The primary activity of the Center is conduct and support basic scientific research in nonlinear and complex systems phenomena and promote their use in applied research programs.

CNLS chooses a small number (three to four) focus topics periodically and directs a major portion of its research capabilities into these strategically important areas. The focus areas are determined by the Executive Committee, and they are chosen by taking into consideration both the Laboratory's needs for basic science relevant to mission-critical programs and the need to stay abreast of emerging and potentially important developments in complex systems research.

Previous Focus Areas

Mechanistic Studies of Human Disease Establish and maintain Atomistic modeling of biomolecules in aqueous and complex membrane environments. Atomistic, coarse grained, and ultra coarse grained models of multiple biomolecular complexes at large scale. Modeling Signaling Networks. Mechanistic modeling of Viral Infections.	Optimization and Physics Inspired Machine Learning Approaches The development of Machine Learning methods to study physical systems, with applications to atomistic materials models, nuclear fission, and geophysical systems. The development of novel algorithms that exploit the structural properties of the mathematics embedded in optimization problems.
The Dynamics of Systems Far From Equilibrium Turbulent and Compressible Flows Modeling of Flows in the Subsurface and the Ocean	Theory and Computation on Quantum Systems Quantum computation and quantum information theory
Multiscale Dynamics of Biological Systems Macromolecules - Dynamics at the Nano-Scale Cellular Dynamics and Function Cooperative Cellular Interactions	Correlations and Dynamics in Information Science Sensing and Processing of Information Modeling and Analysis of Complex Systems Inference and Learning
Bridging Equilibrium and Non-Equilibrium Statistical Physics Self-Organized Structure Quenched Disorder	Quantum Science: From Information to Materials Quantum information Atomic-Molecular-Optical Physics Quantum Materials
Multiscale Modeling of Strongly Coupled Systems Strength of materials Fluid Turbulence and Mixing Macroscopic quantum systems Mathematical physics of multiscale problems	Statistical Physics of Networks, Information and Complex Systems Neural computation Network theory Information theory
Complex Biological and Bio-inspired Systems Simulations of biochemical reaction kinetics Nano-Tubes Self-assembled thin films Bio-Polymers Quantum Chemistry	New and Enhanced Capabilities in Quantum Information Processing Quantum Computing Quantum Cryptography Quantum Sensing
Nonlinear Behavior in Complex Systems Solitons Patterns and nonlinear dynamics Excitations in condensed matter materials Nature of mathematical equations	Cooperative Phenomena in Soft Matter Energy landscapes in macromolecules Colloids, vesicles and membranes Dynamics of granular materials Statistical hydrodynamics
Dynamics of Complex Networks: Biology, Information and Security Biological networks Social networks Network theory