG Collaborative Research Centre “Iron, upgraded!”, outlined research on “Catalysis with iron for a greener future”. Professor Bai-Xiang Xu, Head of the Division Mechanics of Functional Materials, gave insights into research on smart materials, which are of great importance for a sustainable energy transition, for example, to be able to substitute valuable metals and rare earths.
The ministers were also impressed by the scientific infrastructure of the high-performance computer. Equipped with the latest technology, the computer meets the highest criteria for performance and energy efficiency. Lichtenberg II is part of the Network for National High Performance Computing (NHR) and supports the supraregional provision of computing power for science in a particularly sustainable and resource-efficient way.
