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Researchers from the ChEESE-2P project picked up a string of high-profile international awards last year, in recognition of work applying high-performance computing (HPC) to natural hazard preparedness - from tsunami forecasting to urgent-computing systems that support emergency response teams on the ground for earthquakes.
The standout achievement is the 2025 ACM Gordon Bell Prize, widely regarded as the top honour in the supercomputing world. It was awarded for a real-time digital twin capable of forecasting tsunamis through online Bayesian inversion in around 0.2 seconds - roughly ten billion times faster than direct computation. ChEESE researcher Alice-Agnes Gabriel is part of the awarded team.
That same project went on to collect two further honours: the 2025 HPC Innovation Excellence Award and the HPCwire Readers' Choice Award for Best Use of HPC in Physical Sciences.
A separate team, based at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), was also named a winner of the 2025 HPC Innovation Excellence Award, this time for an urgent-computing trial carried out during Mexico's National Earthquake Drill. Running on the MareNostrum 5 supercomputer, the team converted live seismic readings into hazard forecasts - a demonstration of HPC's potential role in real emergency response.
Interest in the work has reached beyond the awards circuit: Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum was briefed on the research during a visit to BSC, which continues to support Mexico's development of Coatlicue, set to become Latin America's most powerful supercomputer once complete.
Rounding out the year's recognitions, the wider ChEESE community received the GANANA Award for its role in building scientific ties between Europe and India, through joint work between European HPC centres and Indian research institutions on capacity-building and long-term cooperation.
Taken together, these awards point to a broader shift: HPC is moving from research tool to operational asset in disaster risk reduction - one that authorities and emergency responders are starting to rely on directly.
This year's award-winning ChEESE researchers
- Alice-Agnes Gabriel- 2025 ACM Gordon Bell Prize, for real-time tsunami forecasting; 2025 HPC Innovation Excellence Award, for the Tsunami Digital Twin; 2025 HPCwire Readers' Choice Award, for Best Use of HPC in Physical Sciences
- Marisol Monterrubio, Aerton Guimarães, Varvara Vedia-García, Rosa M. Badia, Fernando Vazquez, Georgina Diez Ventura and Josep de la Puente - 2025 HPC Innovation Excellence Award, for the Mexican National Earthquake Drill
- All ChEESE partners and researchers - GANANA Award
Author: Aerton Guimarães – ChEESE-2P Dissemination Team.