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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2003. Beyond the Molecular Frontier: Challenges for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10633.
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BEYOND THE MOLECULAR FRONTIER

CHALLENGES FOR CHEMISTRY AND CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

Committee on Challenges for the Chemical Sciences in the 21st Century

Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C.
www.nap.edu

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2003. Beyond the Molecular Frontier: Challenges for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10633.
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THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
500 Fifth Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20001

NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.

Support for this study was provided by the National Research Council, the U.S. Department of Energy (DE-AT-01-EE41424, BES DE-FG-02-00ER15040, and DE-AT01-03ER15386), the National Science Foundation (CTS-9908440), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DOD MDA972-01-M-0001), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (R82823301), the American Chemical Society, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Camille and henry Dryfus Foundation (SG00-093), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NA1341-01-2-1070 and 43NANB010995), the National Institutes of Health (NCI-N01-OD-4-2139 and NIGMS-N01-OD-4-2139), and the chemical industry.

All opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for this project.

International Standard Book Number: 0-309-08477-6

Library of Congress Control Number: 2003100913

Additional copies of this report are available from:
The National Academies Press
500 Fifth St., NW Box 285 Washington, DC 20055 800-624-6242 202-334-3313 (in the Washington Metropolitan Area) http://www.nap.edu

Copyright 2003 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2003. Beyond the Molecular Frontier: Challenges for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10633.
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THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES

Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering, and Medicine

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts is president of the National Academy of Sciences.

The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. William A. Wulf is president of the National Academy of Engineering.

The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg is president of the Institute of Medicine.

The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts and Dr. William A. Wulf are chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the National Research Council.

www.national-academies.org

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2003. Beyond the Molecular Frontier: Challenges for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10633.
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COMMITTEE ON CHALLENGES FOR THE CHEMICAL SCIENCES IN THE 21ST CENTURY

RONALD BRESLOW,

Columbia University,

Co-Chair

MATTHEW V. TIRRELL,

University of California, Santa Barbara,

Co-Chair

JACQUELINE K. BARTON,

California Institute of Technology

MARK A. BARTEAU,

University of Delaware

CAROLYN R. BERTOZZI,

University of California, Berkeley

ROBERT A. BROWN,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

ALICE P. GAST,1

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

IGNACIO E. GROSSMANN,

Carnegie Mellon University

JAMES M. MEYER,2

E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co.

ROYCE W. MURRAY,

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

PAUL J. REIDER,

Amgen, Inc.

WILLIAM R. ROUSH,

University of Michigan

MICHAEL L. SHULER,

Cornell University

JEFFREY J. SIIROLA,

Eastman Chemical Company

GEORGE M. WHITESIDES,

Harvard University

PETER G. WOLYNES,

University of California, San Diego

RICHARD N. ZARE,

Stanford University

Staff

JENNIFER J. JACKIW, Program Officer

CHRISTOPHER K. MURPHY, Program Officer

RUTH MCDIARMID, Program Officer

SYBIL A. PAIGE, Administrative Associate

DOUGLAS J. RABER, Senior Scholar

DAVID C. RASMUSSEN, Program Assistant

DOROTHY ZOLANDZ, Director,

BCST

1  

Committee member until July 2001; subsequently BCST liaison to the committee in her role as co-chair of the Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology.

2  

Committee membership ended March 2002, following Meyer’s retirement from DuPont.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2003. Beyond the Molecular Frontier: Challenges for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10633.
×

BOARD ON CHEMICAL SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY

ALICE P. GAST,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology,

Co-Chair

WILLIAM KLEMPERER,

Harvard University,

Co-Chair

ARTHUR I. BIENENSTOCK,

Stanford University

A. WELFORD CASTLEMAN, JR.,

The Pennsylvania State University

ANDREA W. CHOW,

Caliper Technologies Corp.

THOMAS M. CONNELLY, JR.,

E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co.

JEAN DE GRAEVE,

Institut de Pathologie, Liège, Belgium

JOSEPH M. DESIMONE,

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and North Carolina State University

CATHERINE FENSELAU,

University of Maryland

JON FRANKLIN,

University of Maryland

MARY L. GOOD,

University of Arkansas, Little Rock

RICHARD M. GROSS,

Dow Chemical Company

NANCY B. JACKSON,

Sandia National Laboratories

SANGTAE KIM,

Eli Lilly and Company

THOMAS J. MEYER,

Los Alamos National Laboratory

PAUL J. REIDER,

Amgen, Inc.

ARNOLD F. STANCELL,

Georgia Institute of Technology

ROBERT M. SUSSMAN,

Latham & Watkins

JOHN C. TULLY,

Yale University

CHI-HUEY WONG,

Scripps Research Institute

Staff

JENNIFER J. JACKIW, Program Officer

CHRISTOPHER K. MURPHY, Program Officer

RUTH MCDIARMID, Program Officer

SYBIL A. PAIGE, Administrative Associate

DOUGLAS J. RABER, Senior Scholar

DAVID C. RASMUSSEN, Program Assistant

DOROTHY ZOLANDZ, Director

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2003. Beyond the Molecular Frontier: Challenges for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10633.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2003. Beyond the Molecular Frontier: Challenges for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10633.
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Preface

At the start of this project, the Committee solicited input from the chemical sciences community. The request for input was sent via e-mail to a large number of scientists and engineers, and a general request for information appeared in Chemical & Engineering News.1 The committee received many valuable ideas in response to these requests. Additional input from the broader community was obtained as the committee wrote this report, when individual members of the committee consulted with their colleagues to obtain specific and detailed technical input. The committee is pleased to acknowledge all these contributors; a listing of their names and affiliations is presented in Appendix C.

This study was conducted under the auspices of the National Research Council’s Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology with assistance provided by its staff. The committee also acknowledges this support.

Ronald Breslow and Matthew V. Tirrell Co-Chairs

Committee on Challenges for the Chemical Sciences in the 21st Century

1  

“Your Ideas, Please!” Madeleine Jacobs, Editor-in-Chief, Chemical & Engineering News, 78(14), April 3, 2000.

Page viii Cite
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2003. Beyond the Molecular Frontier: Challenges for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10633.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2003. Beyond the Molecular Frontier: Challenges for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10633.
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Acknowledgment of Reviewers

This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the NRC’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report:

Richard C. Alkire, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

John L. Anderson, Carnegie Mellon University

John A. Armstrong, IBM

Edwin A. Chandross, Bell Laboratories

Pablo G. Debenedetti, Princeton University

Louis C. Glasgow, DuPont Company

Louis L. Hegedus, ATOFINA Chemicals, Incorporated

Nancy B. Jackson, Sandia National Laboratories

William Klemperer, Harvard University

Tobin J. Marks, Northwestern University

Kathlyn A. Parker, SUNY, Stony Brook

Michael P. Ramage, Exxon-Mobil (retired)

Martin Saunders, Yale University

Randy Schekman, University of California, Berkeley

Gabor A. Somorjai, University of California, Berkeley

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2003. Beyond the Molecular Frontier: Challenges for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10633.
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Karl K. Turekian, Yale University

Paul S. Weiss, The Pennsylvania State University

Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Pierre C. Hohenberg, Yale University, and R. Stephen Berry, University of Chicago. Appointed by the National Research Council, they were responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2003. Beyond the Molecular Frontier: Challenges for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10633.
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Who of us would not be glad to lift the veil behind which the future lies hidden; to cast a glance at the next advances of our science and at the secrets of its development during future centuries?

David Hilbert, 1900, Paris

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2003. Beyond the Molecular Frontier: Challenges for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10633.
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Chemistry and chemical engineering have changed significantly in the last decade. They have broadened their scope—into biology, nanotechnology, materials science, computation, and advanced methods of process systems engineering and control—so much that the programs in most chemistry and chemical engineering departments now barely resemble the classical notion of chemistry. Beyond the Molecular Frontier brings together research, discovery, and invention across the entire spectrum of the chemical sciences—from fundamental, molecular-level chemistry to large-scale chemical processing technology. This reflects the way the field has evolved, the synergy at universities between research and education in chemistry and chemical engineering, and the way chemists and chemical engineers work together in industry.

The astonishing developments in science and engineering during the 20th century have made it possible to dream of new goals that might previously have been considered unthinkable. This book identifies the key opportunities and challenges for the chemical sciences, from basic research to societal needs and from terrorism defense to environmental protection, and it looks at the ways in which chemists and chemical engineers can work together to contribute to an improved future.

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