Nov. 20 — The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin has been recognized in the annual HPCwire Readers’ and Editors’ Choice Awards, presented at the 2014 International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis (SC14), in New Orleans, Louisiana. The list of winners were revealed at the HPCwire booth at the event, and on the HPCwire website, located at HPCwire.

TACC was recognized with the following honor:

• Editors’ Choice – Top Supercomputing Achievement: Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) for converting biomass into fuels.

In a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in January 2014, NREL modeled a new enzyme that could significantly speed up the process by which cellulose is broken down. The enzyme represents an important, unique discovery in the multitude of carbohydrate-active enzymes because of its prevalence in nature and importance to cost-effective biomass deconstruction.

Using TACC’s Stampede supercomputer, the researchers examined two catalytic mechanisms that suggest that fungal enzymes exhibit a copper-oxyl mediated, oxygen rebound mechanism. The research team is using Stampede to design chemical catalysts for high-temperature deoxygenation chemistry, which is important to convert biomass to fuels.

Said NREL Senior Engineer Gregg Beckham, “Stampede has been an absolutely essential resource for our group to examine biological and chemical catalysts important for the production of renewable transportation fuels from lignocellulosic biomass.”

The coveted annual HPCwire Readers’ and Editors’ Choice Awards are determined through a nomination and voting process with the global HPCwire community, along with a selection process in which the editors of HPCwire make selections. The awards are an annual feature of the publication and constitute prestigious recognition from the HPC community. These awards are revealed each year to kick off the annual supercomputing conference, which showcases high performance computing, networking, storage, and data analysis.

“HPCwire readers are among the most informed in the HPC community and these awards are ultimately given to the organizations that are making the biggest impacts in advancing technology and humanity itself through high performance computing,” said Tom Tabor, CEO of Tabor Communications, publisher of HPCwire.

“The HPCwire Readers’ and Editors’ Choice Awards send a strong message of support and appreciation from those in the global HPC community. We are proud to be able to recognize these efforts each your and our congratulations go out to all the winners.”

More information on these awards can be found at the HPCwire website or on Twitter through the following hashtag: #HPCwireAwards.

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Source: TACC