Overview

Overview of Computational Science
"Computing is now part of a triad with theory and experiment as a means of investigation, and it provides insight and leads to understanding that, in many cases, theory or experiment cannot." [http://csi.gmu.edu/overview.html]

"Our efforts rest on several fundamental principles. One of the most important is yoking together the computer science and the applications science research communities into a persistent intellectual infrastructure." [Karin]

Many significant applied and basic research questions in science today are interdisciplinary in nature, involving physical and/or biological sciences, mathematics, and computer science. For example, Nature reported in June 1998 that John Krebs, chief executive of Britain's Natural Environment Research Council, considers that the environment "requires a 'new breed' of scientist, and new ways of problem solving that cut across traditional disciplines" and that Britain expects a shortage of "environmental scientists with mathematical, computational and statistical skills." [Masood] Computer simulation and modeling offer valuable approaches to problems in many other areas, such as human behavior, energy, and molecular dynamics. Massive amounts of information in Web-accessed databases (such as those for the human genome project) present to scientists new computational challenges in storage, retrieval, processing, and visualization.

The Human Genome Project "has created the need for new kinds of scientific specialists who can be creative at the interface of biology and other disciplines, such as computer science, engineering, mathematics, physics, chemistry, and the social sciences. As the popularity of genomic research increases, the demand for these specialists greatly exceeds the supply....There is an urgent need to train more scientists in interdisciplinary areas that can contribute to genomics," according to Francis Collins in an article in Science. [Collins]

Many interesting and significant applied and basic research questions in science today are interdisciplinary in nature, involving physical and/or biological sciences, mathematics, and computer science. Computer simulation and modeling offer valuable approaches to problems in many areas, such as environmental science, human behavior, energy, and molecular dynamics. Massive amounts of information in Web-accessed databases (such as those for the human genome project) present to scientists new computational challenges in storage, retrieval, processing, and visualization.

Computational Science is a fast-growing interdisciplinary field that is at the intersection of the sciences, computer science, and mathematics. There is a critical need for scientists who have a strong background in computational science. Much scientific investigation now involves computing as well as theory and experiment. Computing can often stimulate the insight and understanding that theory and experiment alone cannot achieve.

The interdisciplinary field of computational science combines simulation, visualization, mathematical modeling, programming, data structures, networking, database design, symbolic computation, and high performance computing with various scientific disciplines.

The following are some computational science links:

North Carolina Supercomputer Center Visualization Gallery, www.ncsc.org/academics/visualization/visGallery/
EPA Geographical Information Systems Visualization, http://www.epa.gov/gisvis/
Shodor Foundation Master Tools, http://www.shodor.org/master/
Shodor Foundation Computational Science Educational Reference, http://www.shodor.org/refdesk/misc_desk/

References
Collins, Francis S., et al. "New Goals for the U.S. Human Genome Project: 1998-2003," Science, v. 282: 682-689, Oct. 23, 1998

Computational Sciences and Informatics at George Mason University Home Page, http://csi.gmu.edu/overview.html/

EPA Geographical Information Systems Visualization, http://www.epa.gov/gisvis/

Karin, Sidney and Susan Graham. "The High-Performance Computing Continuum," Communications of the ACM, 41(11): 32-35, November, 1998

Masood, Ehsan. "UK Seeks Physicists for Environmental Research," Nature, v. 393, June 4, 1998, 400

North Carolina Supercomputer Center Visualization Gallery, www.ncsc.org/academics/visualization/visGallery/

Shodor Foundation Computational Science Educational Reference, http://www.shodor.org/refdesk/misc_desk/

Shodor Foundation Master Tools, http://www.shodor.org/master/