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Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona     Arizona State University is one of the premier metropolitan public research universities in the nation. Enrolling more than 57,000 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students on three campuses in metropolitan Phoenix, ASU maintains a tradition of academic excellence in core disciplines, and has become an important global center for innovative interdisciplinary teaching and research. ASU offers outstanding resources for study and research, including libraries and museums with important collections, studios and performing arts spaces for creative endeavor, and unsurpassed state-of-the-art scientific and technological laboratories and research facilities. Arizona State University has sustained world leadership in electron diffraction physics and high resolution electron microscopy for decades, and this strength has been greatly expanded in recent years. They are a leader in physics research of solid state phenomena at nanometer scales. State-of-the-art instrumentation includes electron microscopes, scanning probe microscopes, ion beam probes, solid state lasers, and a low energy electron microscope. Complementing the experimental research, the department has outstanding faculty in theoretical research in both astronomy and physics. The nuclear and particle physics faculty conduct theoretical and experimental research at the smallest scales, and have access to world-class accelerators throughout the world. The Department is also endowed with faculty nationally recognized for research in science education. The research groups of Professors Mike Treacy and Mike Thorpe share the use of an Aspen Systems 96 Intel processor Beowulf Linux Cluster. Mike Treacy's group uses their time on the Aspen cluster to perform computer simulation of microporous materials. Another group at Arizona State University using the Aspen Systems Beowulf cluster is the Biophysics Theory Group. This group is headed by Foundation Professor Michael F. Thorpe (Physics, Chemistry & Biochemistry, and the Biodesign Institute) and develops methods that allow for the flexible regions in biomolecules, such as proteins, to be determined. This is useful in relating structure to function, determining protein folding pathways and in the search for drug candidates. After development, flexibility software for biomolecules and biomolecular complexes is made available online via http://flexweb.asu.edu. 
The objective of our work is to enumerate zeolite frameworks. Zeolites are used in a variety of industrial applications as catalysts, adsorbents, and ion exchangers and have future potential in areas such as hydrogen storage, membranes, solid-state electrolytes and magnetic materials. These applications are wide ranging, and the key to understanding how zeolites function is their 3D crystal structure, consisting of a periodic network of vertex atoms. Computer simulations have played an increasingly important role in zeolite science and here at ASU we attempt to further this role by using methods to solve and predict zeolite structures.
Our periodic crystal simulations are computationally expensive, they involve calculating millions of configurations and therefore, we require a cluster with great number crunching capabilities. With the purchase of our Aspen Systems clusters we have made progress towards realizing our aim. Our Aspen Systems cluster has proven to be a very reliable and cost effective solution. Aspen Systems management was very helpful on numerous occasions, such as housing our cluster while our server room was prepared, and during the upgrade of additional nodes and cooling fans.  Dr. Martin Foster, Post-Doc, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Arizona State University |
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