Contact: James Carskadon

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mississippi State University is again among the nation’s elite in supercomputing power. 

MSU’s Orion supercomputer is the fourth most powerful academic data center in the U.S., according to rankings released this week by Top500.org. Orion is ranked at No. 68 on Top500’s list of the world’s most powerful computing systems. Managed by MSU’s High Performance Computing Collaboratory, Orion was installed on campus last summer with the support of $22 million in grants from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 

Capable of processing five thousand trillion calculations (five petaFLOPS) per second, Orion is powering research and development advancements in weather and climate modeling, autonomous systems, materials, cybersecurity, computational modeling and more. 

“MSU has a longstanding history of being a leader in high performance computing, and I am proud that we continue to be ranked among the best in the country and the world in this area,” MSU President Mark E. Keenum said. “More importantly, I’m proud that our world-class researchers, along with numerous distinguished scientists in the national government, are using Orion to drive innovation, solve critical problems and create new opportunities in our state as we collaborate with government and industry partners. I’m so very pleased that high performance computing is an area where Mississippi excels.” 

In addition to NOAA, MSU’s high performance computing capabilities have led to critical partnerships and research opportunities with the United States Department of Agriculture, NASA, the National Science Foundation, Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Energy, among other state and federal agencies. 

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MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.

Contact: James Carskadon

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mississippi State University is once again ranked as Mississippi’s top research university in the latest report from the National Science Foundation.

MSU also retains its status as a top 100 research institution in the recently released NSF Higher Education Research and Development Survey for Fiscal Year 2018. With $244 million in total research and development expenditures, MSU ranks 98th nationally, is 61st among non-medical school institutions and is 67th among public universities.

NSF’s survey, the primary source of information for research and development expenditures at U.S. colleges and universities, found that MSU accounted for more than half of expenditures reported by all Mississippi institutions in FY18. With an increase of $3 million from the university’s fiscal year 2017 research funding, MSU has increased its research and development expenditures for five consecutive years. In addition to being an NSF top 100 research university, MSU holds the “Very High Research Activity” designation from the Carnegie Foundation.

“MSU’s ongoing success as an R1 research university is due to the exceptional work of our dedicated faculty researchers and scientists,” said MSU Interim Vice President for Research and Economic Development Julie Jordan. “This high level of research is being conducted in state-of-the-art facilities and provides more students than any other institution with the opportunity to have a positive impact on the lives of others in Mississippi while earning their degrees.”

With a diverse research portfolio, MSU ranks in the top 15 nationally in both agricultural sciences (11) and social sciences (12). For the seventh consecutive year, MSU leads all Southeastern Conference universities in social sciences research funding. MSU leads the state with nearly 4,000 research personnel, including 661 principal investigators.

For the full story, see: link

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.