Materials Science and Engineering Where Are We Going?

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Materials Science and EngineeringWhere Are We
Going?

• W. Lance Haworth, Acting Director, DMR
• University Materials Council Meeting
• Washington, DC
• 14 May 2007

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Outline

• NSF perspective DMR primer
• Challenges for DMR and the materials community
• One very specific challenge for UMC

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Merit Review Criteria
NSF invests in the best ideas from the most
capable people, determined by competitivemerit
review

• Intellectual Merit
• What projects are most likely to produce new
  knowledge?
• Broader Impacts
• Education, people, benefit to society,
  infrastructure, dissemination, impact on science
  and engineering
• See the DMR Dear Colleague Letter at
  www.nsf.gov/materials

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NSB 2020 Vision for NSF (2005)

• The National Science Foundation ensures that
  the Nation maintains a position of eminence in
  global science, technology, and knowledge
  development through leadership in
  transformational research and excellence in
  science education, thus driving economic
  vitality, an improved quality of life, and
  national security.

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We seek a fundamental understanding of materials
and condensed matter
TRANSFORMATIVE MATERIALS
Can we understand and control processing/structure
/properties relationships in engineering
materials?
Can we create new materials for science and
technology?
How can we explore and develop the frontier
between materials and biology?
Can we understand and apply the physics of
condensed matter?
How can we understand and exploit the nano-world?
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Division of Materials ResearchFocus for Diverse
Communities and Funding ModesNSF support for
materials research is not limited to DMR

• Individual Investigators and Groups
• Condensed Matter and Materials Theory, Condensed
  Matter Physics
• Solid State Chemistry, Polymers, Biomaterials
• Metals, Ceramics, Electronic/Optical Materials
• Cross-cutting Programs
• Centers, Institutes Partnerships
• User Facilities and Instrumentation
• Office of Special Programs (International
  Collaboration Education)
• Distributed Mechanisms
• Focused Research Groups
• NSF-wide programs REU/RET, CAREER, GOALI,
  MRI, etc
• DMR is a major partner in NSF-NANO
• Connections Co-funding

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Directorate for Mathematical Physical
SciencesFunding History, 1997-2008
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DMR Proposal Pressure Success Rates (Research
Grants)
Proposals
Success Rate

• Many strong proposals declined essentially for
  lack of funds
• Does this inhibit risk?
• Grant sizes not keeping pace with scientific
  inflation
• Success rates vary but NSF-wide average is no
  better

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DMR Program Balance
FY 2006 252.2M (includes MRI)
About 2000 faculty members, 600 postdocs, 2500
grad students and 1500 undergraduates on budget
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DMR Funding History, 1996-2006 242.6M in FY06
1.60
1.40
1.20
1.00
IMR, ITR and other included in total
96
06
02
98
00
04
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ACI
Everything DMR supports is relevant to American
competitiveness!

• Emphases
• Tie fundamental discoveries to marketable
  technologies
• Facilities and instrumentation
• World class science and engineering workforce
• Focus on Phys Sci Engineering
• Doubles NSF, DOE-OS, NIST over 10 years

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Science, 11 May 2007
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MPS by Division
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Some New DMR Activities

• Biomaterials Program
• Partnerships for Research and Education in
  Materials (PREM)
• Materials World Network
• Mid-scale Instrumentation

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Management Challenges for DMR

• Success rates and grant sizes
• We MUST broaden participation in materials
  research
• Support for young faculty
• Balance among funding modes
• Transformative research
• Instrumentation and facilities
• Bench-scale, mid-scale, and large scale
• Light source panel
• Collaborative research on complex problems
• Centers, groups, networks
• Cooperation across NSF, interagency,
  internationally
• ACI is our huge opportunity

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Materials World Network NSF 06-590
A globally engaged workforce
Since 2001 800 NSF proposals, 130 awards, 50.2M
Map shows partnership-funded collaborations in
2006
International Materials Institutes are developing
partnerships that include Asia and Africa
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Intellectual ChallengesFY 08 DMR Focus Areas

• Via core programs wherever possible
• Nanoscale materials and phenomena
• Computational discovery and innovation
• Complex systems including biomaterials
• Fundamental research addressing Science Beyond
  Moores Law
• Expect the unexpected!

What are the challenges for MSE?
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Cyber-enabled Discovery and Innovation Its a
2-way street Materials enable CI and CI will
have an enormous impact on the way we do
research
Simon Billinge, Michigan St Ernest Fuentes,
Cornell/CHESS Mark Novotny, Mississippi
St Krishna Rajan, Iowa St Bruce Robinson, U
Washington Fred Sachs, SUNY-Buffalo Susan
Sinnott, U Florida Horst Henning Winter, U Mass

• Read the report and post comments at
• www.mcc.uiuc.edu/nsf/ciw_2006/

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Transformative Research
The National Science Foundation must support the
most innovative and potentially transformative
research research that has the capacity to
revolutionize existing fields, create new
subfields, cause paradigm shifts, support
discovery, and lead to radically new
technologies The Foundation must create an
environment that is more open to and encourages
transformative research proposals from the
research community. National Science Board, 2020
Vision for the National Science Foundation, 2005
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Transformative Research

• Small grants for exploratory research
• Creativity extensions
• MRSECs explicit support to respond quickly and
  effectively to new opportunities, and to pursue
  high risk, high impact and transformative
  research.
• Most NSF awards are grants and offer a lot of
  flexibility
• Program directors will kill for the chance to
  support really exciting research
• and yet
• There exists a substantial external perception
  that NSF does not support transformative
  research.
• NSB 07-32
• Is NSF risk-averse? Are we doing enough to
  support risky and potentially transformative
  research??

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Beyond Bias and Barriers Fulfilling the
Potential of Women in Academic Science and
Engineering
NAS Committee on Science, Engineering and Public
Policy, 2006

1. Studies have not found any significant biological
   differences between men and women in performing
   science and mathematics that can account for the
   lower representation of women in academic faculty
   and leadership positions in ST fields.
2. Compared with men, women faculty members are
   generally paid less and promoted more slowly,
   receive fewer honors, and hold fewer leadership
   positions. These discrepancies do not appear to
   be based on productivity, the significance of
   their work, or any other performance measures.
3. Measures of success underlying performance-evaluat
   ion systems are often arbitrary and frequently
   applied in ways that place women at a
   disadvantage.

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Broadening Participation The Under-represented
Majority Shirley Jackson DMR Competitive
Awards to Women and Minorities
Women (66/385 in FY06)
Minority (34/385 in FY06)
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Partnerships for Research and Education in
Materials
PREMs broaden participation in materials research
and education by developing long-term,
collaborative partnerships between minority
serving institutions and DMR-supported groups,
centers and facilities

• Competitive award to minority serving
  institutions
• Interdisciplinary research teams involve both
  institutions
• Education programs to build student participation
• Competitions 2004 and 2006
• Now 10 Awards of 500k/year for 5 years
• Next open competition 2009

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Department Chair Workshops on Gender Equity
Presenters repeatedly stressed that more than an
issue of fairness, gender equity is in the
nations self-interest, since attracting the best
minds to science promotes national security and
the U.S. position in the global economy.

• Chemistry
• January 29-31 2006, Arlington, VA (NSF, NIH, DOE)
• Co-chairs Ken Houk (UCLA), Cynthia Friend
  (Harvard)
• http//www.chem.harvard.edu/groups/friend/GenderEq
  uityWorkshop/
• Physics
• May 6-8 2007, College Park, MD (NSF, DOE)
• Co-chairs Nora Berrah (WMU), Arthur Bienenstock
  (Stanford)
• http//www.aps.org/programs/women/workshops/gender
  -equity.cfm

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Broadening Participation in MSE

• Materials Science and Engineering Departments /
  UMC
• A gender equity and/or diversity workshop for
  MSE chairs
• Define the goals
• NSF will support this, and other agencies may
  join as well

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DMR PRIMER
www.nsf.gov/materials
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Guidance and Advice

• DMR Committee of Visitors
• 2005 chair Horst Stormer
• 2008 (next) chair Paul Peercy
• MPS Advisory Committee
• Covers Astronomy, Chemistry, Mathematics/Statistic
  s, Physics, and Materials Research
• Current recent DMR-community members include
  Shenda Baker, Larry Dalton, Sue Coppersmith,
  Peter Green, Sol Gruner, Frances Hellman, Venky
  Narayanamurti, Monica Olvera, Ian Robertson, Wole
  Soboyejo
• Workshops NAS Studies and Reports etc

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When to Send Us Your Proposal
Watch for DMR proposal solicitation

• Unsolicited Proposals to DMR Programs
• Window 17 Sept 2 November 2007 (send early!)
• CAREER proposals
• July 2007 (by Directorate)
• MRSECs NSF07-563
• Pre-proposals 5 Sept 2007
• Full proposals 18 January 2008
• Materials World Network
• Fall 2007
• DMR Instrumentation Program
• Mid-scale Fall 2007, Bench-scale January 2008
• Major Research Instrumentation (NSF-wide)
• January 2008

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DMR Scientific Staff Acting Visiting or
Temporary Appt (Full Time) Part Time Current
Search

• Division Director Lance Haworth
• Executive Officer Ulrich Strom
• Sr Staff Associate Lorretta Hopkins
• CMP Wendy Fuller-Mora, Roy Goodrich, Satyen
  Kumar
• CMMT Daryl Hess, Michael Lee
• Metals Harsh Chopra, Bruce MacDonald
• Ceramics Lynnette Madsen
• Electronic Materials Verne Hess, Charles Ying
• Polymers Andy Lovinger, Freddy Khoury
• Solid State Chem David Nelson, Akbar Montaser
• Biomaterials David Brant, Joe Akkara
• Special Programs Carmen Huber, Uma Venkateswaran
• Instrumentation Chuck Bouldin
• User Facilities G.X. Tessema
• MRSEC Maija Kukla, Tom Rieker, (Charles Ying)
• Volunteers Udo Pernisz (CMP), Michael Owen (SSC)

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Thank you!
lhaworth_at_nsf.gov http//www.nsf.gov/materials
NHMFL Open House
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