CSC Report on Scientific Computing 1997 – 1998

5 Preface The Center for Scientific Computing (CSC) exists to help Finnish scientists and engineers in their research. We provide cross-disciplinary expertise, computational resources and fast network connections. We also organize courses and publish textbooks on scientific computing. The organization known today as CSC has existed for more than 25 years. Currently over 70 experts on science, engineering and information technology work at CSC. This report focuses on the achievements of our customers. We have selected illustrative examples from, e.g., physics, chemistry, biosciences, economics and astronomy. This report can only show a small sample of the results produced by our customers: CSC has over 1500 users, who are involved in over 700 active projects. We hope this report encourages our customers to " think big ". We are currently compiling a report on the Finnish grand challenges in scientific computing. We hope that the next supercomputer system — to be installed in 2000 or 2001 — will make it possible to meet at least some of these challenges. Please contact CSC is you have research projects that are not possible to solve using current computers and computational methods. In addition to this report, CSC publishes annual reports and newsletters describing the activities of our customers and personnel. You can also have a look at our services on the World Wide Web (http://www.csc.fi). We thank all the writers for their interesting and readable contributions. The editing board also planned the content and style of the report and contacted the writers. In addition, many colleagues suggested improvements to the report. We appreciate all the help we received. We hope that you enjoy this interdisciplinary review of scientific computing. Please send your comments about this report to the e-mail address