The National Science Foundation’s Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers Program
LOOKING BACK, MOVING FORWARD
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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.
This study was supported by Grant No. DMR-0446470 between the National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Foundation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-10961-1
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-10961-2
Cover: An electric field can cause a polymer film to be unstable. If, in addition, the polymer does not stick to the surface of the underlying support, the polymer will withdraw from the surface, like water on a nonstick pan. These two factors produce an instability that can be seen with an optical microscope by the interference colors. The instability, in this case, has caused the formation of this unusual structure, since the electric field that was used was not uniform across the film. The fingerlike texture can be used to measure the properties of the polymer. Courtesy of T. Xu, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
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MRSEC IMPACT ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE
MATTHEW V. TIRRELL,
University of California at Santa Barbara,
Chair
KRISTI S. ANSETH,
University of Colorado at Boulder
MEIGAN ARONSON,
Brookhaven National Laboratory
DAVID M. CEPERLEY,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
PAUL M. CHAIKIN,
New York University
RONALD C. DAVIDSON,
Princeton University
DUANE B. DIMOS,
Sandia National Laboratories
FRANCIS J. DiSALVO,
Cornell University
EDITH M. FLANIGEN,
UOP, Inc. (retired)
THOMAS F. KUECH,
University of Wisconsin-Madison
DIANDRA L. LESLIE-PELECKY,
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
BRUCE H. MARGON,
University of California at Santa Cruz
ANDREW MILLIS,
Columbia University
VENKATESH NARAYANAMURTI,
Harvard University
RALPH G. NUZZO,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
DOUGLAS D. OSHEROFF,
Stanford University
STUART PARKIN,
IBM Almaden Research Center
JULIA M. PHILLIPS,
Sandia National Laboratories
LYLE H. SCHWARTZ,
Air Force Office of Scientific Research (retired)
ELI YABLONOVITCH,
University of California at Los Angeles
NEIL E. PATON,
LiquidMetal Technologies,
Consultant
Staff
DONALD C. SHAPERO, Director,
Board on Physics and Astronomy
TIMOTHY I. MEYER, Senior Program Officer
DAVID B. LANG, Research Associate
VAN AN, Financial Associate
SOLID STATE SCIENCES COMMITTEE
PETER F. GREEN,
University of Michigan,
Chair
BARBARA JONES,
IBM Almaden Research Center,
Vice Chair
COLLIN L. BROHOLM,
Johns Hopkins University
ELBIO DAGOTTO,
Oak Ridge National Laboratory and University of Tennessee
DUANE B. DIMOS,
Sandia National Laboratories
JAMES P. EISENSTEIN,
California Institute of Technology
SHARON C. GLOTZER,
University of Michigan
MARC A. KASTNER,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
STEVEN A. KIVELSON,
University of California at Los Angeles
SIDNEY R. NAGEL,
University of Chicago
MONICA OLVERA DE LA CRUZ,
Northwestern University
ARTHUR P. RAMIREZ,
Lucent Technologies, Inc.
A. DOUGLAS STONE,
Yale University
ANTOINETTE “TONI” TAYLOR,
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Staff
DONALD C. SHAPERO, Director,
Board on Physics and Astronomy
NATALIA J. MELCER, Program Officer
CARYN J. KNUTSEN, Senior Program Assistant
BOARD ON PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY
ANNEILA L. SARGENT,
California Institute of Technology,
Chair
MARC A. KASTNER,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Vice Chair
JOANNA AIZENBERG,
Lucent Technologies
JONATHAN A. BAGGER,
Johns Hopkins University
JAMES E. BRAU,
University of Oregon
RONALD C. DAVIDSON,
Princeton University
ANDREA M. GHEZ,
University of California at Los Angeles
PETER F. GREEN,
University of Michigan
WICK C. HAXTON,
University of Washington
FRANCES HELLMAN,
University of California at Berkeley
JOSEPH HEZIR,
EOP Group, Inc.
ERICH P. IPPEN,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
ALLAN H. MacDONALD,
University of Texas at Austin
CHRISTOPHER F. McKEE,
University of California at Berkeley
HOMER A. NEAL,
University of Michigan
JOSE N. ONUCHIC,
University of California at San Diego
WILLIAM D. PHILLIPS,
National Institute of Standards and Technology
THOMAS N. THEIS,
IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
C. MEGAN URRY,
Yale University
Staff
DONALD C. SHAPERO, Director
TIMOTHY I. MEYER, Senior Program Officer
ROBERT L. RIEMER, Senior Program Officer
NATALIA J. MELCER, Program Officer
BRIAN D. DEWHURST, Senior Program Associate
DAVID B. LANG, Research Associate
CARYN J. KNUTSEN, Senior Program Assistant
VAN AN, Financial Associate
SHARON FORETIA,
Anderson-Commonweal Intern (Summer 2007)
Preface
The MRSEC Impact Assessment Committee was convened by the National Research Council in response to an informal request from the National Science Foundation. Charged to examine the impact of the Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers program (MRSEC program) and to provide guidance for the future (see Appendix A), the committee included experts from across materials research as well as several from outside the field (see Appendix G for biographical sketches of the committee members).
The committee describes its analysis in this report at three different levels of detail in order to make the analysis accessible to the broadest possible audience. The Executive Summary provides a brief summary of the report. The Overview describes the complete chain of reasoning and includes all of the findings, conclusions, and recommendations. Chapters 1 through 6 then present detailed discussions and evidence.
In preparing its report, the committee found it necessary to distinguish among three types of key statements. All appear in boldface within this report but are to be distinguished as follows:
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General finding: A nontrivial observation that, in the committee’s judgment, arises from the evidence examined in the course of its work. These general findings express general principles that are not unique to the MRSEC program performance and impact assessment.
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Conclusion: A nontrivial observation that the committee derived during
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its work that pertains directly to the MRSEC program’s performance and impact assessment.
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Recommendation: An action item assigned to specific entities that the committee believes will enhance the future performance and impact of the MRSEC program for materials research.
The committee thanks its generous hosts at each of its site visits (Boston University, California Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Michigan State University, University of California at San Diego, University of California at Santa Barbara, University of Florida, University of Michigan, University of Southern California, and University of Southern Mississippi); these half-day meetings were an invaluable data-gathering tool for the committee. The warm hospitality provided an environment for frank discussion and insightful suggestions that contributed to the committee’s understanding of the issues. At each of its meetings, many invited experts gave testimony on their experiences working in materials research (see Appendix B). The committee greatly appreciates the time and effort that these individuals put into preparing their remarks.
The committee gratefully acknowledges the thoughtful and very helpful participation of the staff from the National Research Council’s Board on Science Education, including Jean Moon, Andrew Shouse, and Yan Liu. These experts helped the committee to collect and analyze data on the education and outreach activities at Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers as well as understand the frontiers of research in science education.
Matthew V. Tirrell, Chair
MRSEC Impact Assessment Committee
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 National Research Council’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:
Elihu Abrahams, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey,
Paul A. Fleury, Yale University,
Jerry Gollub, Haverford College,
Fiona Goodchild, California NanoSystems Institute,
Arthur F. Hebard, University of Florida,
Joseph S. Hezir, EOP Group, Inc.,
Marc A. Kastner, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Linda (Lee) J. Magid, University of Tennessee,
Christopher Monroe, University of Michigan,
Donald W. Murphy, Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies,
N.P. Ong, Princeton University,
Thomas Russell, University of Massachusetts at Amherst,
Dan J. Thoma, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and
Julia R. Weertman, Northwestern 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 Donald M. Tennant, Cornell University. Appointed by the National Research Council, he was 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.