Summary
The Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) has established a national consortium to secure the open-source software GEMS long-term. GEMS (Gibbs Energy Minimisation Software) calculates chemical and thermodynamic processes in complex systems – processes that take nature thousands of years to complete are simulated by the software in seconds. The consortium comprises researchers from PSI, ETH Zurich, Empa, the University of Bern, EPFL, and Nagra. The software, initiated at PSI over 30 years ago, is used worldwide by thousands of scientists and forms the basis for numerous publications across diverse disciplines.
People
- George-Dan Miron (Scientific Director GEMS, PSI)
- Dmitrii Kulik (Geochemist, Founder GEMS Prototype)
Topics
- Open-Source Software
- Thermodynamic Modelling
- Geochemistry
- Swiss Research Infrastructure
- Sustainable Materials
Clarus Lead
The consortium's establishment addresses a central governance problem in research software ecology: valuable, globally-used tools risk becoming obsolete when their maintenance remains concentrated on individual persons or institutions. With Dmitrii Kulik's retirement, the vulnerability became acute – the shift to a distributed consortium creates continuity and independence. For the Swiss research landscape, this signals a strategic prioritization of research software as critical infrastructure, comparable to large-scale research facilities.
Detailed Summary
GEMS is based on the thermodynamic concept of Gibbs energy – a fundamental quantity that describes the most stable state of a system. George-Dan Miron explains the principle using a market analogy: just as a price system determines how chemical elements distribute across different phases and which end state is thermodynamically most favorable, Gibbs energy does the same. The software reconstructs these equilibria in seconds – a capacity that complements or replaces classical laboratory experiments.
The breadth of applications is extraordinary. Researchers at the University of Bern used GEMS to characterize a naturally unknown mineral discovered in a Mars meteorite and reconstruct the pressure-temperature conditions of its formation in the early solar system atmosphere. In cement research (PSI, Empa, EPFL), GEMS enables virtual screening of hundreds of low-CO₂ formulations before they are synthesized in the laboratory – a critical advantage in an industry responsible for 8% of global CO₂ emissions. A third field of application is lithium extraction from geothermal deep waters: GEMS models how fluid compositions change under variable conditions and which geochemical processes could enable selective lithium recovery – an alternative to water-intensive Australian and Latin American mining methods.
The original motivation for GEMS emerged from the Swiss radioactive waste repository project. Since the late 1980s, geochemist Dmitrii Kulik systematically developed a prototype for modeling interactions between steel, concrete, water, and rock over geological timescales (tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years). This fundamental work was supported by intensive experimental campaigns at the PSI Hot Laboratory, where radionuclide reactions with Opalinus clay and other materials were investigated. The accumulated experimental data and thermodynamic databases make GEMS unique worldwide to this day.
Key Messages
- GEMS simulates thermodynamic equilibria in seconds – a tool for planetary science, materials science, and geochemistry
- The new consortium distributes maintenance, modernization, and funding across six Swiss research institutions
- The software originated from requirements in repository research and is now used in dozens of disciplines
Critical Questions
Evidence/Data Quality: What validation mechanisms ensure that GEMS modelling corresponds to experimental data? Are there public benchmarks or comparative studies with competing software packages?
Conflicts of Interest: To what extent do GEMS's origins in Nagra-funded repository research influence the prioritization of further developments? Do consortium members have incentives to favor certain application fields?
Causality/Alternatives: Is the consortium's establishment a response to concrete funding gaps or maintenance backlogs, or is it preventive? Are there alternative open-source tools for thermodynamic modelling, and if so, what niche does GEMS occupy?
Feasibility/Risks: How are conflicts between consortium members resolved when development priorities diverge? What governance structure is established, and how is independence from individual funders ensured?
Sustainability: Is the funding commitment from the six institutions sufficient for a full-time position or multiple developers? How long is the consortium contractually bound?
Reproducibility: How transparent are the thermodynamic databases and model parameters? Can users trace input data and assumptions?
Sources
Primary Source: GEMS Consortium: National Collaboration for Open-Source Thermodynamic Software – Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, 31.03.2026
Supplementary Resources:
- GEMS Software Portal – Official Documentation and Download
Verification Status: ✓ 31.03.2026
This text was created with the support of an AI model. Editorial Responsibility: clarus.news | Fact-Check: 31.03.2026