Energy Sciences Network (ESnet)

Our colleagues Berkeley Lab are leveraging , automation, and real-time data analysis to fast-track scientific breakthroughs. 📽️ Check out this new video about how is transforming the pace of discovery across multiple fields including materials, computing, fusion, and more!

👀 See the Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) cameo around 1:58:

Accelerating Discovery with AI and Automation at Berkeley Lab At Berkeley Lab, we’re accelerating the pace of science. Our teams and facilities are powering a new era of discovery, combining artificial intelligence, automation,…

🎉 Congratulations to Dylan Jacob, ESnet's Acting Group Lead for Optical Networking and Core Routing, who at will serve as the first African American chair of !

🎆 "Jacob’s work serves as a beacon of what’s possible when talent, perseverance, and passion converge. He’s not just building networks—he’s building opportunities, inspiring others to break barriers and take their place at the table."

Read more about how Dylan and others are making history, in SC Conference's blog post for : https://sc25.supercomputing.org/2025/02/sc25-celebrates-black-history-month/

How’s this for a ? Here’s ESnet Network Engineer John Christman Senior (left) at SC99, working on the Wide Area Network (WAN) — and ESnet Network Engineer John Christman Junior at , working on the SCinet WAN 25 years later.

Now THAT’s next-generation !

SC Conference Berkeley Lab

Up next for our series is Charu Jain, a quantum research engineer who just joined ESnet's Advanced Technologies and Testbed Group!

Charu first worked for ESnet in 2023 as a student assistant, developing control and simulation software for QUANT-NET. She became interested in quantum computing and networking as an undergraduate studying electronics and communications at Anna University in Chennai, India. “I’ve always been interested in physics and math, and that unique blend that comes from them,” she explains. Charu had already published prize-winning papers and held other hands-on internships before receiving her M.S. in quantum information sciences from University of Southern California this summer.

“In quantum computing, there’s so much to learn from others. Sharing knowledge is crucial for our progress, and being open to different perspectives allows us to work better as a team and innovate more effectively," she says. "Staying humble is the best way to move forward in this ever-evolving field."

Let’s time travel 🚀 to 2011 for a : Here’s ESnet Network Engineer, IPv6 Sisyphus, and oenophile Michael Sinatra in 2011, installing a then-state-of-the-art ⚡️100GE ⚡️ CFP optics pack in one of ESnet’s new 100G routers in a staging rack in an ESnet data center in Berkeley Lab's Building 50. (Note how he is properly grounded by an antistatic wrist strap while he installs the very, very expensive CFP.)

The routers were deployed as part of the Advanced Networking Initiative, an ARRA program that paved the way for ESnet5 and ESnet6. The map shows Phase 1 of the ANI 100 Gbps Prototype Network, developed in partnership with Internet2 and linking three DOE supercomputing centers: NERSC, OLCF, and ALCF.

Congratulations to Kate Petersen Mace, ESnet Network Engineering Group Lead and ESnet6’s project director, who has just been named project director of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s new High Performance Data Facility ( )! Led by Jefferson Lab in partnership with Berkeley Lab, this high-profile project will provide the nation’s researchers with the cutting-edge tools, methods, and technologies needed to maximize the scientific value of data.

ESnet Executive Director Inder ESnet Monga acknowledged that although this is indeed a loss for ESnet, “it is more importantly a huge win for our collective mission: to make large-scale collaborative DOE scientific research easier, more seamless, and data focused. The HPDF team could not have picked a better person to run this project than Kate, and I am happy she will stay within the DOE Office of Science family.”

Kate Petersen Mace selected as High Performance Data Facility Project Director Mace will lead the HPDF Project team in the development of the transformational capabilities to serve the DOE community NEWPORT NEWS, VA – The U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility announced today that Kate Petersen Mace has been named the project director fo...

✨ Engineers from ESnet and Jefferson Lab have made a major breakthrough in the transmission and processing of scientific data. 💫

They streamed raw physics data from Jefferson Lab’s particle accelerator 3,000 miles across ESnet’s network, at 100 gigabits per second, and into NERSC’s Perlmutter supercomputer at Berkeley Lab, where Perlmutter massively processed the data stream and sent the results back to Jefferson Lab — in real time. Thanks to a novel networking hardware prototype, ESnet-JLab FPGA Accelerated Transport (EJFAT), this feat was achieved without the need for any buffering or temporal storage and without experiencing data loss or latency-related problems.

This milestone should mean more streaming, less dreaming, for U.S. Department of Energy scientists whose research depends on time-sensitive data from instruments such as particle accelerators, telescopes, and electron microscopes.

Read all about EJFAT:

California Streamin’: Jefferson Lab, ESnet Achieve Coast-to-Coast Feed of Real-Time Physics Data EJFAT prototype demonstrates proof of concept for connecting scientific instruments with remote high-performance computing for rapid data processing.

Listen to the second episode of our podcast -"Connecting the Planet" featuring Nick Buraglio from Energy Sciences Network (ESnet), who discusses collaborations to support global R&E. Nick’s session at will be on Wednesday 12 June 14:00-15:30 in Le Grand Auditorium.

The podcast is available on:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2YvotkRSGiSSoExTSjSeyX?si=h3Hh-BpoQ9Slo3MuqWzwiQ

YouTube: https://youtu.be/5O8fjfrcpWw?si=qv4pYFaASDa5F1CZ

Buzzsprout: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/2358382.rss

ESnet's Slack channels were even more lively than usual today, as ESnetters all over the U.S. posted photos. As befitting a science-loving technology organization, a variety of techniques were on display, from the low tech — two sheets of paper, pinhole cameras, perforated patio tables and colanders — to filter-protected DSLRs and telescopes. Some drove hundreds of miles only to be thwarted by clouds, while quite a few of our folks were lucky enough to get great shots from their back yards in Indiana. And then there's our favorite ultrarunning nut, Chris Cummings, who did a 10-miler in the path of totality!