Michigan State University has received a $30 million grant from the National Science Foundation to establish the Transformative Explorations in Multi-Physics and Engineering of Scientific Turbulence, or TEMPEST, Science and Technology Center, bringing together researchers in physics, mathematics, engineering and artificial intelligence to study one of science’s most challenging problems: understanding, predicting and ultimately controlling turbulence.
The NSF funding begins September 1, 2026. TEMPEST will bring together researchers across multiple universities, national laboratories and private-sector organizations to develop new approaches to studying turbulent systems.
Turbulence describes the chaotic, swirling movement that occurs in fluids and plasmas. It appears across systems ranging from atmospheric storms and ocean currents to industrial processes, aircraft and experimental fusion devices.
Because turbulent behavior can occur across vastly different scales and involves complicated interactions between physical processes, predicting it reliably remains a major scientific and engineering challenge.
TEMPEST will combine theory, computation, experimentation and artificial intelligence to develop more trustworthy predictive models of real-world turbulent systems.
The research could have applications across energy, aerospace, transportation, advanced manufacturing, weather forecasting, public health and fusion energy, among other areas.
Michigan State will lead a broad academic consortium that includes Auburn University, Baylor University, Georgia Institute of Technology, San José State University, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, University of Rochester and Yale University.
Additional partners include Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Pacific Fusion and General Atomics.
Researchers will investigate turbulence from microscopic interactions through much larger systems such as atmospheric jet streams.
The center’s goal is to connect fundamental scientific understanding with practical engineering applications rather than studying individual turbulence problems separately.
Researchers in MSU’s College of Engineering will concentrate on applications involving energy, transportation, aerospace and advanced manufacturing.
Meanwhile, scientists within the College of Natural Science will develop theories and mathematical frameworks intended to explain how turbulence originates, evolves and interacts across different physical scales.
By combining those theoretical frameworks with experiments, advanced computing and AI, TEMPEST researchers plan to continually test predictions against real-world observations and use the results to improve their models.
The longer-term objective is to move beyond explaining turbulent systems toward being able to predict their behavior and potentially control them.
TEMPEST will be directed by Michael Murillo, a professor in MSU’s colleges of Engineering and Natural Science.
Beyond its research program, TEMPEST plans to make its data and software broadly available, potentially allowing researchers outside the center to build on its findings.
The center will also establish education and public engagement programs involving museum exhibitions, immersive media and other initiatives expected to reach more than 10,000 K-12 students annually.
Another focus will be developing an AI-fluent scientific workforce capable of applying modern computational and artificial intelligence methods to complex multidisciplinary research problems.
The center will initially be housed in MSU’s Engineering Building.
TEMPEST is expected to eventually move into the university’s new Leinweber Center for Engineering and Digital Innovation, which is scheduled to open in 2028.
The NSF Science and Technology Center model is designed to bring together researchers across institutions and disciplines to address large-scale scientific challenges while integrating research, education and workforce development.
KEY QUOTES:
“This National Science Foundation grant is a tremendous vote of confidence in Michigan State University and an investment in the strength of our faculty to understand some of the most complex scientific challenges facing our world,” said MSU President Kevin M. Guskiewicz, Ph.D. “This is exactly the kind of ambitious, collaborative research that defines our role as a national research university.”
Kevin M. Guskiewicz, Ph.D., President of Michigan State University
“TEMPEST represents the kind of collaborative, impact-driven research that defines Michigan State University’s research enterprise, uniting faculty, students/postdocs and world-class partners from academia, government and industry around a problem that has challenged scientists for more than a century,” said Priya. “Learning to understand and, one day, control these complex, ever-changing systems could reshape how we fly, how we power our world, how we forecast the weather, and how we protect public health.”
Shashank Priya, Vice President for Research and Innovation at Michigan State University
“Engineering is ultimately about understanding the world well enough to design something better, and turbulence is at the heart of many of the systems engineers work to design and develop,” said John Papapolymerou, dean of the College of Engineering. “TEMPEST will allow our researchers and students to connect these discoveries about turbulent flows with real-world engineering challenges that benefit society — from energy and transportation to advanced manufacturing and aerospace.”
John Papapolymerou, Dean of the College of Engineering at Michigan State University
“Rather than studying individual pieces of this enormously complex problem in isolation, we are bringing together theory, experimentation, computation and artificial intelligence to develop a deeper understanding of turbulence across scales,” said Murillo. “Our goal is not simply to understand turbulence better, but to make it predictable and controllable in ways that will enable new technologies and scientific discoveries.”
Michael Murillo, TEMPEST Director and Professor at Michigan State University
