Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Science An Investment in the Future (1994) / Chapter Skim
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4 Funding and Infrastructure for Research and Development in AMO Science
4 Funding and Infrastructure for Research and Development in AMO Science
Pages 116-134
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From page 116... ...
RESOURCES This study comes at a time of considerable discussion and uncertainty about the future of funding for all physical sciences. Because of its vitality as a basic science and its relevance to a wide range of problems, AMO science currently is supported by a large number of agencies and is actively pursued by many academic, federal, and industrial laboratories.
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From page 117... ...
In AMO science, where much of the science is done by single investigators or small groups, the pattern has been to let the individual investigators and the peer review process determine the directions of research. The AMO science community believes strongly in an emphasis on individual creativity and in the
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From page 118... ...
It is difficult to estimate the total size of the national effort in AMO science because this depends on how the boundaries are drawn, both the boundaries of the field and the boundary between research and development. For example, at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory the support for basic AMO science is approximately $6M per year, but the entire laser-related R&D effort, including laser fusion and laser isotope separation, totals about $200M per year.
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From page 119... ...
and in many federal laboratories, but the effort has been made in representative cases. In the present study the field definition provided by the Research Specialties Directory was the most carefully applied in determining the support level from NSF and DOE.
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From page 120... ...
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From page 121... ...
This erosion in grant size is alarming but is recognized by the program managers. The Physics Division has increased the average annual award level for experimental AMO physics from $120K in PY91 to $156K in FY92.
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From page 122... ...
For comparison, the annual totals for basic AMO science at the Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories are estimated to be $5,250K and $6,350K, respectively, while large applied AMO programs such as inertial confinement fusion have budgets totaling a few hundred million dollars. The table does not include grants and contracts made to national laboratories and universities by OHER.
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From page 123... ...
The table also does not include the approximately $10M per year of support from ONR for basic AMO science at the Naval Research Laboratory. The Army Research Office supports AMO science as part of its mission to provide the requisite science base for the Army's technological needs.
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From page 124... ...
Given the modest average grant size, it is interesting to note that the respondents to the questionnaire, by a 2 to 1 margin, reject the idea of increasing the funding for the strongest programs at the expense of the total number of programs supported. But given modest increases in support, respondents in all employment sectors identified support for single-investigator, small-scale programs as their number-one priority.
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From page 125... ...
However, as already noted, the total AMO-related budgets, which include large applied AMO programs such as inertial confinement fusion, reach a few hundred million dollars. The laboratories also support large multidisciplinary facilities, such as the synchrotron light sources at Berkeley, Brookhaven, and Stanford, the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility (now slated for shutdown)
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From page 126... ...
Thus, AMO science is carried out in a balanced environment, where singleinvestigator, small science is the most prevalent, but centers and institutes, special facilities, mission-oriented research groups, and expensive instrument clusters fill important roles in bringing about the success that AMO enjoys. The term "single investigator in the university setting" means a single senior investigator who leads and trains a group of graduate and undergraduate students and postdoctoral research associates.
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From page 127... ...
In the national laboratory and industrial setting, the term "single investigator" usually refers to one to three senior scientists working together on a project, where again one of them may be the principal investigator on the funds obtained internally or through external contracts. Letters received from about 100 leaders in the AMO science community, in response to a solicitation of their comments, overwhelmingly emphasized the importance of the single investigator, while expressing the need for the balanced approach present now in the field.
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From page 128... ...
With experimental and theoretical programs in atomic physics, molecular physics, and optical physics, and also in precision measurement, the institute represents a fusion of all the disciplines of AMO science discussed in this report, including a number of the applied areas. Another centrally funded institute that bridges many of the boundaries between different specialties is the recently formed Institute for Theoretical Atomic and Molecular Physics (ITAMP)
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From page 129... ...
However, two beam lines for AMO physics are funded and are currently under construction at the Advanced Light Source: an undulator beam for AMO gas-phase experiments with lowenergy photons and a bend-magnet beam line for soft-X-ray experiments in AMO physics. Accelerator facilities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and at Kansas State University are dedicated to atomic collision studies at high energies.
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From page 130... ...
The most ambitious new facility currently being proposed is the Chemical Dynamics Research Laboratory at Berkeley, which would be built in connection with the Advanced Light Source. The proposed project currently is envisioned as an undulator beam line at the Advanced Light Source and conventional lasers, and, with necessary building and laboratory facilities, the cost is estimated to be approximately $66M.
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From page 131... ...
An interagency committee charged to help coordinate research within and among the several agencies that depend on and are responsible for AMO science may alleviate recurrence of similar problems and may be able to redress some of the problems that have already occurred. Theory Independent of employment sector, field, or whether experimentalist or theoretician, nearly 70% of respondents to the questionnaire felt that the balance between theoretical and experimental work was about right, and among the remaining 30% there was a slight bias indicating too little theory.
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From page 132... ...
Again, the declining financial situation in most universities has made matching funds more difficult, if not impossible, to obtain. AMO science is spread across a broad spectrum of universities, but researchers at many of these institutions express the opinion that those in the "wealthier" institutions benefit most from these matching programs.
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From page 133... ...
Postdoctoral AssociateslResearchers and PhD Employment In Chapter 3, it was noted that universities are producing more PhDs than the labor market is now employing. Inevitably, this means that the movement of AMO scientists into other areas will increase (which the panel views as a positive benefit)
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From page 134... ...
It provides a forum where problems and needs transcending individual subfields can be addressed. Through this committee, the AMO science community also has important ties to the Plasma Science Committee and the Solid State Sciences Committee of the NRC's Board on Physics and Astronomy, to the NRC's Board on Chemical Science and Technology, and to the NRC's National Materials Advisory Board.
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