Our Mission

DOE’s Office of Science has a mission to deliver scientific discoveries and major scientific tools to transform our understanding of nature and advance the energy, economic, and national security of the United States. We are the nation’s largest federal sponsor of basic research in the physical sciences and are a major supporter of research in such key scientific fields as physics, materials science, computing, and chemistry. We are also the lead federal agency supporting fundamental scientific research related to energy.

To keep America in the forefront of discovery and innovation, we sponsor research at hundreds of universities, national laboratories, and other institutions across the country. We also build and maintain a vitally important array of large-scale scientific facilities at the DOE national laboratories, which are used by thousands of researchers every year.

About the Office of Science

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The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Science is the nation’s largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences, the steward of 10 DOE national laboratories, and the lead federal agency supporting fundamental research for energy production and security. Our job is to keep America at the forefront of discovery. This video is an overview of the Office of Science’s mission, people, and resources.
Video courtesy of DOE's Office of Science

Science Headlines

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Debjani Pal: An Eye-Catching Image, a Cancer Cure Goal
Pal’s photo “Three-Dimensional Breast Cancer Spheroids” won the Director’s Choice Award in Oak Ridge National Lab's Art of Science photo competition.
Argonne’s Aurora Supercomputer to Help Scientists Advance Dark Matter Research
The new exascale supercomputer will enable large-scale simulations and machine learning techniques to shed light on dark matter.
Office Building Renovations Provide for Sustainability and Space
Jefferson Lab’s CEBAF Renovation and Expansion project will update two buildings to expand, optimize and modernize office space.
ORNL, ANL Team Earns IEEE eScience Best Paper Award
The paper presents an overhead-reducing approach to Bayesian optimization, a technique for optimizing the hyperparameters of deep neural networks.

University and Stakeholder News

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OU Researcher Aims to Uncover Biological Mechanisms for Fuel Upcycling
John Peters has received a nearly $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences.
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Umesh Vazirani Awarded $2.4M Grant From DOE
Vazirani is the Roger A. Strauch Professor of EECS and the co-director of the Berkeley Quantum Computation Center.
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Multidisciplinary Team Will Develop Advanced Rhizosphere Carbon Imaging for Climate Change Research with Support of Major DOE Grant
A team will use dynamic imaging and modeling of carbon in the rhizosphere, where a complex set of biological and physicochemical processes occur.
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Catching Up With CABBI Alumni
Q&As with some of the former graduate students, postdocs, and technicians who made their mark on our Center and have gone on to exciting new careers!
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Science Highlights

Dept. of Energy Office of Science delivers scientific discoveries, tools for the nation via programs in Advanced Scientific Computing Research; Basic Energy Sciences; Biological & Environmental Research; Fusion Energy Sciences; High Energy Physics; Nuclear Physics. Also supports Accelerator Research; Isotope Research; Small Business Innovation Research and Technology Transfer; 5 national quantum centers; 2 energy innovation hubs. Stewards 10 DOE national labs. 100-plus Nobel Prizes, $8.1 billion budget.

The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.

Image courtesy of the Department of Energy Office of Science