# Presentation: 691757

## Tony F. Chan Assistant DirectorApril 2007

**State of MPS**

## Topics

- FY2007 Budget
- FY2008 Request
- FY2009 Budget Planning
- MPS Retreat
- ACI Subcommittee
- NSF-Wide Issues
- Transformational Research
- International Issues

## Call for Reinvestment in STEM

**Call for Reinvestment in STEM**

## Current FY2007 Budget Situation

- NSF Appropriation signed by President with R&RA at FY07 request level, remainder at FY06 appropriation level
- Current Plan before Congress for approval

## MPS by Division 

## FY 2008 Focus Areas

**Physical sciences at the nanoscale**
**Science beyond “Moore’s Law”  **
**Physics of the universe**
**Complex systems**
**Fundamental mathematical and statistical science**
**Sustainability**
**Cyber-enabled Discovery and Innovation**

## Physical sciences at the nanoscale

- Innovative nanoscale technologies with partners at NSF and other agencies within the framework of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI).

**Nanomanufacturing**

- Extreme high pressure generated in
- carbon nanotube extrudes metal nanorod
- SCIENCE vol. 312, 26 May 2006

**The Future**

- Carbon nanotube nanorobots injected
- into bloodstream treat individual cell
- Credit: Bio-Nano Robotics, Rutgers U.

## Science Beyond “Moore’s Law”

- 	Requires entirely new science and technologies, as well as new algorithms and new conceptual frameworks for computing.

- Molecular Self-Assembly: Spherical molecules form a liquid crystal material related to molecular electronics or photonics materials.

*Peter Allen, KITP*

- Dancing under the diffuse cloud of electrons
- on which 20th century technology is based,
- the correlated motion of individual electrons
- underlies a future based on quantum technology.

## Physics of the Universe

- 	A partnership with DOE and NASA for exploring dark matter, dark energy, the early universe, the fundamental nature of time, matter, and space, and gravitation.

*Simulation of the collision of two black holes and the generation of gravitational waves, which may be seen by LIGO. (NCSA, UIUC)*

*Sloan Digital Sky Survey probes the first million years after the Big Bang, mapping the remnants of sound waves driven into the early cosmic gas.*

## Complex Systems

-   Interfaces of biological, physical,
-    and social systems
-   Emergent Behavior
-   Multiple space & time scales
-   Understanding nonlinearities

- Computational modeling & simulation of complex systems leading to predictive capabilities           weather, organization/dynamics of living systems, economic systems, disease spread, ... complex physical systems

## Fundamental Mathematical and Statistical Science

*Diffusion-of-curvature flows are used to solve Poincare Conjecture. Related diffusion-*
*of-density flows solve practical problems of visual representation of complex*
*economic and demographic data. *

## Sustainability

*Sustainable energy *- meeting the clean air challenge of diminishing fossil fuels by creating a carbon-neutral economy that will use solar energy and/or alternative feedstocks.
*Green chemistry/processing *- more efficient chemical reactions and fewer waste products via research into tailorable and sustainable molecular building blocks for material synthesis.
*Environment *-  a more detailed molecular and elemental understanding of the components of air, water, and soil.
*Educational initiatives - *educating chemistry students and the public in the importance and urgency of sustainability-related research.

**Notes:**
Areas where the mathematical and physical sciences contribute to the sustainability of the earth include energy, green chemistry and processing of materials, understanding of environmental matter and processes, and education of students and the public.
A recent discovery was from the new Chemical Bonding Center led by Karen Goldberg of the University of Washington (members of the Center are distributed geographically throughout the US). 
Coal can be gasified and converted to low molecular weight hydrocarbons through the Fischer-Tropsch process.  These small hydrocarbons can then be converted to higher weight hydrocarbons that can be used in diesel fuels.  One way of making the desired molecular weight hydrocarbons is to combine the smaller hydrocarbons through a reaction called the olefin metathesis reaction.  The CBC has developed an improved catalytic system for the metathesis of alkanes into diesel fuel.  This process could improve the economics of the Fischer-Tropsch process and lead to a decreased dependence on foreign oil supplies.  It could also enable an increased use of Fischer-Tropsch diesel, which is more environmentally benign than conventional diesel or gasoline.

This kind of advance will extend our use of fossil fuels.  However, ultimately we will need to tap the sun as our energy source.  Efficient transformation of energy from sun and storage are two grand challenges of this decade.  The approaches may take advantage of catalytic or biomimetic chemistry, materials science, computational science and nanoscience.

## Cyber-enabled Discovery and Innovation

- NSF-wide investment ($52M)
- MPS investment ($10M)
*“**Broaden the Nation’s capability for innovation by developing a new generation of computationally based discovery concepts and tools to deal with complex, data-rich, and interacting systems”*
- Focus areas
- Complex interactions
- Computational experimentation
- Knowledge extraction
- Virtual organizations
- Educating researchers and students in computational discovery
**Expected to increase by $50M per year for 5 yrs**

## Facilities in Development and Under Construction

*Design and Development:*
- DUSEL: will begin formally in FY 2008, total $6.0M, building on previous Discovery Research.
- Giant Segmented Mirror Telescope: level $5.0M.
*Facilities under Construction:*
- ALMA: reflects new baseline, early operations increases to $8.2 million.
- IceCube: operations initiated at $1.5M level
- Advanced LIGO: construction begins FY 2008.

**Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST)**
**Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL)**
**Coherent X-ray Light Source**
**Giant Segmented Mirror Telescope (GSMT)**
**Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST)**
**Square Kilometer Array (SKA)**

## Centers and Institutes

- Materials Research Science & Engineering Centers ($59M)
- Science & Technology Centers ($18M)
- Math Institutes ($21M)
- Physics Frontiers Centers ($23M)
- Chemical Bonding Centers/Centers for Chemical Innovation ($9M)
- Nanoscale Science & Engineering Centers ($13M)

## Preparing Workforce of 21st Century

***Workforce and Learning: ***
***Alignment of ACI with NSF Strategic Goals***

**MPS investments in Foundation, Directorate, and Division activities support workforce development throughout the educational continuum**
**Support for young investigators (*****e.g.,***** CAREER),**
**Enhancing educational and career opportunities for undergraduate students (*****e.g., *****REU, URC, UBM), **
**Enhancing professional development of K-12 science educators through research experiences (*****e.g.,***** RET),**
**Broadening Participation *****(e.g., *****Research Partnerships for Diversity)*****.***
** **

## ACI Fellows

**Respond directly to ACI workforce goals of increasing number of globally competitive US students & research scientists in MPS areas,**
**Link undergraduate, graduate, postdoctoral, and early- to mid-career faculty research experiences,**
**Address ACI-relevant and MPS focus areas, **
**Tailored to each discipline’s needs & strengths.**

**MPS will pilot an ACI fellows activity that will:**

##    Broadening Participation

-  CHE Gender Equity Workshop (2006)
-  AST/DMR/PHY Gender Equity Workshop (May 2007)
-  NSF-Wide Diversity Working Group just formed
-  co-chair: Celeste Rohlfing (CHE)

**LA-STEM**

**PREM**

**Hampton**

**LIGO**

##             FY09 Planning 

-           MPS Retreat Recommendations

- Follow Through on Proposed FY08 Activities:

- Expand SBML to partner with CISE, ENG, OCI
- Add Focus on Physical – Biological Sciences Interface

-  Physical Sciences at the Nanoscale
-  Science Beyond Moore’s Law
-  Physics of the Universe
-  Complex Systems
-  Fundamental Mathematical and Statistical Sciences
-  Sustainability

- On Science:

## TRANSFORMATIVE RESEARCH

*Enhancing Support of Transformative Research at the National Science Foundation* – adopted by NBS on March 29, 2007 (subject to editing)
**“****There exists a substantial external perception that NSF does not support transformative research**.”
- “**Transformative research is defined as research driven by ideas that stand a reasonable chance of radically changing our understanding of an important existing scientific or engineering concept or leading to the creation of a new paradigm or field of science or engineering. Such research also is characterized by its challenge to current understanding or its pathway to new frontiers.”**
- Key Recommendation: That “NSF develop a distinct, Foundation-wide **Transformative Research Initiative (TRI)** distinguishable by its potential impact on prevailing paradigms and by the potential to create new fields of science, to develop new technologies, and to open new frontiers.”
**MPS will pilot an effort in transformative research in FY 2008**
**Major focus will be on program and division-level activities with coordination at the directorate level.**

## Transformational Infrastructure

**Initiating Transformational Infrastructure**
**Need for new infrastructure and tools of to create discovery opportunities**
**Sustaining transformational infrastructure - budgeting for operations :**
**Facility ops can be 10-15% of divisional budget – can’t ‘carve’ this out**
**Need to protect the core activities (single PIs and groups)  **
**MPS continuing to seek creative solution, e.g. Senior Review; effective funding models**

## International

- Issues:
- Strategic goals?
- Competition vs Collaboration?
- US Leadership in Basic Science
- Attracting the best minds to the US