visits include students in the entire range from kindergarten through high school. Students need to learn early that there are exciting things to do in creative science, including in particular the chemical sciences, and that they could play a role in inventing solutions to the challenges that humanity faces. Many students have never met a chemist or chemical engineer, and it may be essential to see that they do.

Finally, chemists and chemical engineers must accept the important challenges that they alone can meet. Some of the challenges are described in this report, but the chemical sciences community must continuously expand the list— and always stand ready to accept new ideas and meet new goals. Some of the most exciting advances in science have come from basic scientific exploration, so we must continue to encourage those who simply want to expand the frontiers of fundamental understanding.

As mentioned above, it is important to convey the excitement of the chemical sciences to students. Science is about discovery, but chemistry and chemical engineering also extend to invention. Showing students how data can be used to make a scientific deduction gives more of a flavor of the science than does simply learning a set of facts about the science. For example, students can gain real contact with primary scientific data and its interpretation if they are asked to look at an NMR spectrum of a compound and deduce its structure. Asking them to invent an experiment that will answer a chemical question can also be stimulating. Asking them how they could synthesize a given compound makes them use their knowledge in a creative way. Some of this can be done in standard lecture and laboratory courses, but it is also important to encourage creativity by promoting science fairs in which high school students can compete by entering their own research projects.

Educators should take advantage of the availability of professional chemists and chemical engineers, who can speak to the students either in class or in some special forum. Contact with practicing scientists can help students put a human face on a possible future career. It is especially important that women and minority scientists also play a role in such outreach to students, to show that indeed the profession welcomes all with the talent to contribute. Some of this effort should be directed toward the early parts of K-12 education. The future of the chemical sciences may depend on the ability of educators to convince young students that “it’s cool to be excited by chemistry.”

Chemistry is to a large extent invisible in newspapers, news magazines, television, and radio. If the message from chemists and chemical engineers is so

Front Matter (R1-R14)

Executive Summary (1-10)

1 Introduction (11-15)

2 The Structures and Cultures of the Disciplines: The Common Chemical Bond (16-21)

3 Synthesis and Manufacturing: Creating and Exploiting New Substances and New Transformations (22-40)

4 Chemical and Physical Transformations (41-54)

5 Isolating, Identifying, Imaging, and Measuring Substances and Structures (55-70)

6 Chemical Theory and Computer Modeling: From Computational Chemistry to Process Systems Engineering (71-94)

7 The Interface with Biology and Medicine (95-122)

8 Materials by Design (123-147)

9 Atmospheric and Environmental Chemistry (148-159)

10 Energy: Providing for the Future (160-170)

11 National and Personal Security (171-179)

12 How To Achieve These Goals (180-194)

Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Steering Committee Members (195-201)

Appendix B: Statement of Task (202-202)

Appendix C: Contributors (203-208)

Index (209-224)