NSF Mid-award Program Review

Outline

1. Craft for Macromolecular Creativity2. People

Teaching Craft for Macromolecular Creativity

• Macromolecules = large molecules• Small peptides (drugs)• Large composites (pipes)• Make ‘em• Measure ‘em• Process ‘em• Theorize about ‘em• Simulate ‘em• That takes 6+ Departments at LSU• Commonly shared need: education

I is for Integrative

• Research finds its way quickly to the classroom• Seminars that play off class, lab and research• Global experience that enhances E,R & T• Interdisciplinary• Infrastructure for interdisciplinary• Students as

teacher/researchers/leaders/inventors• Teamwork• The program itself is an experiment: it

integrates physical science with social science.

Flexibility• Add stipends to scholarships,

internships• Can spend some for recruiting• Almost any legitimate need of students

can be funded (50 minigrants so far, average is ~$2,000, high is $10,000)

• This advantage disappears in most private universities (Score one for public education)

Apprentice-Artisan-Craftsperson Ladder(AAC)

New apprenticeOld craftsperson

General exam

minigrants

“finishing school”“predoc”

“quadratical”

New Ph.D.

Artisan

Minithesis

Data DefenseCommunity Service

Craftsperson

Other Central IdeasFaculty as active scientists. Better than a bootstrap. Small science, even if team-oriented.Curiosity-driven science is OK! Vector cross products of capabilities: what

new direction will the team go into that faculty participants and their groups could not do separately? The students become the agent (arrow) of that vector cross product.

Fun.Creativity development. Formative & summative evaluation.

Apprentice (Spring Yr1 – Spring Yr2) Perform the side-by-side experience

with your Ph.D. team.•Write the minithesis. $$$$$$•STSC class•Be a “normal” student for awhile.•Pass Ph.D. candidacy exam (general). $$$$$$

AAC Basics

Rewards!Rewards!

It is getting hard to supply the extra rewards, because The support from NSF outpaces everything else. Fortunately,NSF has coerced other incentives…and minigrant interest is an even larger incentive than we imagined at first.

Artisan (Years 3 & 4, typically) •Continue executing the team project•Write minigrants to exercise your creativity

•Supplies or equipment for a sole-authoredpaper or preliminary results for grant

•Travel (meeting, scout a postdoc, co-op)•Execute community service project•Prepare for data defense

AAC Basics

Top of the AAC ladder

Craftsperson (6 months in Year 4 or 5) •Professional Conduct & Opportunities Course•Survive data defense•Apply for “finishing school” (predoc)•Final report on IGERT experience•Final defense of thesis

The Steady Background

•Core Courses•Weekly seminars•Monthly meetings•Annual retreat/site visit•Industrial outreach•Annual & semester reports•Working in a team•Working to escape the team

What we constantly tell students…

and remind faculty•It’s an experiment!•Do not commit to it lightly. •Tell the truth. •You don’t get something for nothing.•Create something new!•If you need it for the status quo, you can’t have it. •If it’s risky and innovative, then you probably can have it.

Projects such as...Rods in supercrit fluids Chem/ChE/Physics MPI Germany & Wyo.

Composites Chem/ME Southern U.

Alzheimer’s Chem/Bio MIT, Wisconsin, NIH,NHFML

ProteinStructure/Function

Chem/Bio/Phys

Complex Fluids Chem/Chem/PhysicsPhysical & Polymer

CAMD, Stanford,Brookhaven

Molecular Recognition Chem/Chem Synth &Analytical

Dupont

Drilling muds/Environment/Composites

Chem/ChE Schlumberger

Many more projects at: http://macro.lsu.edu/igert

Or create your own!English & History Ph.D.’s do!

Who’s in?Department

Faculty Students

Biological Sci.

4 3

Chem.Engr. 3 3

Chemistry 10 11

Education 1 1

Mech.Engr. 1 1

Physics 0 0

Textiles 1 1

TOTAL 20 20

Current Trends

1. Enfranchisement: involve more faculty.

2. Interdisciplinary Technology– Computer tools– LSU administrative infrastructure

3. Student-led IGERT

Impressions

How it sometimes

seems students

want us to teach them.

Leuven, Belgium

GETncm/justsaycust-recrate-itemcommunittg/stores/dtg/stores/d-favorite-listruejust-say-no

Macromolecular Systems II, Homework #3 (shortened) Our group and some others here are getting into DOSY and Prof. Butler wants a friendly CONTIN, like our ANSCAN. Some translation is needed, but of course the two programs are totally unconnected. Butler's program is on a Mac (what else?) and gives output that looks like this: PS2150_500_31_2 7.2122 ppm Polystyrene containing MW standards of 500 and 2150 298 K 1.00000000E-03 % little delta (seconds) 1.00000000E-01 % big delta (seconds) g(gauss/cm) q^2(big_delta - little_delta/3) expt_signal 6.65000000E-01 4.40750917E-02 1.00000000E+02 1.66200000E+00 2.75303652E-01 9.88369747E+01 2.65900000E+00 7.04671340E-01 9.57348015E+01 3.65500000E+00 1.33144949E+00 9.25603053E+01 4.65200000E+00 2.15689670E+00 8.80876912E+01

(etc. you can download the whole file later) Write a limber, easy-to-use program (a high school student should be able to use it) that converts Butler's DOSY output to ANSCAN input.

Some header information (7 lines) Then: row after row of G (gauss/cm) Something y(x)

Integrative Training: Semester-long programming assignment aiding inter-

group research

Problem 4. A few weeks ago, Professor George Newkome of the University of Akron lectured on self-assembling hexaruthenium terpyridyl clusters. A sample molecule appears below:

Shortly after his return to Akron, Dr. Newkome sent a related sample that we took to Laboratorio Nacional Luz Sincotron (LNLS) in Campinas, Brazil, where small angle X-ray measurements were made. You can download a typical SAXS data file at:

Does the presence of Ruthenium aid or interfere with SAXS? Guesstimate the size of the molecule from the drawing above, using what you

know about C-C bonds, the diameter of benzene rings, etc. Analyze the SAXS data by the method of Guinier to obtain the radius of gyration,

Rg. There are 3 columns of numbers: q in inverse Angstroms, intensity I, and uncertainty in I. For the present purpose, you can ignore the uncertainty.

How does the Rg value compare to the "ring" diameter for this self assembly? Would you expect Rg from SANS to be the same, larger or smaller? Estimate the translational diffusion coefficient of the molecule. Do you think the real translational diffusion coefficient will be larger or smaller

than your estimate? Estimate the rotational diffusion coefficient of the molecule. Would it be possible to measure Drot by polarized (as opposed to depolarized)

light scattering? Would it make sense to do zero angle depolarized dynamic light scattering on the

molecule? These data on a novel synthetic material are less than one week old so this problem provides, just in time for summer, a natural transition to real research.

Integrative Training

•Visitor’s seminar•Collaboration established•SAXS trip to Brazil•Analyze data for team exam•All in one month

Coordinator in Action

Coordinator in Action

Summer intern joining REU/Hughes poster session

Working lunch: filling out Milestone and Landmark reports

Science & Technology in Service to the Community http://macro.lsu.edu/stsc

Sample Minigrants

Subject OutcomeGrant-writing workshop “PolyCommunity” non-profit corporation???

Langmuir imprinting Supports NSF-CAREER grantee in new direction

Preliminary data for new grant at Dupont/Univ. of Delaware

Grant submitted

Summer at NRL Student quit graduate school

Experimental flow test apparatus

Simulation expert built apparatus with own hands

Set of tools like that at SAXS line

Real tools in that lab

Manifold for organic synthesis Badly needed manifold for organic reactions in a lab where synthesis equipment was dated

SAXS at Tsukuba 2 students to Tsukuba, Japan

Travel to NIST for SANS Students learn contrast matching—new capabilities for that research

Polymer processing tour at ExxonMobil Chem 4010 = MS-I

STSC class. Teamwork meets its limits.

STANFORD

Does IGERT help recruit faculty?

Dr. Bin Chen Pre-LSU

3 generations of Macromolecular Studies Group

Students

Global Friendships & Portuguese CD’sJason with beamline scientist Tomas in Brazil

Ties to regular track Ph.D.

students and undergraduates

Recruiting can be fun

With SSRL Scientist in Brazil

Ingenius!

Top 10 University Infrastructure Achievements & Commitments to

Interdisciplinary Activities

1. New VP position to oversee 3 colleges. 2. Biodynamics Institute Reorganized to Enhance

Chemistry-Biology Interface.3. Travel Dollars for Groups of Five or More from

Vice Chancellor of Research.4. Increased graduate stipends to compete with

IGERT.5. Department of Economic Development

Fellowships pegged to IGERT Levels.6. Chancellor’s Taskforce on Administrative Policy

—Recommended Boosts in Indirect Costs Returned are Directed Towards Interdisciplinary Activities.

Top ten…continued7. MS&E Effort: on campus & across state.8. Albemarle Campus Acquisition—Space and

a Pretty Face for Interdisciplinary Activities.9. Chancellor Emmert, VC Research Smith,

Dean Silverman and (former) Dept. Chair Sinclair have attended “IGERT School” at NSF.

10. IGERT-invented database-driven web solutions for interdisciplinary groups are being picked up, supported and improved by Chemistry Department (Travel, Seminars) and BASC (College Policy Website).

Interdisciplinary Technology (the other IT)

IGERT students today

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Part II.

People

A Military Organization Metaphor for LSU IGERT

Archangel St. Gabriel,

Bearer of Important

News & Forgiveness

DeitiesChancellor-Athletic Director-Football Coach

#1 in Football (finally), Baseball (often), Track (almost every year)#35 in Federal Research Support among Public Universities

Not nearly good enough. The deities want more.

VP Silverman Dean Egbelu VC Smith

Leadership of Vital

Technical Units

Luigi Marzilli, Chemistry Steven Hand, Biol.Sci.

Tryfon Charalampopoulous, MELudwig Prandtl

Alexander FlemingGiulio Natta

Military Organization Chart for LSU IGERT PI’s & Co-PI’s

DOOLEY

BRICKER

The next generation practices running the show…in consultation with old people.

No, not West Point. West Point is for Weenies.

Procurement

Sergeant Bilko

FlorenceHalloween 2002

On with it! Florence will now show you to the appropriate table to begin the interviews.

Take no prisoners—find out what you want to know.