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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Fermilab Teams Up with Small Business RadiaBeam to Help Commercialize Advanced Accelerators
To help commercialize advanced accelerators, Fermi engineers work with RadiaBeam Technologies to design and assemble a conduction-cooled cryomodule.
Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider Begins Run 24
Some highlights of the run include proton-proton smashups, first physics data for sPHENIX, new collisions "seen" by forward detectors at STAR, & more.
Researchers Control Quantum Properties of 2D Materials with Tailored Light
A team of scientists has developed a groundbreaking method that harnesses the structure of light to twist & tweak the properties of quantum materials.
Scratching the Surface of Aerosols with Uncrewed Aerial Systems
Combining UAS measurements with surface analysis techniques created a more accurate description of the 3-D structure of aerosol particles.

University and Stakeholder News

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Team Discovers Fundamentally New Way to Detect Radiation Involving Cheap Ceramics
The work could lead to plethora of new applications, including better detectors for nuclear materials at ports.
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Quantum Crystal of Frozen Electrons—the Wigner Crystal—is Visualized for the First Time
Researchers have unveiled the elusive Wigner crystal--formed purely from the repulsive nature of electrons—with scanning tunneling microscopy.
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Better Battery Manufacturing: Robotic Lab Vets New Reaction Design Strategy
Researchers partnered with Samsung Semiconductor’s Advanced Materials Lab to test if their new recipes produced the materials with fewer impurities.
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UW–Madison Researchers Develop Better Way to Make Painkiller from Trees
Scientists have developed a cost-effective and environmentally sustainable way to make a popular pain reliever from plants instead of petroleum.
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Recently Featured Articles

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Science Highlights

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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