The mission of the Flatiron Institute is to advance scientific research through computational methods, including data analysis, theory, modeling and simulation.

Simons Foundation

Featured News

An illustration of a star's cross-section with an overlay of MESA code and charts.

Center for Computational Astrophysics A Stellar Revolution: How Open-Source Tool MESA Changed the Way We Study Stars Rachel Scanza

Since its creation by retired Silicon Valley software designer Bill Paxton, the Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA) has illuminated the lives of stars and become a staple for stellar scientists. The Flatiron Institute’s increased support for the project marks a new chapter in the astrophysics tool’s storied history.

A photo of a large wave approaching Miyako City, Japan, after a magnitude 8.9 earthquake struck the area in Miyako, Japan, March 11, 2011.

Center for Computational Mathematics Tsunamis, Landslides and Asteroid Impacts: GeoClaw Models Deadly Flows

An illustration of a group of hands trying to untangle a large ball of multicolored string.

Center for Computational Biology New Study Reveals Subclasses of Autism by Linking Traits to Genetics

Our Centers

Center for Computational Astrophysics

Center for Computational Biology

Center for Computational Mathematics

Center for Computational Neuroscience

Center for Computational Quantum Physics

Scientific Computing Core

It develops, deploys and maintains computational infrastructure — from supercomputers to desktop PCs — dedicated solely to the use of Flatiron researchers.

Initiatives

Initiative for Computational Catalysis

The Simons Foundation Initiative for Computational Catalysis is a new effort within the Flatiron Institute dedicated to the development and application of computational techniques enabling the rational design of more efficient and more affordable catalysts.

Foundation Models of Science

Our goal is to accelerate the development of versatile foundation models tailored for numerical datasets and scientific machine learning tasks. The challenge we are undertaking is to build AI models which leverage information from heterogeneous datasets and across different scientific fields, which, contrary to domains like natural language processing, do not share a unifying representation.

Collaborative Work

Machine Learning at the Flatiron Institute

Machine learning has become an indispensable tool for computational science, and it is an active and growing area of research throughout the Flatiron Institute.

Structural and Molecular Biophysics

Underlying all biological processes are molecules and their interactions with each other. However, our ability to understand how these molecules function over biologically relevant scales remains very limited.

Learning the Universe

This collaboration aims to understand and determine the evolution and initial conditions of our universe, using observations via a Bayesian forward modeling approach.

CCA
| Columbia University
| Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
| Harvard University
| Stockholm University
| Institute D'Astrophysique de Paris
| Université de Montreal
| Princeton University
| Carnegie Mellon University
| Max-Planck Institute for Astrophysics

Flatiron Institute Idea Scholar Program

For distinguished scientists interested in developing scientific talent in the workforce and enabling pathways to science

Scholars may engage in a variety of activities, such as working on scientific projects, starting new collaborations, mentoring junior scientists, and organizing or participating in workshops and career development events.

Learn More

A major effort of the Flatiron Institute is the development and support of high-quality, open-source software for research.

View All Software

Research Highlights

August 4, 2025

Statistical mechanics of support vector regression

A. Canatar, S. Chung

A key problem in deep learning and computational neuroscience is relating the geometrical properties of neural representations to task performance.…

Physical Review E

July 29, 2025

Active Liquid Crystal Theory Explains the Collective Organization of Microtubules in Human Mitotic Spindles

Colm P. Kelleher, S. Maddu, Mustafa Basaran, Thomas Müller-Reichert, M. Shelley, D. Needleman

How thousands of microtubules and molecular motors self-organize into spindles remains poorly understood. By combining static, nanometer-resolution, large-scale electron tomography…

arXiv:2507.22273

July 25, 2025

Stability of co-annular active and passive confined fluids

Tanumoy Dhar, M. Shelley, D. Saintillan

The translation and shape deformations of a passive viscous Newtonian droplet immersed in an active nematic liquid crystal under circular…

arXiv:2501.04918

News & Announcements

Center for Computational Astrophysics

August 12, 2025

A Stellar Revolution: How Open-Source Tool MESA Changed the Way We Study Stars Rachel Scanza

Center for Computational Mathematics

July 30, 2025

Tsunamis, Landslides and Asteroid Impacts: GeoClaw Models Deadly Flows Amanda Heidt

Center for Computational Astrophysics

July 21, 2025

Gravitational Waves Reveal Most Massive Black Hole Merger Ever Detected By Jane Beaufore

Two black holes in a binary system surrounded by spirals of material.

Leadership

Leslie Greengard, M.D., Ph.D.

Director, CCM

Leslie Greengard joined the Simons Foundation in 2013 as founding director of the Simons Center for Data Analysis, now called the Center for Computational Biology. Prior to that, Greengard served as director of the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University.

Julianne Dalcanton, Ph.D.

Director, CCA

Julianne Dalcanton joined the Simons Foundation in September 2021 as the director of the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Astrophysics (CCA). Her research specializes in the origins and evolution of galaxies.

Ian Fisk, Ph.D.

Chief Technology Officer, Simons Foundation

Ian Fisk came to the Simons Foundation in 2014 after working in the computing division at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois since 2003. Fisk was the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment’s computing coordinator at CERN from 2010 to 2013, overseeing operations and improvements…

Antoine Georges, Ph.D.

Director, CCQ

Antoine Georges is a professor of physics at the Collège de France, where he holds the chair in condensed matter physics. He also has joint appointments with École Polytechnique and the University of Geneva. He received his Ph.D. from the École Normale Supérieure in 1988.…

Andrew Millis, Ph.D.

Co-Director, CCQ

Andrew Millis is co-director of the Center for Computational Quantum Physics at the Flatiron Institute and professor of physics at Columbia University. He currently serves as Managing Director of the Flatiron Institute.

Michael Shelley, Ph.D.

Director, CCB

Michael Shelley joined the Simons Foundation in 2016 to work on the modeling and simulation of complex systems arising in physics and biology.

Eero P. Simoncelli, Ph.D.

Director, CCN

Eero P. Simoncelli is the inaugural director of the Center for Computational Neuroscience. Eero P. Simoncelli’s research interests span a wide range of topics in the representation and analysis of visual images and sounds in both machine and biological vision systems.