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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Teachers Take on Scientific Research Through Fermilab's TRAC Program
Every year, Fermilab’s Teacher Research Associates program invites teachers to the laboratory to conduct hands-on, personalized research projects.
Armor for Steel
Researchers demonstrated that stainless steel and other metal alloys coated with hexagonal boron nitride exhibit non-stick or low-friction qualities.
Radioactivity Not Invited! Argonne Uses Heavy Ions to Quickly and Safely Produce Degradation in Nuclear Materials
Argonne’s newest beamline degrades material’s properties as much in a day as a nuclear reactor does in a year, minus the radioactivity.
LipidOz: New Software Enables Identification of Lipid Double Bond Locations
The streamlined informatics workflow automatically processes complex data and provides the locations of double bonds in lipids.

University and Stakeholder News

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Separating Out Signals Recorded at the Seafloor
Researchers are interested in how and when oxygen began to build up in the oceans and atmosphere, making Earth more hospitable to life as we know it.
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Understanding Charged Particles Helps Physicists Simulate Element Creation in Stars
New research from NC State U opens a new avenue for modeling low-energy nuclear reactions, which are key to the formation of elements within stars.
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Physics Ph.D. Student Pushes the Frontiers of Attosecond Physics
UCF's Chris Lantigua will travel to California next year to conduct research in attosecond physics through a U.S. Department of Energy program.
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Youtong Zheng Earns Department of Energy Early Career Award to Study Correlation Between Air Pollution and Storm Strength
Zheng is an assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Houston.
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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