Creating a new mix

Through a program of improved funding, support and infrastructure, China is investing heavily in interdisciplinary scientific collaboration. 

Fu Haohuan and his team are using the world's fastest supercomputer to forge ahead with China's research on Earth-system science.

With a strong academic background in computer science, Fu joined the Department of Earth Science Systems at Tsinghua University in 2010 and has been conducting interdisciplinary research in the two areas.

"I think research across disciplines may prompt new ideas and has great potential to generate revolutionary technological innovation," Fu says.

In 2017, Fu's team used the world's fastest supercomputer, Sunway TaihuLight, to simulate the Tangshan earthquake of 1976. They achieved great efficiency in performing simulations and creating 3-D visualizations of China's most devastating earthquake, which will help improve earthquake modeling and future preparedness.

Their research won the 2017 ACM Gordon Bell Prize, nicknamed the "Nobel Prize" of supercomputing applications.

Fu's team is now using the supercomputer to conduct a simulation of the Wenchuan Earthquake in 2008, which he believes is "a more challenging research problem" considering the more complex geological structure and the landslides the earthquake caused.