Introduction

The key objective of Scientific Computing is to provide and further develop a new promising research tool for natural and engineering scientists, Numerical Simulation. Here, we use knowledge from theoretical as well as experimental research to set up virtual experiments on a computer. This approach yields a third novel way to describe the complex questions arising from our natural environment and can help in their investigation. The three main areas of research we can distinguish in scientific computing are: mathematical modeling, the development of appropriate numerical methods, and the efficient implementation of the simulation environment on a (parallel) computer.