The MGCF (Molecular Graphics and Computation Facility) is a research resource in computational chemistry and scientific visualization for over 50 research groups in the College of Chemistry and the wider UC Berkeley campus community. We also serve research groups at other universities including MIT, U of Oregon, U of Texas, and other UC's.

We provide high-performance computing resources for research and educational uses in chemistry and related disciplines. The facility was founded in 1990 with NIH funding and has since been supported through NIH, NSF and generous corporate sponsorship.

The main MGCF interactive workspace is in 175 Tan Hall while our servers housed in the campus Data Center. In 175 Tan Hall, we have 12 workstations for interactive use (4K monitors, 24 core x 128GB, Nvidia GPU cards). The Data Center houses our computing cluster described here

We have full-time scientists providing technical consulting on project feasibility, equipment and software use.

Operations are supported by modest access and use fees.


MGCF People:

All general inquires, support questions, new login requests etc should go to: mgcf@berkeley.edu

We all read the mgcf address and one of us will respond. Please use this for all facility questions. If you want to contact us invididually about private topics, please use:

Facility Director: Dr. Kathleen Durkin durkin@berkeley.edu (Kathy is retiring at the end of June and then will be about 40% part time.)

Facility Scientist: Dr. Azhagiya Singam eazhagiy@berkeley.edu (Singam will be the acting Director as of July 1, 2024)

Facility Scientist: Dr. Dave Small mgcf@berkeley.edu

Most emails should go to mgcf@berkeley.edu since that address is a shared resource for us to help you and the first one of us who is available will respond.

Singam is currently on research funds and is not doing direct facility user support, but Kathy will be switching to part time in June 2024 and then Singam will take over for most of her role.


Kavli ENSI: The MCGF provides computing resources for Kavli ENSI researchers. There are 2 dedicated Kavli ENSI workstations in 175 Tan Hall but Kavli ENSI researchers have full access to all MGCF resources as described on this site.


Chevron Instructional Facility: Generously funded by Chevron and supporting undergraduate classes in the College of Chemistry, this is the south half of 175 Tan Hall. It is managed for the College of Chemistry by ETS. Email Esayas Kelkile if you want to use the Chevron Facility for a class or event.