NSF Launches $30 Million TEMPEST Center to Crack Turbulence Prediction
A multi-university coalition led by Michigan State University will use AI and multi-physics to solve one of physics' most enduring challenges.
The National Science Foundation has established a new $30 million Science and Technology Center dedicated to solving the chaotic nature of fluid turbulence. Launching September 1, 2026, the center—known as TEMPEST (Transformative Explorations in Multi-Physics and Engineering of Scientific Turbulence)—aims to turn unpredictable fluid motion into a controllable science.
Based at Michigan State University, the center is funded by a five-year award from the NSF. The initiative brings together a collaborative network of eight universities: Michigan State, Auburn, Baylor, Georgia Tech, San José State, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, the University of Rochester, and Yale. To bridge the gap between theory and application, TEMPEST is partnering with government and industry leaders, including the Los Alamos, Sandia, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, as well as General Atomics and Pacific Fusion.
The Challenge of Chaos
Turbulence is defined by the chaotic motion of fluids, where unpredictable shifts in speed and pressure occur across nearly every scale of existence. These patterns appear in everything from the behavior of subatomic particles to the massive gravitational swirls of black holes. For over a century, this phenomenon has resisted precise mathematical prediction because minute changes in initial conditions can lead to radically different outcomes. This unpredictability has long acted as a bottleneck for engineering progress, particularly in the aerospace and energy sectors.
Why Predictability Matters
According to Michael Murillo, a professor at MSU and Director of TEMPEST, the goal is to make turbulence predictable and controllable to enable new scientific discoveries. The implications of such a breakthrough are vast. In the energy sector, mastering turbulence is critical for the development of sustainable fusion energy. In aviation, it could unlock the next generation of hypersonic flight technologies and enhance national security capabilities.
Beyond the laboratory, the center is designed to modernize the scientific pipeline. TEMPEST intends to train a new generation of AI-fluent scientists and has set an ambitious outreach goal to reach more than 10,000 K-12 students annually through dedicated education programs.
The Path Forward
To achieve these goals, the center will integrate four distinct pillars: theory, experimentation, computation, and artificial intelligence. By combining these disciplines, researchers hope to build unified predictive models that can be applied to real-world scenarios. As Qi Tang, an assistant professor at Georgia Tech, noted, the center seeks to deepen the understanding of how stars created the elements of the universe while simultaneously advancing terrestrial technology. The coming five years will determine if this multi-institutional approach can finally tame the chaos of turbulence.