Advance the core disciplines of the basic energy sciences, producing transformational breakthroughs in materials sciences, chemistry, geosciences, energy biosciences, and engineering.

The Office of Science will advance
leading-edge research programs in
the natural sciences, emphasizing
fundamental research in materials
sciences, chemistry, geosciences, and
aspects of biosciences encompassed
by the DOE missions, and it will
provide world-class, peer-reviewed
research results that are responsive to
our Nation’s energy security needs as
well as the needs of the broad
scientific community. As part of a
thorough program of fundamental
research, the Office of Science
will implement a comprehensive
plan based on the findings and
recommendations of the
Basic Energy Sciences
Advisory Committee
workshop, Basic Research
Needs to Assure a Secure
Energy Future. For
example, new materials will be
developed that impact solid-state
lighting, smart windows, vehicular
transportation, thermoelectric
conversion, hydrogen storage,
electrical storage, and improved fuel
cells, leading to significant increases
in efficiency. In addition, new
catalysts will be designed that exert
exquisite control over chemical
reactions so as to specify the reaction
products and the rates at which
they form.
The ability to simulate accurately the
behavior of a system under many
different conditions can enhance
the effectiveness of experimental
investigation and can even replace
experiments in cases where they
are too difficult or too expensive.
There are a large number of areas
of research in the natural sciences
where simulation could have an
enormous impact. Our ability to
simulate has lagged behind what we
can see experimentally, mostly due to
major bottlenecks in the application
of theory and computation in
modeling the behavior of single
atoms and molecules within a larger,
more complex system.
To help realize this strategy, the
synchrotron radiation light sources,
electron-beam microcharacterization
centers, and neutron scattering
facilities will help reveal the atomic
details of metals and alloys; glasses
and ceramics; semiconductors and
superconductors; polymers and
biomaterials; proteins and enzymes;
catalysts, sieves, and filters; and
materials under extremes of temperature,
pressure, strain, and stress.
Using these powerful probes of
science, we will be able to design
new materials, atom-by-atom, and
observe their creation as they unfold.
Once the province of specialists,
mostly physicists, these facilities are
now used by thousands of researchers
annually from all disciplines.
Our strategy includes the following
emphases:
• Using the foundation of programs
in materials sciences,
chemistry, geosciences, energy
biosciences, and engineering,
create new options for the
production, storage, distribution,
and conservation of energy with
basic research in areas such as
hydrogen, nano-designed
materials, nuclear fuel cycles
and actinide chemistry, heterogeneous
catalysis, novel membrane
assemblies, and innovative
energy conversion pathways.
• Remove simulation bottlenecks
in order to accelerate the pace of
scientific discovery, for example,
bridge electronic-throughmacroscopic
length and time
scales; simulate opto-magnetoelectronic
properties of materials; 
understand chemical reactivity in
solutions, solids, and turbulent
flows; and explore a systems
approach to molecular recognition,
self-assembly, and chemical
reactivity.
• Complete construction of the
Spallation Neutron Source,
which will be the world’s most
intense pulsed neutron source,
and which will enable the study
of materials that were previously
not accessible to study. It is
scheduled for commissioning
in 2006.
• Design and construct the revolutionary
x-ray light source called
the LCLS to provide laser-like
radiation in the x-ray region of
the spectrum that is 10 billion
times greater in peak power and
peak brightness than any existing
source. The high brilliance of
the ultra-short pulses from the
LCLS might make it possible to
obtain the structure of a single
molecule using only one pulse of
light, a vast improvement over
current methods.
• Explore new concepts in electron
microscopy that will allow
previously unimaginable studies
of materials structure, chemistry,
and the effect of external forces
on materials during deposition,
reaction, and deformation at the
subnanometer level.

Lead the nanoscale science
revolution, delivering the
foundations and discoveries
for a future built around
controlled chemical processes
and materials designed one
atom at a time or through
self-assembly.

The main elements of the Office
of Science nanoscale research program
are the establishment of five
Nanoscale Science Research Centers
(NSRCs) and the support for
nanoscale research in targeted areas
addressing forefront science and
DOE mission needs. The NSRCs
are a new way of doing business for
the dispersed cottage industry of
researchers currently working on the
ORNL
Spallation Neutron Source (SNS): This accelerator-based neutron source facility will
provide the most intense pulsed neutron beams in the world for scientific research and
industrial development. Neutron research helps scientists and engineers improve materials
used in high-temperature superconductors; powerful lightweight magnets; aluminum bridge
decks; and stronger, lighter plastic products. The SNS is currently being built at Oak Ridge
National Laboratory in collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory, Brookhaven
National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Los Alamos National
Laboratory, and Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, and will be completed
in 2006.
enormous set of problems that
together define “nanoscale science.”
The ability to fabricate complex
structures using chemical, biological,
and other synthesis techniques;
characterize them; assemble them;
integrate them into devices; and do
all this in one place will change the
way materials research is done. Our
strategy includes the following
emphases:
• Attain a fundamental understanding
of phenomena unique
to the nanoscale.
• Achieve the ability to design
and synthesize materials at the
nanoscale to produce materials
with desired properties and
functions, using as necessary
the tricks and tools of Nature’s
assemblies, both living and
nonliving.
• Integrate nanoscale objects into
microscale assemblies and
macroscale devices.
• Develop experimental characterization
tools and theory/modeling/
simulation tools to advance
nanoscale science.

Master the control of
energy-relevant complex
systems that exhibit collective,
cooperative, and/or adaptive
behaviors, i.e., systems that
cannot be described as the
sum of their parts.

Entering this century, we find
science and technology at yet
another threshold: the study of
simplicity will give way to the study
of “complexity” as the unifying
theme. The triumphs of science in
the past century, which improved
our lives immeasurably, can be
described as elegant solutions to
problems reduced to their ultimate
simplicity. The new millennium is
taking us into the world of complexity.
Here, simple structures interact
to create new phenomena, assembling
themselves into devices that
begin to answer questions that were,
until the 21st Century, the stuff of
science fiction. Understanding
collective, cooperative, and adaptive
phenomena and emergent behavior
takes many forms. Our strategy
includes the following emphases:
• Understand interactions among
individual components that lead
to coherent behavior that often
can be described only at higher
levels than those of the individual
units. This can produce
remarkably complex and yet
organized behavior.
• Explore electrons interacting
with each other and with the
host lattice in solids that can
give rise to magnetism and
superconductivity.
• Investigate chemical constituents
interacting in solution that can
give rise to complex pattern
formation and growth.
• Research and learn to synthesize
and adapt the processes that
underlie living systems, whereby
they self-assemble their own
components, self-repair as
necessary, and reproduce; explore
how they sense and respond to
even subtle changes in their
environments.

Tap the power of genomics
and microbial systems for
solutions to our Nation’s
energy and environmental
challenges.

After launching the Human
Genome Project in the 1980s, the
Office of Science was part of an
international collaboration that
recently finished sequencing the
entire human genome. Yet, we have
only begun to understand how
complex biological systems work—
going from single genes to genetic
networks to complex biological
functions and characteristics,
whether in humans or single-celled
microbes. We continue to push the
frontiers of biology, including the
complex systems interactions, by
studying microbes that can be used
to help us solve DOE mission needs.
Microbes have been found in every
conceivable environment on Earth,
from boiling deep-ocean thermal
vents to Arctic ice flows to toxic
environments. The remarkable
ability of microbes to flourish in
extreme conditions demonstrates
that they long ago developed systems
for novel energy conversion and
environmental cleanup.
Our challenge is to put those
microbes—and their systems of
molecular machines that allow them
to survive—to work for us. Nature
has designed remarkable arrays of
multiprotein molecular machines
with exquisitely precise and efficient
functions and controls. With the
help of the DOE Joint Genome
Institute, and the future Genomics:
GTL facilities, we will uncover the
mysteries of biological systems that
will enable our Nation’s scientists to
harness the power of genomics and
microbial systems. Our strategy
includes the following emphases:
• Decode and compare the genetic
instructions of diverse microorganisms
by unraveling their
DNA sequences to reveal their
capabilities for energy production,
carbon sequestration, and
environmental cleanup.
• Discover the molecular machines
encoded in each microbe’s
genetic instructions, determining
what molecular machines are
present, what proteins they are
made of, where they are found in
cells, and how they do their
work.
• Produce computational models
of molecular machines in action
to understand the fundamental
principles controlling the function
of molecular machines and
thus biological systems, providing
us with knowledge to use or
even redesign these machines.
• Examine genetic regulatory
networks to understand the
genetic circuitry in a cell that
controls the molecular machines.
• Explore the biochemical capabilities
of complex microbial
communities to fully utilize the
potential found in natural
microbial communities.
• Develop predictive models of
complete microbial communities
to anticipate how they will
behave and change in response
to various signals from their
environment.

Unravel the mysteries of
Earth’s changing climate and
protect our living planet.

We are making progress in measuring
and modeling changes in climate.
This is no simple matter given the
complex interactions of air, land,
and ocean processes that affect
climate. Despite our progress, we
still cannot definitively distinguish
between natural and human-caused
climate changes, we do not fully
understand the effects and roles of
clouds and aerosols on climate, and
we have limited ability to predict
regional effects. More importantly,
we have only begun to explore ways
to mitigate and/or adapt to these
effects. Ultimately, we need to be
able to understand the factors that
determine Earth’s climate well
enough to predict climate and
climate impacts decades, or even
centuries, in the future. We are
developing the novel research tools,
models, and integrated experiments
and computational science to find
the answers. Our strategy includes
the following emphases:
• Determine the effects of clouds
and aerosols on climate, in
particular their interactions with
long-wave radiation, how and
where clouds form and dissipate
in the atmosphere, and how
changes in clouds and aerosol
distributions alter the Earth’s
radiation balance.
• Predict future climate at regional
scales, advancing mathematics
and computation to simulate the
dynamics, chemistry, and biology
of the Earth system on
decade to century time scales.
• Distinguish natural and humancaused
climate change based on
improved climate models that
more accurately reflect changes
in radiative forcing due to
increases in greenhouse gases and
aerosols in the atmosphere.
• Understand and enhance
Nature’s processes for sequestering
atmospheric carbon from
fossil fuel use, including the
capacity of terrestrial and oceanic
ecosystems and opportunities to
capitalize on the biophysical and
biochemical mechanisms that
control uptake in plants, soils,
and ocean plankton.
• Determine how ecosystems
respond to environmental
change, developing a theoretical
and empirical basis spanning
molecular interactions to whole
ecosystems.
• Predict and assess the effects of
climate change based on models
of human actions and costs and
benefits of alternatives for
mitigation and adaptation.

Understand the complex
physical, chemical, and
biological properties of
contaminated sites for new
solutions to environmental
remediation.

As a legacy of DOE’s nuclear security
mission over the last half century
and extending through the
Cold War, large tracts of land
surrounding DOE weapons
production and other sites became
contaminated. The magnitude
of some of these problems is
enormous, and many cannot be
addressed using current technology.
Despite progress on many fronts,
efficient, effective, and affordable
solutions to environmental contamination
continue to elude us, whether
the contaminants are radionuclides,
toxic metals, or organic compounds.
There is much we need to learn.
How do contaminants interact
with minerals, plant materials, and
microbes in soils? How do they
move to the groundwater or other
locations where they can adversely
affect human health?
This poor understanding of how
contaminants behave in Nature
restricts the development of costeffective
cleanup strategies and, in
some cases, our ability even to
recognize problems. Our challenge
is to understand natural cleanup
methods, put them to work, and
improve cleanup decisions in the
future. Our strategy includes the
following emphases:
• Predict the fate and transport
of contaminants with improved
tools and understanding of
interdependent biological,
chemical, and physical processes.
• Take laboratory experiments and
theory to the field, testing our
theoretical predictions and
models of the complex natural
environment over considerable
distances and time scales.
• Provide the next generation of
computational and experimental
capabilities for detailed understanding
of contaminant behavior,
including synchrotron light
sources and the William R.
Wiley Environmental Molecular
Sciences Laboratory at the
Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory.
• Use Nature’s own tool kit and
rely on new understanding
of the biology of microbes
and microbial communities,
geochemistry, plants and ecosystems,
biomimetic agents, and
nanomachines to explore innovative
options for cleaning up the
environment.
• Develop a basic understanding
of complex chemical behavior of
stored radioactive wastes to
enable the discovery of novel
separations and other treatment
methods that can dramatically
reduce the costs and risks of
radioactive waste treatment and
disposal.

Master the convergence
of the physical and the life
sciences to deliver revolutionary
technologies for health
and medical applications.

The Office of Science has been at
the center of medical technology
innovations, with a focus on energy’s
impact on human health and the
powerful imaging and radioisotope
tools that have been the foundation
of nuclear medicine. The future of
technology development appears
even brighter with the availability of
micro- and nano-structured materials
and the emerging capability to
actually “see” genes and networks
of genes in action in living tissues.
This makes possible the ability to
track the progression of disease
as it unfolds at the genetic level.
Also, new radiotracers and imaging
concepts will explore both normal
and abnormal health, from the
development of cancer to brain
function. On a larger physical scale,
medical imaging may be possible
for patients in motion, such as
infants. Our strategy includes the
following emphases:
• Restore sight to the blind using
the microelectronics, material
science technologies, and specialized
expertise of the national
laboratories to design and
fabricate an implantable artificial
retina.
• Enable medical imaging of
moving patients with modified
PET and MRI technology,
capitalizing on advances in
mathematics, computation, and
detectors from high-energy
physics to compensate for
motion.
• Develop highly selective, ultrasensitive
biosensors based on the
national laboratories’ expertise in
miniaturized optical systems and
single-molecule detection, for
medical, environmental, and
national security applications.
• Image genes as they are turned
on and off in any organ of the
body by forming fluorescent or
radioisotopic images, giving us
new capabilities for the diagnosis
of disease.
• Develop new radiotracers and
molecular tags to image the
chemistry of life and disease,
built around our capabilities in
structural genomics, proteomics,
radiochemistry, and more
generally, the physical sciences.
• Determine the health risks of
exposure to low doses of ionizing
radiation to adequately and
appropriately protect DOE
nuclear workers and the general
public while making effective use
of our national resources.

Demonstrate with burning
plasmas the scientific and
technological feasibility of
fusion energy.

Our goal is to demonstrate a sustained,
self-heated fusion plasma, in
which the plasma is maintained at
fusion temperatures by the heat
generated by the fusion reaction
itself, a critical step to practical
fusion power. Our strategy includes
the following emphases:
• As decided by the President, we
will participate in negotiations
that could lead to participation
in the international magnetic
fusion experiment, ITER
project, with the European
Union, Japan, Russia, China,
South Korea, and perhaps
others, as partners.
• For inertial fusion, we depend
on DOE’s National Nuclear
Safety Administration’s (NNSA’s)
National Ignition Facility, which
is expected to achieve its full
energy within five years, demonstrate
target ignition in about a
decade, and, combined with
other experiments, lead to a
future inertial fusion Engineering
Test Facility.

Develop a fundamental
understanding of plasma
behavior sufficient to provide
a reliable predictive
capability for fusion energy
systems.

Basic research is required in turbulence
and transport, nonlinear
behavior and overall stability of
confined plasmas, interactions of
waves and particles in plasmas, the
physics occurring at the wall-plasma
interface, and the physics of intense
ion beam plasmas. Our strategy
includes the following emphases:
• Conduct basic research through
individual-investigator and
research-team experimental,
computational, and theoretical
investigations.
• Launch a major effort to
advance state-of-the-art computational
modeling and simulation
of plasma behavior in
partnership with the Office of
Science’s Advanced Scientific
Computing Research program.
• Support basic plasma science,
partly with the National Science
Foundation, connecting both
experiments and theory with
related disciplines such as
astrophysics.

Determine the most promising
approaches and configurations
to confining hot
plasmas for practical fusion
energy systems.

Both magnetic and inertial confinement
approaches to fusion have
potential for practical fusion-energy producing
systems. Within each of
these two broad approaches, there
are many possible configurations and
designs for practical fusion systems,
almost certainly including some yet
to be conceived. Our strategy
includes the following emphases:
• In line with the recommendations
of the Fusion Energy
Sciences Advisory Council, we
will continue vigorous investigation
of both magnetic and
inertial confinement approaches.
• Innovative magnetic confinement
configurations will be
explored through experiments,
such as the National Spherical
Torus Experiment at Princeton
Plasma Physics Laboratory and a
planned compact stellarator
experiment, as well as smaller
experiments at multiple sites,
and through advanced simulation
and modeling.
• Heavy ion beams, dense plasma
beams, lasers, or other innovative
approaches (e.g., fast ignition) to
produce high-energy density
plasmas will be explored for
potential applications to inertial
fusion energy.
• Research in high-energy density
physics will be supported in
coordination with other Federal
agencies.
• The NNSA’s National Ignition
Facility, along with other experiments
and simulations in the
U.S., will provide definitive data
on inertial fusion target physics.

Develop the new materials,
components, and technologies
necessary to make fusion
energy a reality.

The environment created in a fusion
reactor poses great challenges to
materials and components. Materials
must be able to withstand high
fluxes of hot neutrons and endure
high temperatures and high thermal
gradients, with minimal degradation.
Our strategy includes the following
emphases:
• Design materials at the molecular
scale to create novel materials
that posses the necessary highperformance
properties, leveraging
investments through our
Fusion Energy Sciences program
with the materials research of
our Basic Energy Sciences
program.
• Create additional facilities, as
may be needed, as a follow-on to
the ITER project, for testing
materials and components for
high duty-factor operation in a
fusion power plant environment.
• Explore “liquid first-wall”
materials to ameliorate firstwall
requirements for both
inertial fusion energy (IFE)
and advanced magnetic fusion
energy (MFE) concepts.

Explore unification phenomena.

Unification is simplicity at the heart
of matter and energy. The complex
patterns of particles and forces we
see today emerged from a much
more symmetric universe at the
extremely high energies of its first
moments. Indications of this simpler
world must occur at energies just
beyond the reach of current accelerators.
A principal strategy is to find
out how our complex patterns
merge into a unified picture at
higher energies.
The Standard Model of particles and
forces asserts that all matter is made
of elementary particles called fermions.
These are of two types: quarks
and leptons, each of which comes in
six “flavors.” Four fundamental
interactions are known: strong,
weak, electromagnetic, and gravitational,
which vary substantially in
strength and range. The first three
interactions are carried by another
class of particles called gauge bosons.
No quantum theory of gravity has
been established and gravity is not
included in the Standard Model.
At energies above one trillion electron
volts (1 TeV), the electromagnetic
and weak interactions are
unified into the electroweak interaction,
and two of its bosons are
massless. At about 1 TeV, this
electroweak symmetry is broken and
the bosons acquire mass. The
Standard Model attributes this to a
new field called the Higgs, but the
Higgs boson has not yet been
observed.
Three of the leptons are neutrinos,
which feel only the weak interaction,
were thought to be massless, and
barely interact with matter. Recent
experiments have shown that a
neutrino produced in one flavor
oscillates among all three flavors as it
travels. This can only happen if
neutrinos do have mass, which has
important consequences for the
Standard Model and for the universe.
The Standard Model explains many
observations at the energies our
particle accelerators can reach today,
but is known to have problems at
higher energies. The theory requires
18 arbitrary and independent
parameters whose values are unexplained.
It is clear that the Standard
Model must be substantially extended.
Physicists are striving to develop a
quantum field theory for gravity,
using “string theories,” which
explain particles as vibration modes
of a tiny string-like bit of energy.
String theories involve supersymmetry,
a deep connection between fermions
and bosons at high energies.
Supersymmetry predicts that every
known fermion has a boson partner
and vice versa. Some of these
partners must have masses low
enough to be created at the TeV
energy scale. Thus, our highest
energy accelerators should be able to
test supersymmetry by searching for
the lightest supersymmetric particles.
All string theories require several
extra spatial dimensions beyond the
three we now observe. These may be
detected at accelerators by giving
particles enough energy that they
feel the effects of extra dimensions.
A direct discovery of extra dimensions
would be an epochal event.
Our strategy includes the following
emphases:
• Use the Tevatron protonantiproton
collider at the Fermi
National Accelerator Laboratory
to make detailed studies of the
top quark discovered there in
1995.
• Search for evidence of unification
at the Tevatron, such as the
Higgs boson, supersymmetric
particles, and extra dimensions.
• Use the B-Factory at the
Stanford Linear Accelerator
Center to improve our knowledge
of the weak interactions of
quarks.
• Study neutrino oscillation and
double beta decay to learn more
about lepton flavor mixing and
neutrino masses.
• Develop a string theory that
explains the observed particles
and includes a quantum theory
of gravity.
• Continue our collaboration with
the CERN laboratory in Switzerland
to complete construction of
the Large Hadron Collider there
and then use it to study unification.
When it begins operations
in 2007, this proton-proton
collider will extend the energy
frontier well beyond the reach of
the Tevatron.
• Participate in the development
of an international linear
electron-positron collider for
research at the TeV energy scale.
Such a facility has been recommended
by HEPAP and by
expert panels in Asia and Europe
as an essential tool for exploring
unification.
• Pursue advanced accelerator
development aimed at finding
better ways to accelerate particles,
with the promise of
increasing their energies beyond
one TeV.

Understand the cosmos.

The universe began in an extremely
hot, dense condition and has
undergone a tremendous expansion,
greatly reducing its energy density.
The early universe can be described
by a unified picture of particles and
forces. As it expanded and cooled,
however, this simpler universe
“froze out” into the complexity we
see today.
In 1998, we learned that the expansion
of the universe is now accelerating
rather than decelerating. This
means that some unknown source is
producing an antigravity force
stronger than gravity. This mysterious
dark energy now composes 73%
of the total matter and energy
content of the universe. The second
largest fraction, 23%, is called dark
matter and it has not been identified
either. Ordinary matter, including
all the stars and galaxies, amounts to
around 4%.
Since the science of the very large
and the very small are intertwined,
we will develop joint research
programs with NASA and other
partners to combine high energy
physics research with related programs
in astrophysics and cosmology.
Identify dark energy.
Explaining the dark energy that is
pulling the universe apart is crucial
for understanding its evolution.
Our strategy includes the following
emphases:
• Work in partnership with NASA
to observe distant supernovae
using a dedicated telescope in
earth orbit. The JDEM will
precisely measure the emission of
light from supernovae located at
a wide range of distances, providing
a history of accelerating
and decelerating periods in the
life of the universe.
• Develop a theoretical understanding
of dark energy. Our
best attempts to calculate the
vacuum energy density give
results that are much too large.
Identify dark matter.
The nature of dark matter has not
yet been determined, but we suspect
that it consists of weakly interacting
massive particles. A prime candidate
is the lowest mass supersymmetric
particle, left as a remnant of a very
early stage of the universe. Our
strategy includes the following
emphases:
• Search for weakly interacting
massive particles in cosmic rays.
• Search for supersymmetric
particles produced in accelerator
experiments.
• Study the large-scale structure of
the universe and infer the
distribution of dark matter.
Explain the matter/antimatter puzzle.
There appears to be no antimatter in
the universe now, although equal
amounts of matter and antimatter
should have been created in the early
universe. This is one of the great
mysteries of physics. Our strategy
includes the following emphases:
• Use the SLAC B-Factory to
provide sensitive measurements
of a minute asymmetry in the
weak interactions of quarks that
may help explain the absence of
antimatter.
• Conduct an experiment on the
International Space Station to
search for antimatter in cosmic
rays.
Study the cosmic role of neutrinos.
Neutrinos permeate the universe and
hardly interact with matter, yet play
a key role in the explosion of stars.
The recent discovery of neutrino
mass has important consequences for
these supernovae. Our strategic
emphases in this section overlap with
those listed in section 4.1, for
exploring unification phenomena:
• Study neutrino masses and mixing
in much more detail using new
accelerator beams and detectors.
• Search for neutrino-less double
beta decay to provide an absolute
scale of neutrino masses.
Investigate high energy astrophysics.
High energy physics research can
help solve important problems in
astrophysics—the origin of the
highest-energy cosmic rays, corecollapse
supernovae and the associated
neutrino physics, and galactic
and extragalactic gamma-ray sources.
Our strategy includes the following
emphasis:
• Develop detectors on the ground
and in space that will be used to
study high-energy cosmic rays
and gamma rays.

Understand the structure of
the nucleon.

Protons and neutrons, collectively
called nucleons, are the building
blocks of nuclear matter and thus
form the heart of every atom in the
universe. But nucleons are themselves
composed of quarks bound
together by gluons, the carriers of
the strong force. This strong force
is responsible for the structure of
nucleons and their composite
structures, atomic nuclei, as well as
neutron stars. The nucleus is an
ideal system to study the strong
interaction, which can be described
by a strongly coupled quantum
field theory called QCD. To understand
nucleon structure, we will
pursue several approaches.
Probe the mechanism of quark
confinement inside the nucleon.
Although protons and neutrons can
be separately observed, their quark
and gluon constituents cannot,
because they are permanently confined
inside the nucleons. While the
mechanism of quark confinement is
qualitatively explained by QCD, a
quantitative understanding remains
one of our great intellectual challenges.
Our strategy includes the following
emphases:
• Use high-intensity polarized
electron beams at the TJNAF to
measure properties of the proton,
neutron, and simple nuclei
for comparison with theoretical
calculations to provide an
improved quantitative
understanding of their
quark structure.
• Use high-energy polarized
proton-proton collisions at the
Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider
(RHIC) at Brookhaven National
Laboratory to determine the
proton structure—how the
quarks and particularly the
gluons, the carriers of the strong
force, assemble themselves to
give the proton's properties.
• Upgrade TJNAF to provide
higher-energy electron and
photon beams to probe quark
confinement and nucleon
structure in a regime that will
allow a more complete determination
of the quark properties.
Search for gluon saturation.
Recent calculations suggest that, in
high-energy collisions, nucleons and
nuclei can behave in a completely
new way, as if filled or “saturated”
with many gluons. These gluons
have remarkable properties, analogous
both to spin glasses and to the
Bose-Einstein condensates studied in
condensed matter and atomic
physics. This gluonic system may
have universal properties, independent
of the nucleus in which it
resides, whose study could greatly
increase our understanding of the
quark-gluon structure of matter at
high energy. Our strategy includes
the following emphasis:
• Explore the development of an
electron-nucleus collider that
would allow the gluon saturation
of nuclear matter to be seen.

Understand the structure of
nucleonic matter.

Nuclei are the core of atoms and
account for almost all the observable
matter in the world around us. The
naturally occurring stable nuclei are
but a small fraction of the nuclei
that can possibly exist. Most of the
unstable nuclei (those that undergo
radioactive decay) cannot be created
for study by existing experimental
facilities. Investigating these nuclei,
and in particular those at the extreme
limits of stability, offers a rich
opportunity for major scientific
discovery. Unbalanced neutron and
proton numbers decrease the stability
of a nucleus. For example, there
is a limit to the number of neutrons
that can be added to a nucleus of a
given proton number (the nucleus of
a given element). A similar stability
limit for nuclei is reached if the
number of protons is increased
relative to a fixed neutron number.
Experiments have established which
combinations of protons and neutrons
can form a nucleus only for the
first eight of the more than 100
known elements, but little is known
about the limits of stability for the
heaviest nuclei. The coming decade
in nuclear physics may reveal nuclear
phenomena and structure unlike
anything known in the stable nuclei
making up the world around us.
New theoretical tools will be developed
to describe nuclear many-body
phenomena, with important applications
to condensed matter and
nuclear astrophysics. Our strategy
includes the following emphases:
• Investigate new regions of
nuclear structure and develop
the nuclear many-body theory to
predict nuclear properties.
• Develop a next-generation
facility with forefront experimental
instrumentation that will
use beams of rare isotopes to
study nuclei at the very limits of
stability. This facility will
provide the tools for understanding
nuclear structure evolution
across the entire landscape of the
chart of the nuclides.

Search for quark-gluon
plasma.

The quarks and gluons that compose
each proton and neutron are normally
confined within these nucleons.
However, if nuclear matter is
heated sufficiently, quarks will
become deconfined and individual
nucleons will melt into a hot, dense
plasma of quarks and gluons. Such
plasma is believed to have filled the
universe about a millionth of a
second after the “Big Bang.” The
discovery and characterization of this
new state of matter formed at
extreme conditions never before
available in the laboratory will yield
new insight into the early phases of
the universe. Our strategy includes
the following emphases:
• Use colliding beams of atomic
nuclei at RHIC to explore new
states of matter at high-energy
density, recreating brief, small
samples of quark-gluon plasma
and characterizing its properties.
• Increase the beam luminosities at
RHIC and upgrade the detectors
to allow more detailed studies of
this primal state of matter.
Investigate the emission of
particles at high transverse
momentum to better understand
the behavior of jet transmission
through the plasma, using the
Large Hadron Collider.

Investigate nuclear
astrophysics.

Nuclear physics research is essential
if we are to solve important problems
in astrophysics—the origin of
the chemical elements, the behavior
of neutron stars, core-collapse
supernovae and the associated
neutrino physics, and galactic and
extragalactic gamma-ray sources.
Almost all the chemical elements in
the universe were generated by
nuclear reactions in stars or in
cataclysmic stellar explosions. Given
the high temperatures and particle
densities in stellar objects and
explosions, the relevant nuclear
reactions typically occur among
radioactive or exotic nuclei. Our
strategy includes the following
emphases:
• Using exotic beams of nuclei
that have many neutrons, study
interactions in nuclear matter
like those that occur in neutron
stars and those that create the
nuclei of most atomic elements
inside stars and supernovae.
• Develop computer simulations
for the behavior of supernovae,
including core collapse and
explosion, which incorporate
the relevant nuclear reaction
dynamics.
• Develop a unique nextgeneration
facility with forefront
experimental instrumentation
that will provide new species of
exotic beams at unprecedented
intensities to advance science at
the intersection of nuclear
physics and astronomy. This
facility is similarly described in
section 5.2.

Investigate the fundamental
symmetries that form the
basis of the Standard Model.

Neutrinos are produced by nuclear
reactions in the sun, in supernovae,
and in reactors. Understanding their
properties is essential for understanding
stellar dynamics and
supernova explosions. Studies with
neutrinos generated in nuclear
reactors are complementary to those
produced by high-energy accelerators.
Similarly, precise measurements
of the weak (radioactive)
decay of the neutron are complementary
to measurements of weak
interaction properties at high energies
using particle accelerators. Both
could require refinements of the
Standard Model.
Our strategy includes the following
emphasis:
• Further investigate neutrino
mixing using neutrinos from the
sun, cosmic-ray interactions, and
nuclear reactors.
• Measure the decays of tritium
nuclei and search for neutrinoless
double beta decay to provide
essential information about the
absolute scale of neutrino
masses.
• Using new cold and ultra-cold
neutron facilities at the Manuel
Lujan Jr. Neutron Scattering
Center and the Spallation
Neutron Source, improve on
existing measurements of the
decay properties of the neutron
and search for the electric dipole
moment of the neutron.
• Using advanced laser trapping
techniques, search for the electric
dipole moment of radium-225.

Advance scientific discovery
through research in the
computer science and applied
mathematics required to
enable prediction and understanding
of complex systems.

New computational methods are
needed to make possible the simulation
of the most complex physical
and biological systems and to gain
efficiency on multiprocessor terascale
computers. Effective application of
supercomputers requires sophisticated,
scalable, operating systems;
large-scale data management tools;
and other computer science tools.
We will support individual investigators
and teams to develop new
methods and tools, and encourage
their transition to advanced computational
science applications.
Our strategy includes the following
emphases:
• Develop new and improved
mathematical methods for
addressing the challenges of
multi-scale problems.
• Create methods and capabilities
to address large-scale data
management.
• Develop and apply middleware
tools that enable researchers to
focus on science while obtaining
effective computational performance.

Extend the frontiers of scientific
simulation through a new
generation of computational
models that fully exploit the
power of advanced computers
and collaboratory software
that makes scientific resources
available to scientists
anywhere, anytime.

Scientific discovery in many areas
requires computational models that
incorporate more complete and
realistic descriptions of the phenomena
being modeled than are possible
today.
Our strategy includes the following
emphases:
• Create, in partnerships across the
Office of Science, new generations
of models for fusion
science, biology, nanoscience,
physics, chemistry, climate, and
related fields that provide highfidelity
descriptions of the
underlying science.
• Incorporate the new models into
scientific simulation software
that achieves substantially
greater performance from
terascale supercomputers than
we can achieve today.
• Build on the successes of the
SciDAC program.

Bring dramatic advances to
scientific computing challenges
by supporting the
development, evaluation,
and application of
supercomputing architectures
tailored to science.

Major improvements in scientific
simulation and analysis can be
obtained through advances in the
design of supercomputer architectures.
Most of today’s supercomputers
were designed for
commercial applications. However,
computational science places
stringent requirements on supercomputer
designs that are often
quite different from what arise in
commercial applications. To meet
the need for effective computing
performance in the 100-teraflop
range and beyond, we will support
the evaluation, installation, and
application of new very high-end
computing architectures for computational
science.
Our strategy includes the following
emphases:
• Develop partnerships with
U.S. industry in the near term
to adapt current and nextgeneration
products to more
Computing test beds:
Advanced Computing
Research test beds evaluate
new computing hardware
and software, such as Oak
Ridge National Laboratory’s
IBM Power4 Cheetah
(pictured left) and Cray Xl,
and Argonne National
Laboratory’s IBM/Intel/
Cluster.
ORNL
fully meet the needs of visionary
computational science.
• Develop partnerships with the
Department of Defense, the
Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency (DARPA), and
other Federal agencies to evaluate
long-term architecture
developments at the scale needed
for Office of Science computation.
• Advance the focused research
and development of systems
software for radical increases in
performance, reliability, manageability,
and ease of use.

Provide computing resources
at the petascale and beyond,
network infrastructure, and
tools to enable computational
science and scientific
collaboration.

Work at the forefront of science can
require the dedicated availability of
the most advanced supercomputers
for extended periods of time. Furthermore,
it is likely that at least a
few different supercomputer designs
will offer significant advantages for
different classes of problems.
Our strategy includes the following
emphases:
• Provide sustained, highbandwidth
access to the highest
possible performance computers
for the most demanding applications
at the scientific frontiers.
• Upgrade the network and data
management infrastructure
supporting these resources to
enable computational scientists
to manage the extraordinarily
large volumes of data often
generated by large-scale
scientific computing and
modern experiment.
• Create supporting resources, grid
nodes, and tools that enable
teams of scientists to collaborate
effectively at a distance.

Provide the discovery-class
tools required by the U.S.
scientific community to
answer the most challenging
research questions of our era.

Scientific advancements cannot be
made without similar advances in
the tools used to make discoveries.
Just as the telescope enabled Galileo
to see the stars and planets in an
entirely new way, new tools being
developed by the Office of Science
will enable researchers to view our
physical world at its extremes—from
the tiniest bits of matter to the limits
of the cosmos. We call these tools
“discovery-class” because they are the
best of their kind—they attract the
greatest scientific minds in the world
and enable the type of discoveries
that truly change the face of science.
For more than half a century, the
Office of Science has envisioned,
designed, constructed, and operated
many of the premier scientific
research facilities in the world.
Today, more than 18,000 researchers
and their students from universities,
other government agencies, private
industry, and abroad use these
facilities each year—and this number
is growing. For example, the light
sources built and operated by the
Office of Science now serve more
than three times the total number of
users they served in 1990. An
indication of the ability of these
research tools to build bridges
between disciplines and open new
vistas for research is seen in the
dramatic increase—more than
20-fold in the last decade—of life
science users at the light sources,
once the sole domain of materials
and physical science researchers.
Our strategy includes the following
emphases:
• Work with the Office of Science
programs’ advisory committees
and the broader scientific community
to implement the recommendations
of the companion
document, Facilities for the
Future of Science: A Twenty-Year
Outlook, and continue to identify
and champion those critical
facilities that will ensure the U.S.
position at the forefront of
scientific discovery.
• Build and operate the next
generation of large-scale,
discovery-class national research
facilities to support the vitality
and excellence of U.S. science,
which will attract and retain
top students and lead to new
discoveries.
• Develop partnerships with other
Federal agencies, universities,
and the U.S. scientific community
to fully exploit the extraordinary
capabilities and interdisciplinary
nature of our user
facilities.
• Fully integrate scientific computation
and other information
technology tools into the fabric
of scientific discovery.
Our Timeline for
Future Facilities: 
In the Fall of 2002, the DOE’s
Office of Science began a major
effort to evaluate facility needs and
priorities. The process and results
are contained in the companion
document, the Twenty-Year Outlook.
Choosing major facilities is one of
the most important activities of the
DOE’s Office of Science. It requires
prioritization across fields of science,
a difficult and unusual process. The
set of facilities must be phased to
conform to scientific opportunities,
and to a responsible funding strategy.
The largest facilities will often
be international in character, requiring
both planning and funding from
other countries and organizations,
together with the U.S.
The 28 proposed facilities are listed
by priority in the chart on page 93.
Some are noted individually; however,
others for which the advice of
our advisory committees was insufficient
to discriminate among relative
priority are presented in “bands.” In
addition, the facilities are roughly
grouped into near-term priorities,
mid-term priorities, and far-term
priorities (and color-coded red, blue,
and green respectively) according to
the anticipated research and development
timeframe of the scientific
opportunities they would address.
Each facility listing is accompanied
by a “peak of cost profile,” which
indicates the onset, years of peak
construction expenditure, and
completion of the facility. Because
many of the facilities are still in early
stages of conceptualization, the
timing of their construction and
completion is subject to the myriad
considerations that come into play
when moving forward with a new
facility. Furthermore, it should be
remembered that construction of
these cost profiles was guided by an
ideal funding scenario. Appropriate
caveats and explanation are provided
in the Twenty-Year Outlook.
This facility plan represents the
DOE Office of Science’s best guess
today at how the future of science
and the need for scientific facilities
will unfold over the next two decades.
We know, however, that
science changes. Discoveries, as yet
unimagined, will alter the course of
research and the facilities needed in
the future. Additionally, we recognize
that the breadth and scope of
the vision encompassed by these 28
facilities reflects an aggressive and
optimistic view of the future of the
Office. Nevertheless, we believe that
it is necessary to have and discuss
such a vision. Despite the uncertainties,
it is important for organizations
to have a clear understanding
of their goals and a path toward
reaching those goals. The Twenty-
Year Outlook, and more broadly, this
Office of Science Strategic Plan, offer
just such a vision.

Contribute to a vital and
diverse national scientific
workforce by providing
national laboratory research
opportunities to students and
teachers.

Our national laboratories offer a
unique setting for mentor-intensive
training opportunities, helping to
ensure that DOE and the Nation
have a highly skilled and diverse
scientific and technical workforce.
These capabilities strongly complement
the career development opportunities
provided by the National
Science Foundation and other
Federal agencies. Our national
laboratories provide an environment
where, under the mentorship of
world-class scientists, students and
teachers have unparalleled opportunities
to perform exciting research
with the most advanced instrumentation
available. This combination
of mentor talent and advanced
instrumentation greatly serves to
attract, develop, and retain a diverse
and capable workforce. Our strategy
includes the following emphases:
• Provide undergraduate internships
for students entering
science, technology, engineering,
and math (STEM) careers,
including K-12 science and math
teaching careers.
• Provide graduate/faculty fellowships
for STEM teachers and
faculty.
• Develop partnerships with other
Federal agencies to address the
long-term decline in undergraduate
and graduate degrees in
the physical sciences.

Strengthen national laboratory,
university, and industry
partnerships to work on the
science challenges facing our
Nation.

The Office of Science manages
10 DOE national laboratories, home
to many of the premier scientists and
facilities the United States has to
offer, and makes direct investments
in over 280 universities located
across the Nation through research
grants and other activities. We also
work with high-technology companies,
such as General Motors and
Cray, to explore advanced technologies
and solutions that quickly find
their way into the marketplace. As
one of the few organizations in the
world that manages such a diverse
portfolio of research performers, the
Office of Science has a unique
opportunity to bring the power of
these research teams to work at the
extreme frontiers of science.
Researchers at the national laboratories
will benefit from these partnerships
through increased access to
scientific talent and capabilities that
are only found in universities, while
universities will benefit through
greater training opportunities for
students, access to scientific tools
unavailable at universities, and
participation in multidisciplinary
teams of researchers. Industry,
increasingly, is seeing the benefit
of tapping into the Federal
government’s deep reservoir of
scientific resources to maintain
U.S. economic competitiveness.
In addition, the Office of Science
works closely with other Federal
agencies and major DOE applied
research programs to fully leverage
the Federal investment in science.
We work with the National Institutes
of Health to develop new
medical technologies; with NASA
to explore the cosmos; with the
National Science Foundation on
fundamental physics, advanced
computation, and nanoscience; and
with other DOE programs to
develop new energy options and
solutions. Overall, key scientific
disciplines will be strengthened
through this interchange of people
and ideas.
We recognize that the very nature of
science and the exchange of ideas
within the scientific community
benefits greatly from open communications
and collaborations. In the
future, it will be necessary to preserve
and protect the openness and
strength of our scientific institutions,
while at the same time exercising
greater control of the free dissemination
of scientific information that
has important national security
implications. This delicate balance
will be developed carefully and in
consultation with the science community
to ensure that a “do no
harm” philosophy is followed.
Our strategy includes the following
emphases:
• Encourage the creation of
partnerships among national
laboratory, university, and
industrial researchers to tackle
major multidisciplinary scientific
challenges, such as development
of new materials through
nanoscience and high-end
computational simulation.
• Expand access and operating
time at key scientific user facilities
to enable national partnerships
that address significant
national challenges.
• Strengthen relationships with
minority institutions to increase
the diversity of science and
performers available within the
U.S. scientific enterprise.
• Establish high-speed information
connections among teams of
researchers located at diverse
locations, while improving
remote access to scientific
user facilities.
• Strengthen ties between our
science programs and DOE-led
national initiatives in nuclear
energy, hydrogen fuel, bio-based
fuels, climate change, carbon
management, and nonproliferation
through sustained, coordinated
programs.
• Foster cooperation among
Federal science agencies to
enhance the impact and benefit
of our jointly held assets, particularly
in emerging areas of
national need, such as advanced
computation, nanoscience,
climate change, and genomics.
• Build international partnerships
where national resources can
achieve global benefits and gain
leverage from participation of
collaborating nations.
• Participate in the development
of national policies for the
sharing of scientific and technical
information, achieving a
careful balance between the need
for scientific openness and
security interests.

Manage the Office of Science’s
research enterprise to the
highest standards, delivering
outstanding science and new
discoveries that improve our
Nation’s health and economy.

Extraordinary discoveries depend
strongly on the extraordinary management
of the Nation’s science
enterprise. Our management agenda
is designed to ensure that the national
scientific enterprise benefits as
broadly and fully as possible from
the decisions we make and the work
we do. This means carefully managing
not only the science we produce,
but also the institutions and other
resources that support our science
programs.
The Office of Science has a large
workforce, a national scientific
enterprise that spans state and
national borders, and five decades
of experience managing national
scientific programs. We manage an
annual budget comparable to the
gross domestic product of many
countries. Our national laboratory
complex has no peer in the world
in the size and diversity of its research.
We sponsor research at
universities and other institutions
throughout the country. Our
research programs have been very
successful, yielding major advances
in human knowledge, with substantial
benefits to the Nation’s economy.
The outstanding success of our
research hinges on two key principles:
1) Long-term strategic investments in
people, partnerships, and high-risk
research: The Office of Science
takes big scientific risks and expects
and achieves high payoffs. We make
long-term investments in people and
research programs, while responding
with agility to rapid changes at the
frontiers of science. We balance our
support for big science and interdisciplinary
teams with a broad portfolio
of projects conducted by leading
university and laboratory investigators
and collaborative groups.
Underpinning these efforts is an
uncompromising commitment to
scientific excellence and integrity.
We are in the business of discovery
and, therefore, we value bright
minds and new ideas as much as
efficiency and productivity.
2) Systematic assessment of major
projects, programs, and institutions:
Every research activity that we
support with U.S. taxpayer dollars is
assessed to ensure that the quality,
relevance, and performance of DOE
Office of Science programs meet the
highest standards. Each major
construction project, all of our
scientific user facilities and national
laboratories, and significant elements
of each Office of Science research
portfolio are reviewed regularly
according to established procedures,
frequently with the help of external
experts to ensure that we achieve
our goals.
Consistent with these two principles,
we have adopted two distinct kinds
of management practices. First, we
invest in people and institutions, so
we follow established business
practices such as integrated safety
management that would be recognized
by any U.S. corporate executive
as current and effective.
Second, we sponsor basic research,
which requires an entirely different
set of management practices
designed to ensure that the best
scientific opportunities are pursued.
These practices include the extensive
use of peer and merit review to
monitor the quality and relevance of
the science we sponsor; a reliance on
the advice and guidance of the U.S.
scientific community through six
independent advisory committees;
and the employment of highly
skilled program managers who
nurture critical scientific disciplines
and provide the multi-year continuity
of support that is often needed to
meet difficult technical challenges.
These practices help ensure that the
U.S. taxpayer receives the highest
possible return on the science
investment that our Nation makes.
The intersection between traditional
management practices and those that
are unique to the scientific community
is clearest in the way that we
construct and operate the large
discovery-class scientific user facilities
that are a signature feature of the
Office of Science. Constructing
scientific facilities pushes the envelope
of science and technology to the
frontiers, and they are considered
huge engineering projects by any
standard.
Improve our overall performance.
The Office of Science is committed
to performance. We have embarked
on a comprehensive restructuring of
our organization that is designed to
increase performance-based management
practices, reduce management
layering, enhance integration,
guarantee line accountability, simplify
internal processes, and increase
worker productivity. All of these
management strategies, however, are
being carefully implemented to
reflect the unique nature of basic
research and the long-term nature of
our investments. Our strategy
includes the following emphases:
• Consolidate and streamline
financial, budgetary, procurement,
personnel, program,
and performance information
to communicate faster and at
less cost.
• Use new information management
technologies to streamline
project funding, facilitate a
portfolio view of R&D, and
enhance communication across
Federal offices and organizations.
• Re-engineer laboratory management
contracts to improve
contractor performance,
enhance line management
accountability, and give the
Office of Science and its contractors
the flexibility needed to
manage for results.
• Develop an integrated approach
to planning, program execution,
and performance management
that sets the benchmark for
a Federal basic research
organization.
• Employ a highly competent
Federal workforce capable of
continuing the Office of
Science’s tradition of discovery
into the future.
Establish a modern laboratory
system, fully capable of delivering the
science our Nation requires.
The DOE Office of Science laboratory
system includes hundreds of
research labs, offices, and specialized
scientific facilities distributed over
eight states and accessed by more
than 25,000 scientists worldwide.
The loss to the science community
would be immense if we stopped
upgrading, operating, and providing
access to this incredible research
complex. However, 24% of the
buildings in the Office of Science
laboratory system have reached or
are reaching the end of their serviceable
lives.
In addition to making targeted
investments that maximize our
rehabilitation efforts, our strategy
includes examining our total portfolio
of facilities and seeking to expand
their utility. Our strategy includes
the following emphases:
• Size our facilities to scientific
demand, including investing in
new replacement support facilities
where needed and removing
excess facilities.
• Increase our annual laboratory
maintenance investment to a
level consistent with nationally
recognized standards (i.e.,
generally 2 to 4% for conventional
facilities).
• Increase the overall functionality
of general-purpose facilities by
significantly increasing our
annual capital investment.
• Support greater flexibility in the
use of funds for maintenance
and modernization.