“There is a single light of science,and to brighten it anywhere

is to brighten it everywhere.”Isaac Asimov

A Discussion Document of the Advisory Committee of the Mathematicaland Physical Sciences DirectorateMay, 2000

RISEREINVESTMENT INITIATIVE

IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

REINVESTMENT INITIATIVE IN SCIENCEAND ENGINEERING (RISE)

Praveen Chaudhari, ChairIBMThomas J. Watson Research Center

Ronald BrisboisDepartment of ChemistryHamline University

Tony ChanDepartment of MathematicsUniversity of California, Los Angeles

Arturo BronsonMaterials Center for Synthesis and ProcessingUniversity of Texas, El Paso

Alexandre ChorinDepartment of MathematicsUniversity of California, Berkeley

B.J. EvansDepartment of ChemistryUniversity of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Lila M. GieraschDepartment of Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyUniversity of Massachusetts, Amherst

Norman HackermanScientific Advisory BoardRobert A. Welch Foundation

Jacqueline N. HewittDepartment of PhysicsMassachusetts Institute of Technology

Jiri JonasBeckman Instutite of Advanced Science and TechnologyUrbana, Illinois

Thomas B.W. KirkHigh Energy and Nuclear PhysicsBrookhaven National Laboratory

Michael KnotekAlexandria, Virginia

Richard McCrayDepartment of Astrophysics and Planetary Sciences and JILAUniversity of Colorado

Gerald MourouCenter for Ultrafast OpticsUniversity of Michigan, Ann Arbor

J. Anthony TysonBell LaboratoriesLucent Technologies

Carol S. WoodDepartment of MathematicsWesleyan Univerisity, Connecticut

Advisory Committee to theMathematical and PhysicalSciences Directorate

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I. CONTEXT

The United States of America (U.S.) will begin the21st century as the world's leading economic,technological, and peacekeeping power. We areenjoying an unprecedented and prolonged period ofprosperity. As many economists, scientific,technological, and political leaders have noted thisprosperity of the U.S. can, in large measure, betraced to discoveries in basic research, which havespawned new industries creating both material andintellectual wealth. For example, the modern digitalcomputer revolution is based on basic research inmathematics and quantum mechanics. This revolutionhas led to a tremendous increase in economicproductivity. The current, rapidly evolving, field ofmedicine is and will continue to be based on basicresearch on the structure and functioning of DNA.The current globalization of market economies andthe associated changes in human interaction areattributable to the worldwide network of computers.These development were made possible by basicresearch in materials, quantum optics, electronics,information, and networks.

The U.S. has led in basic research and thetransformation of this knowledge into industry simplybecause it attracted some of the best minds in the

U.S. and from all over the world, science wasrelatively well funded, and the research universitiesevolved into great centers of science and engineeringand, frequently, the birthplace of entrepreneurs, whotranslated the research know-how into leadingtechnologies and, sometimes, the creation of newindustries.

Basic research may be considered to move in twostreams. One is the stream of steady and measuredprogress, on a very broad front, of the sciences andengineering and the other, singular or very rapidlyevolving, discoveries or developments that changethe course of research and which lead to newindustries. If the U.S. is to maintain its position inthe world, both streams need to be supported byadequate funding , the latter, frequently, byspecialized Initiatives.

In this context, we laud the increase in support ofthe life sciences but believe, as many others havearticulated, that the broad base of support for therest of basic research needs to be increased in theU.S. from its almost stagnant value since 1970.

In this call, we argue, with the support of examples,that we are living through a period of very rapidchanges in basic research that point to unprecedented

“The United States is living

off historical assets that are

not being renewed”

Charles M. VestPresident MIT

(Congressional Joint EconomicCommittee Hearings

May, 1999)

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REINVESTMENT INITIATIVE IN SCIENCEAND ENGINEERING (RISE)

opportunities to comprehend nature. Theseopportunities, if seized, will provide us with someof the answers that range from the ageless quest ofmankind to understand what the universe iscomprised of to the atom-by-atom synthesis of newmaterials and from the nature of consciousness tothe large scale simulation of protein folding. Ifhistory is any guide, these opportunities in basicresearch will surely lead to new technologies, which,we believe, will further enhance the flourishing of the U.S.

Because this document originates from theDirectorate of the Mathematical and PhysicalSciences (MPS), the examples, which follow, reflectthis bias. We believe that similar opportunities existfor the rest of the sciences and engineering. Theforces driving these changes are the same. Therefore,a broad initiative is suggested. We tentatively namethis initiative RISE– The Reinvestment Initiativein Science and Engineering. We propose to advancethis initiative in four stages. First, we will create amodel RISE in the context of MPS. Second, wewould propose to extend the RISE concept acrossthe NSF, through the use of the Advisory Committees.Third, and hopefully, a presidential study iscommissioned to independently asses the need andpriority of a RISE initiative. Fourth, if the presidentialcommission so recommends, a RISE would beestablished by all of the appropriate science andengineering agencies.

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IDEAS

“Every great advance inscience has issued from a

new audacity of theimagination.”

John Dewey

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II. IDEAS

1. Fundamental and InterdisciplinaryMathematical Sciences

The mathematical sciences are a key component ofcurrent science and engineering. Even those sciences whose reliance on mathematics in the past has beenslight, for example, certain areas of the biologicalsciences and economics, turn increasingly towardsanalysis and synthesis, and become increasinglymathematical. The MPS Directorate must advancethe mathematical sciences, both in research and intraining, as the foundation for the science of the 21stcentury.

The recent decades have seen extraordinary advancesin the mathematical sciences and in their applications.Computational mathematics has made spectacularprogress and powerful contributions across thespectrum of science. Number theory has solvedsome of its classical problems and contributed toencryption and internet security. Geometrical toolsappear in mathematical physics and in data visual-ization. The success of biotechnology hinges to agreat degree on mathematical tools. Mathemat-icalmodeling is the key to understanding molecularstructure and dynamics. Fundamental areas of mathe-matics have deepened their knowledge and move inthe direction of new and fascinating questions posedby sophisticated applications in other disciplines.

The mathematization of science will accelerate. Thekey role of computing will generate the need for

developing new mathematical algorithms. Newmathematical modeling will transform data intoknowledge. The understanding of stochasticity anduncertainty, of large data sets and their uses, willbecome ever more important. The mathematicalsciences will also provide the critical support foremerging areas in science. It will develop thecombinatorial optimization and pattern recognitionalgorithms for bioinformatics, as well as themathematical tools for the modeling, simulation,control and manufacturing of nano scale and quantummolecular devices. A golden opportunity now existsfor MPS investment in mathematics, in algorithmsto harness computer hardware, in geometrical toolsfor computer graphics and physics, in statistics andmodeling across the science spectrum, and inbranches of mathematics yet to be imagined.

The 1998 Report of the Senior Assessment Panel ofthe International Assessment of the U.S.Mathematical Sciences warns that the U.S. leadershipposition in the mathematical sciences is at risk. Atthe current level of investments, it is doubtful thatthe US leadership position can be maintained. Thisis a call for action.

The mathematical profession must recruit some ofthe Nation’s best talent, while contributing to thetraining of a large science and engineering workforce.The MPS Directorate has begun to act through thecreation of new national institutes in multidisci-plinary mathematical sciences with the explicit visionof strengthening the connection between mathematicsand science and engineering. Increased funding

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Computer model of earths changingmagnetic fields through projectedtime spans.Nature, Vol. 377, No. 6546

would allow MPS to pursue vigorously a broadagenda: growing the next generation of deep thinkers,making possible breakthroughs in fundamental areas,enlarging innovative training programs in themathematical sciences, strengthening links to scienceand engineering, funding mathematicians'involvement in other disciplines, supporting a newfocused research groups initiative. Continued USprosperity and leadership in the mathematicalsciences, as well as in the entire science andengineering enterprise, will depend upon the theseand other initiatives.

2. Origins and Evolution of the Universe

Research on the 'Origins of the Universe' seeks toanswer some of humankind's most compellingquestions: How did the Universe begin, what is itsstructure, and what is its ultimate fate? How didmatter, the chemical elements, planets, stars, andgalaxies form? What is the nature of the dark matterand dark energy which fill the Universe and controlits evolution? We are entering an era when greatstrides can be made in addressing these questions,but substantially increased levels and new modesof support from NSF will be essential. Answers tosuch basic questions about the fundamental propertiesof the building blocks of matter and the creation andfate of the Universe require next-generation facilitiesand bold new experimental and theoreticalapproaches from many disciplines. In particular,they will require melding of the techniques of modernobservational and theoretical astrophysics withexperimental and theoretical particle, nuclear,

gravitational, atomic, plasma, and molecular physics;theoretical and laboratory chemistry; applied andcomputational mathematics; and advancedinformation technology and computing. Researchin this area represents a growing collaboration amongthe physical sciences, which also has significanteducational potential and public appeal. Majordevelopments during the last century hinted at thisfuture.

In 1915, Einstein derived his cosmological equationto describe the structure of space and time. Theequation implied that the universe must be in motion.Einstein rejected that conclusion and introduced anew term into his equation, which he called the"cosmological constant". This constant representeda new, undiscovered form of energy that counteractedgravity and permitted a static universe. Soon after1929, when Edwin Hubble discovered that theuniverse was indeed expanding, Einstein called thecosmological constant "the greatest blunder of mylife".

In 1948, George Gamow and others combinedEinstein's cosmological theory with the theory ofnuclear reactions to describe the evolution of universeduring the first few minutes after its beginning, themoment we call the "big bang". Gamow deducedthat the universe at that time must have been filledwith radiation at a temperature of billions of degrees. Otherwise, very little hydrogen would remain inthe universe today, and stars as we know them wouldnot exist. In 1964, physicists at Bell Laboratoriesdiscovered this radiation, which has now cooled to

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The curvature of the universe can beinferred from measurements of thecharacteristic scale of the angularvariations of the cosmic backgroundradiation. A universe with positivecurvature (lower left) will magnify thescale, while a universe with negativecurvature (lower right) will de-magnifythe scale. The observed fluctuations(top panel) have a characteristic scalein agreement with the prediction for aflat universe (lower center).Source: www.physics.ucsb.edu/~boomerang/

2.73 degrees above absolute zero as a result of thecosmic expansion. This cosmic background radiationcarries a record of the structure of the universe whenit was less than a million years old, long before anygalaxies or stars existed.

Now, in the first year of this millennium, astronomerssupported by NSF are observing the cosmicbackground radiation with instruments on balloonsat the South Pole and on radio telescopes locatedon a high plateau in the Andes. These observationsshow that the early universe was almost, but notquite, perfectly smooth. We see tiny angularvariations in the background radiation -- a few partsper hundred thousand -- that trace the initial densityfluctuations of the universe that have condensedinto the vast network of galaxies that populate thepresent universe. By measuring the statisticalproperties of these angular variations, astronomerscan infer the curvature of the universe and severalother quantities that determine its evolution.

Astronomers are also using ground-based opticaland infrared telescopes to map the distribution ofgalaxies in the universe. The Sloan Digital SkySurvey is observing the locations and motions ofmillions of galaxies in the nearby universe. Largertelescopes at the Kitt Peak National Observatoryand the Cerro Tololo InterAmerican Observatoryand the new 8-meter Gemini telescopes will measurethe distributions of galaxies so distant that we cansee them as they were when the universe was only5 - 10% of its present age.From such observations, we know that the matterin universe must have evolved from a nearly formless

gas into the seething mass of galaxies, stars, andplanets that we see today. Astrophysicists canunderstand this evolution in increasing detail. Todo this, they solve the equations describing thedynamics of the matter in the universe. Thesesimulations tax the capabilities of our most powerfulcomputers.

Future surveys supported by the NSF will map theuniverse at optical, infrared, and radio wavelengths;producing three-dimensional maps of the distributionof galaxies. The huge data bases produced by thesesurveys constitute a vast treasure of information,not only about the structure of the universe itself,but also about the properties of a great variety ofnormal and exotic stars, galaxies, and interstellarmatter. Through its Knowledge and DistributedIntelligence initiative, the NSF is making these dataavailable for analysis by the entire world scientificcommunity.

Both the observations and the theoretical simulationspoint to a startling result: more than 80% of thematter in the universe must reside in a form that hasnot been identified up to now. We see compellingevidence of this "dark matter" by observing theinfluence of its gravity on the motions of galaxies,which we measure with spectra taken with ground-based optical and radio telescopes, and through thedistortion of their images by "gravitational lensing". Without dark matter, the universe today would haveno stars and galaxies. Recently, astronomers usingCerro Tololo InterAmerican Observatory havediscovered 'cosmic shear', the gravitational lensimprint of large-scale dark matter. Weak

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Results of a simulation of thedistribution of matter in a block of theuniverse 500 million light years on aside. The calculation starts from veryslight initial density fluctuations suchas those seen in the cosmic backgroundradiation. As the universe expands, thefluctuations grow in amplitude untilthey resemble the density structureseen in the universe today. Computing the Universe from the National Center

for Supercomputing Applications

gravitational lensing is a unique new probe of themass in the Universe. What is the dark matter? Thedark matter is not composed of the elementaryparticles that have been identified by physicists upto now. NSF is supporting experiments ofunprecedented sensitivity to detect new kinds ofexotic particles that might account for the darkmatter.

Recently, astronomers at the Cerro TololoInterAmerican Observatory discovered that theluminosity of a certain kind of exploding star, calleda Type Ia supernova, could be calibrated veryaccurately from the decay rate of its light. Today,NSF is supporting two programs to observe distantsupernovae. The results are astonishing: it appearsthat the expansion of the universe is not slowingdown, but that it is speeding up! To explain theseresults, cosmologists must introduce a new kind of"dark energy" that counteracts the deceleration ofthe universe due to the gravity of the dark matter.The new observations of the fluctuations ofmicrowave background confirm the existence of thisdark energy. The term that accounts for dark energyin the cosmological equations is the samecosmological constant that Einstein invented in 1915and later discarded.

Dark matter and dark energy not only control themotion of the universe today; they also control itsevolution immediately after the moment of creation. At that time, the entire universe was smaller thana single atom and the subatomic forces involvedwere greater than those that can be achieved with

the most powerful particle accelerators on earth.Thus, the quest to understand the fundamental natureof space, time, and matter links astronomicalmeasurements spanning billions of light years withmeasurements of high-energy particle interactionsat scales much smaller than the atomic nucleus.

Today, astronomers are seeing their first glimpsesof the universe when it was less than ten per cent ofits present age, as the first galaxies were forming.Because the cosmic expansion shifts the light ofthese galaxies to longer wavelengths, astronomersmust employ telescopes operating at infrared andsubmillimeter wavelengths to observe galaxies inthe process of formation. The Gemini telescopeswill observe newly forming galaxies with instrumentssensitive to infrared wavelengths, and the AtacamaLarge Millimeter Array (ALMA) will observe themin greater detail through their radiation at millimeterand sub-millimeter wavelengths. The ALMA willbe the culmination of a sustained effort by NSF todevelop and support new technologies and telescopesto observe the formation of stars and galaxies throughlong-wavelength radiation.

The cosmological studies described above are onlya part of the rich variety of astronomical sciencesupported by NSF. Just in the past few years, NSF-sponsored researchers have discovered planetsorbiting some 30 nearby stars. Indeed, at the endof 1999, astronomers made the first measurementof the diameter of a planet as it passed in front ofits central star. As astronomers strive to understandthe origin and fate of the universe, they are inevitably

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“the Pod”Arecibo

Observatory

photo courtesy of the NAIC,Arecibo Obsrvatory,a facility of the NSF

photographer: Tony Acevedo

led to study the origin of stars and planets. Ultimately,these efforts will merge with the efforts by biologiststo understand the origin of life on Earth and possiblyelsewhere. As T.S. Eliot wrote,

"We shall not cease from explorationAnd the end of all our exploringWill be to arrive where we startedAnd know the place for the first time."

(from Little Giddings)

The Initiative. As we enter the 21st century, theUnited States leads the world in Origins of theUniverse research. Our leadership is now threatened,however. At current budget levels, the base of indi-vidual investigators and the capabilities at our nationalfacilities are eroding. At the same time, Europe andJapan are making investments in research that inmany respects match or exceed those of the U.S.

To adequately address these fundamental questionsand to meet the challenge to U.S. leadership, wemust increase the resources available to the individualinvestigators and stop the erosion – and thenselectively enhance – the capabilities at our nationalfacilities. While ensuring that the GeminiObservatories and LIGO are adequately instrumented,we must also proceed without delay on constructingand bringing into operation the new facilities thathave been strongly endorsed by the community, suchas the Giant Segmented Mirror Telescope, the 8-meter Synoptic Survey Telescope, and the LargeHadron Collider detectors. These investments will

allow us to probe deep into the clouds of interstellarmatter from which stars form, to study the processesthat occurred in the early Universe including earlyformation of galaxies, to probe dark matter overvast reaches, detect Earth-threatening asteroids, andto understand conditions early in the Big Bang fromwhich our Universe originated. Terascale datamanagement and mining, joining ground-based andspace observations, will lead to a National VirtualObservatory. The creation of such large facilities isincreasingly being coordinated with other agenciesto optimize the U.S. investment.

Expected Outcomes. With the required investmentsin people, tools, and ideas, over the next decadeMPS supported investigators will be able to exploitfully these scientific opportunities:

• Physics during the Big Bang, and evolution ofthe early Universe,

• How galaxies originated from quantumfluctuations in the early Universe,

• The nature of dark matter and dark energy,• The chemical evolution of galaxies,• How stars and planetary systems form, and

possibly• Discovering habitats for biological processes

beyond Earth.

New tools and technologies open new windows andlead to unexpected discoveries. Our goals for thenext five years are aimed at ensuring U.S. leadershipin research on the 'Origins of the Universe'. Ourchallenge is clear.

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Cold Fermions DemonstratingDegeneracy.

3. Quantum Science and Engineering

Over the last one hundred years, there have beenstunning advances in our understanding of themicroscopic world. We have learnt that themicroscopic world is described by quantummechanics. The rules by which this mechanicsoperates are different from classical mechanics andtheir elucidation has profoundly changed our conceptsof nature, that had been developed over manycenturies of thought and experimentation. Withinthe last fifteen years, we have gone beyond thehistorical reductionist approach to explainingphenomena by examination on the most rduced scaleto one of synthesis, in which control and manipulationof nano-scale entities such as atoms and moleculeshave become the ‘Quantum Legos’ of scientists. Weare witnessing the growth of the embryonic field ofquantum science and engineering.

These developments are changing not just the kindof science that is done but also the sociology ofscience. The latter arise from a blurring of theboundaries between discipline oriented academicdepartments; atoms are common to all materialswhether they be of interst to the life sciences or thephysical sciences. We believe that the scientists oftomorrow will increasingly view manipulation andcontrol of the arrangement of individual atoms ormolecules as the unifying theme and functionalitya predicatable consequence of what they synthesize.This shift is expected to have a prfound impact onscience of the future and on technologies that arisefrom it.

The excitement of research and discovery and theenormous opportunities that are there for the takingin quantum science and engineering can just barelybe conveyed by the printed word. In the following,we present some examples taken from research donewithin the last five to ten years. These include themanipulation of single atoms by scanning probemicroscopies, atom cooling and trapping in controlledelectromagnetic fields, single-atom control ofchemical reactions, quantum optics and electronicsin nanoscale systems of one, two, and three dimen-sions, atom lasers, quantum coherence and non-classical electron behavior, and quantum computers.

New techniques from atomic force microscopy tohigh-intensity X-ray sources to sophisticated electronmicroscopy, make it possible to observe crystalsurfaces with atomic resolution, to image individualmolecules, and manipulate individual atoms.Researchers recently produced the first experimentalimages of electron orbitals in a crystal, and in asuccession of remarkable experiments, scientistshave coaxed first bosons and now fermions into lowtemperature quantum states, forming a new kind ofmatter. Using ultrafast laser pulses and magneticfields, the Bose-Einstein Condensate electron-holepairs in semiconductors can be carefully manipulated,and electron spin states can be preserved oversurprisingly long distances. Quantum chemistry hasreached the point where it is now possible to calculateenergy levels and structures of moderately complexmolecules. Techniques of laser-based quantumcontrol make it possible to engineer predeterminedwavefunctions, and laser cooling has made it possible,for the first time, to control the translational motion

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Carbon "trees" on graphite electrodes,grown autocatalytically throughrestructuring of newly deposited carbonsurfaces. The tallest tree is about 300microns in height.

of a single atom, isolating the atom for fundamentalquantum mechanical measurements or harnessingit to be used as a tool in surface science, biophysicsand physical chemistry. 'Artificial atoms' or 'quan-tum dots' can be produced singly and in orderedarrays by exquisitely sensitive control of depositiontechniques such as molecular beam epitaxy or evenby molecular self-assembly. The economic potentialof quantum-realm technology is considerable. Forexample, thin-film 'giant magnetoresistance' (GMR)materials grown as alternating nanoscale layers ofiron and chromium used in computer hard drivesamounted to $34 billion in 1998.

While 'roadmaps' for electronic deviceminiaturization and many other critical areas areimportant, they will no longer suffice as technologyenters the quantum realm. New paradigms will beneeded for technological advance, and these willcome only through scientific understanding of theunderlying phenomena. Mysteries abound. Forexample, quantum mechanics has been plagued bywhat seems to be 'action at a distance' but what is,in reality, a manifestation of the concept of entangledstates. These in turn arise as a consequence ofquantum coherence. Transmission of quantuminformation over a distance, or 'quantum commu-nication', relies on the existence of such states, butbefore this can be exploited we must understandhow such states are generated and what kinds ofsystems will best retain coherence over a distance.A better understanding is needed of how to couplethe macroscopic world with systems that are inher-ently quantum mechanical in nature. How do quan-

tum mechanical systems interact over long timeintervals and how can these interactions be used todevelop systems for quantum computing, for ex-ample? More generally, how can we make use ofmultiple quantum systems in a controlled manner?Such questions extend from the quantum wavefunctional character of individual atoms and mol-ecules to that of complex systems such as super-conducting materials and superfluids. Instead ofclassical conductors carrying macroscopic quantitiesof charge, in the quantum realm individual electronsare manipulated.

Addressing such issues will lead to new science andnew phenomena with enormous potential for practicalapplication. Coherent sources of atoms may makethe 'atom laser' a tool with as much impact forphysicists, chemists, materials scientists andbiologists as the photon laser - but the step from'where and what light can do' to 'where and whatatoms can do' is in its infancy. Wavefunctionengineering and quantum control will form the basisfor investigating the fundamental limits imposed bythe 'rules' of quantum mechanics and will pervadeall attempts to realize technology at the quantumlimit - for example in quantum computing, whichmay (or may not!) be the breakthrough that drivesprofound technological and ultimately societalchanges in the new century.

The marriage of theoretical advances withcomputational materials science will ultimatelyrevolutionize our ability to design functional materialsfrom first principles, and in the shorter term, quantum

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Different aspect of the surface ofcarbon"trees" shown on page 10.

chemical calculations will be developed to the pointwhere the structure of complex proteins can bepredicted. As scientists and engineers learn tofabricate complex one, two and three-dimensionalstructures on a nanometer scale, new phenomenawill emerge and be exploited. In condensed matterphysics, challenges to both fundamental under-standing and technological exploitation over thenext few years include the behavior of strongly-correlated electron systems (key to high temperaturesuperconductors and the quantum Hall effect, forexample), low-dimensional systems such as carbonnanotubes and macromolecular assemblies (oftencomplex materials with unique properties), and arenaissance in magnetic materials research (includingfor example 'spintronics' in which the integrationof semiconductors with magnetic materials providesthe potential for functional exploitation of electronspin).

The pace and excitement of scientific and techno-logical advances in this 'quantum realm' are acce-lerating not only in the U.S., but worldwide, and thepotential of these advances for societal changethrough the coupling of scientific understanding,engineering development and technologicalopportunity is unprecedented. With these continuingadvances, the next five to ten years will see theemergence of the quantum realm as the key to 21st-century technology.

4. Molecular Connections

When complemented by recent advances in physicsand in mathematical and computational modeling,the disciplines of chemistry and materials scienceoffer a powerful and varied arsenal for uncoveringnature’s secrets and creating future technologiescritical to environmental, medical, and technologicaladvances. It is a near certainty that improvedelectronic and optical components, coatings,chemicals, and pharmaceuticals will result fromresearch in molecular science and engineering.Importantly, understanding phenomena at themolecular level has much broader implications: Suchunderstanding is also critical to continued progressin genetics, neurobiology, ecosystem dynamics,climate studies, novel materials development, andsmart manufacturing. Interaction with otherdisciplines is also a source of inspiration, and willbecome the norm as we move from a reductionistto an integrative period in scientific inquiry. Forexample, biological processes may suggest materialsdesign strategies and fundamental research in areassuch as complex fluids and soft condensed matter. The connections that MPS makes will lead to awide range of benefits, including materials forartificial organs and methods for drug and genedelivery. These outcomes and many others will beby-products of the continuing search by molecularscientists to observe, understand, and control molec-ular, cellular, and nanoscale processes in real time.

On September 7, 1999, Nature (1999, 401, 49)reported an NSF-supported discovery that provides

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Fifty molecules assemble to formsupramolecular dodecahedron. Thestructure, assembled by Peter J. Stangat the University of Utah and buildingon previous work by Leo A Paquette atOhio State University, is believed to bethe first supramolecular dodecahedron.Chemical and Engineering News, Vol. 77, No. 46

a metaphor for current work and future opportunitiesin molecular science and engineering. Researchersat Arizona State University used X-rays and electrondiffraction techniques to capture direct images ofthe electronic bonds that keep together the atoms ofoxygen and copper in a compound called cuprite.This result opens the way to investigation of thedetails of copper-oxygen binding in related cupratecompounds. Some cuprates conduct electricitywithout resistance at temperatures about 140 degreesFahrenheit above that of conventionalsuperconductors, which can only function near theabsolute zero of temperature. Since some scientistspredict that high temperature superconductors willunderlie much of the technology of the 21st century,this new imaging technique and the detailedvisualization of bonding it provides may speed theanswers to questions about the source andrequirements for superconductivity and suggestdesign strategies for new materials.

Synergy between instrumentation and synthesis isthe fulcrum upon which we must leverage our currenttechnological capabilities while building the refinedmolecular foundation required to achieve futureopportunities, both those conceivable and those notyet imagined. Recent instrumentation breakthroughsin scanning probe microscopy, single-atomspectroscopy, and other techniques like the onedescribed above are providing finer level detail andimproved understanding of relationships betweensynthesis, structure, properties, and processing ofchemicals and materials. Heralded by elucidationof the structure-function relationships operative in

DNA, RNA, and various enzymes as well asdiscovery of a new form of carbon, C60, moderninstrumentation is opening the door to a new era ofdevelopment of complex materials, variouslydescribed as “macromolecular”, “supramolecular”or “nanoscale.” What is needed is expanded researchdirected toward molecular design from the atomicand molecular scale to complicated architectures atthe scale of thin films and nanodevices. This requiresdevelopment of even more advanced instrumen-tation for characterization and manipulation ofstructures and devices at the nanoscale and moreclever and comprehensive synthetic strategies. Somesynthetic strategies may involve self-assembly, self-replication, biocatalysis, and mimicry of biologicalsystems, none of which are currently well understood,and complementary enhancements of theory,modeling and simulation methodologies.

Some critically important, but previously intractable,molecular-level problems are now becomingintellectually and technologically accessible, butrequire capabilities beyond those of the singleinvestigator. Research efforts increasingly requirenot just a single investigator but teams of investigatorswith cross-disciplinary expertise in synthesis,analysis, computation, and engineering. Unfor-tunately, advanced instrumentation and personnelsupport requirements for such integrated researchefforts are growing while commitment to coreresearch in these areas has been eroding. Becausethe very near future holds exciting opportunities,MPS must undertake a major initiative to investfunding for basic research focused on:

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• Synthesis and design strategies that link molecular scale understanding with functionalproperties of materials

• Instrumentation development for real-timeand real-world characterization of reactionsat the molecular scale.

This initiative would produce the followingoutcomes:

Creation of new synthetic methods, which will beeconomically efficient and environmentally beneficial

Characterization of new molecules and materialswith exquisitely fine molecular resolution viaimproved and/or revolutionary instrumentation,which will become critically useful in biological,medical, geological, and manufacturing researchand development

The ability to combine synthesis and characterizationto tailor a wide range of valuable fine chemicals andsophisticated materials for use in medicine, elec-tronics, optics, and imaging applications; and furtherproduct manufacturing

Creation of expanded pools of trained scientists andenhanced professional interconnections betweenscientists with complementary expertise to allowever more rapid mobilization of effective, interdisci-plinary teams to tackle the kind of complexopportunities certain to arise.

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PEOPLE

“An invasion of armiescan be resisted, but not

an idea whose timehas come.”

Victor Hugo

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II. PEOPLE

RISE—Reinvestment Initiative in Science andEngineering—might serve equally as the acronymfor “Reinvestment in Science Education” or“Research in Service to Education” for it is quiteclear that technological leadership of the UnitedStates in the 21st century will RISE (or fall)depending on the quality of the education in scienceand engineering that it provides to its youth. Thoughthere have been questions about the dependence ofthe economic and technological competitiveness ofthe United States on World leadership in academicscience, there is little question that the quality ofthe science and engineering education, at all levels,is a key factor in sustaining its leadership positionin science-based technologies.

A major challenge to the programs of the MPSDirectorate is the translation of the remarkable dis-coveries and excitement of the research communityinto analogous and substantive outcomes in theeducation community. In its current state, the scienceand engineering education that is provided to U.S.citizens may not sustain its leadership into the 21stCentury. The remarkable achievements of researchfunded by the MPS Directorate have been based onincreasing percentage of work by graduate studentswho did not receive their early education in the U.S.The U.S. and the World have benefitted from theparticipation of foreign nationals in its research andtraining programs in science and engineering. Suchparticipation must continue. However, it must notinsulate the faculty from the inescapable obligation

to bring the benefits of the research enterprise to theeducation and training at all levels of the educationalsystem of the U.S. citizenry.

Current Portfolio: The MPS Directorate is a researchdirectorate; and while, it can and must speak toeducation broadly, its unique contribution inestablishing the U.S. as a leader in science educationwill come when it speaks from the perspective ofthe research that it supports in its various divisions.It has been argued that “Doubling Research, DoublesEducation”, and the rigorous education of scientistsand engineers that take place in the MPS fundedprograms is a dividend above and beyond the creationof new knowledge. The MPS Directorate fundsdirectly through graduate student and post-doctoralstipends the education of scientists engineers at alevel of $250,000,000 annually. Beyond theknowledge created, society continues to benefit fromthis research-based education over the life of thescientist or engineer through his or her skills inworking in interdisciplinary teams at the forefrontwith a broad spectrum of disciplines. This has beenthe traditional route by which the MPS Directoratehas contributed to science education and itsachievements are unrivalled. This contribution toall levels of education, but mainly at the graduatelevel, is inadequate to meet the challenges of the21st Century. New ways of and an appropriatecontext for leveraging the Research Investment ofthe Directorate for the preparation of a globallycompetitive, diverse American work-force must bedeveloped.

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Current achievements are

built on a fragile personnel

basis. More than half of the

mathematical scientists

joining the profession today

in the U.S. began their

scientific studies abroad.

IGERT and VIGRE are initiatives that would allowthe Directorate to explore the limits of developingworkforce sensitive programs with a minimumperturbation of the tradition of funding the educationof scientists and engineers through support ofresearch projects. These traineeship programs areplatforms for exploring the broadening of thegraduate education experience, for shortening thetime to degree and for the systematic identificationand control of those factors limiting the scope ofand increasing the matriculation time for graduatescience and engineering degrees.

Enhancing the global perspective of U.S. scientistsand engineers is being pursued through the jointDirectorate MPS-SBE International PostdoctoralFellowhip which support the work of postdoctoralscientists at leading laboratory facilities throughoutthe world.

These efforts have grown out of sharply focusedneeds that have commanded the attention of thegraduate education community for some time. Theireffective implementation and further refinement willsubstantially improve the quality and responsivenessof graduate science and engineering education tonational priorities.

The Initiative: U.S. graduate science, mathematics,and engineering education is limited by the scope,quality and perspective of science and mathematicseducation in the Kindergarten-to-Baccalaureate (K-16) education community. Of those students crossingthe portals of undergraduate institutions with

aspirations for pursuing careers in science,mathematics or engineering fields, 60% will notearn a science, mathematics or engineering degree.This high attrition rate occurs in the face of numerousdemonstrations in many different settings that theability to do science and mathematics is not limitedto a small pool of students. It has been argued thateffective science and mathematics education wouldprovide students with the following:

• Factual Knowledge• Technical Skills• Critical Judgement• Capacity for Discovery

The latter two pose the greatest challenge in theirimplementation by the K-12 community. Quiteremarkably, these are the two factors on which thework and traditions of the MPS Directorate can havethe greatest effect. The nuturing of critical judgmentand the capacity for discovery require students andscholars coming together in authentic researchsettings.

Researchers best understand authentic researchsettings; it is, therefore, incumbent upon thoseresearchers funded by the MPS Directorate to involvethemselves and their work as integral parts of theK-12 education community. The context of thisinvolvement is clear: to stem the high attrition rateamong SME students in recognition of the evidencethat the ability to do science and mathematics is notlimited to a small fraction of the population. Thisaspect of RISE will place the greatest demands on

18

High school students have discovereda previously unidentified celestial objectin the Kuiper Belt using images fromthe National Science Foundation’s 4-meter Blanco Telescope in Chile.

“The students’ discovery has

shown that all students from

a broad range of

backgrounds can make solid,

exciting and inspiring

scientific contributions.”

Carl PennypackerFounder, Hands-On Universe,

and AstrophysicistLawrence Berkeley National Lab and

The Lawrence Hall of Science

the creativity and administrative abilities of the staffof the MPS Directorate. First, the current portfolioof activities at the K-12 level serve well-definedneeds of infrastructure development, informal andenhancement activites and must be continued; theseare legitimate interface activities for the MPSDirectorate in the K-12 community and are not tobe mediated by the individual investigator. Second,there must be paradigm shift in the configuration ofgrant award, performance expectation and theappropriate outcomes of a successful investigation.

19

“Great discoveries and

improvements invariably

involve the cooperation of

many minds.”

Alexander Graham BellScientist/Inventor (1847-1922)

20

21

TOOLS

“He that invents a machine

augments the power of a man

and the well-being of

mankind.”

Henry Ward BeecherAuthor (1813-1887

22

III. TOOLS

Today, we are in an era of exploding scientificopportunity enabled by numerous revolutions intools for science. Tools have allowed a stunningview into nature that has captured the imaginationof the world -- from the far reaches of the universeand the beginnings of time to the fundamentalmakeup of matter and the workings of life. Thesenew tools are spread across the breadth of scienceand engineering. Discovery is expanding at anaccelerating pace and the U.S. needs to be centralto this process or it will cede leadership to others.Without forefront facilities and tools, our leadershipin forefront science will disappear. Investment ininstrumentation has many payoffs; perhaps the mostpowerful relates to the training of the next generationof leaders in science and engineering. Instrumentsand their supporting infrastructures are becomingmore costly and complex. The scientific problemswe face today involve complex phenomena andthese can only be studied with new generations ofempirical tools and computers.

The university community relies on the NSF forfunding and support of frontier facilities, andincreasingly industry is coming to rely on the NSFsponsored fundamental research programs inuniversities to sustain them. Critical to moderncommercial competitiveness, the tools of scienceare rapidly transformed into the tools andtechnologies of industry. The MPS currently invests25% of its total budget in facilities. With the adventof networking and emerging information, computing

and communications technologies, we are enteringan era of remote and universal access to frontierinstruments and infrastructure.

The strength and world leadership of U.S. sciencein each of the MPS disciplines is based on accessto state-of-the-art advanced instrumentation, rangingfrom tabletop instrumentation to large facilities, andon adequate technical infrastructure to provideresearchers the flexibility to move in new directionsas new ideas and opportunities arise. Sophisticatedfacilities are not an optional part of the researchenterprise; they are the drivers of fundamentalresearch and technological innovation. Facilitiesserve entire communities, from large groups to singleinvestigators. Without forefront facilities, ourleadership in forefront science will disappear. Thesame is true at the 'table-top' limit. The power ofsmaller instrumentation has grown to the point wheresingle investigators working together with theirstudents can change how we think about the worldand, indeed, provide windows on future technologiesthat will impact all our lives. For example, think ofthe new medical imaging techniques based onpolarized noble gases that emerged from groupsworking on understanding polarization processes inatomic collisions. While a balance between the twoextremes of investment -- facilities and tabletopinstrumentation -- must be struck, the underlyingguiding principle should be to support high-quality,innovative people and provide them with theresources to think expansively. By providing accessto new regimes of complexity and understanding,we are educating new scientists in the latest

23

Computer simulation of LISA - LaserInterferometer Space Antenna. LISA,the space counterpart of LIGO - theLaser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, would find sourcesof long-period gravitational waves.Science, Vol. 288 No 5465

technologies needed to expand the scientific andtechnological boundaries. These are the people whowill guide the development of the next generationinstrumentation and who will contribute the newdrivers for economic growth in this country.

The promise of advanced instrumentation can bebest understood by looking at current objectives andopportunities. Intense synchrotron light and neutronfacilities are essential to make advances inunderstanding high-Tc materials (and designing newmaterials) and the molecular structure of biologicalsystems. Studies of such materials using neutronsis an area of particular promise, providing a uniquewindow on structure and organization, yet, asevidenced by a recent Academy study, there is adearth of facilities and related instrumentation. Newinstruments have provided the means by whichresearchers have been able to explore regimes oftime and space unimagined just a few years ago.Higher energy and intensity accelerators and newobservatories with adaptive optics are planned thatwill probe the universe at extremes ranging from10-18 cm to 10+28 cm. Researchers are now usingfemtosecond lasers to examine the making andbreaking of specific chemical bonds; and newmicroscopies, such as scanning tunneling microscopy,are opening up the viewing of individual atoms andmolecules. Advanced lasers, adaptive optics, newimaging techniques, and molecular-levelmanipulation techniques show enormous promisefor applications in medicine and in biologicalresearch. New nano- and atom-level manipulationand fabrication techniques are being developed that

have the potential to revolutionize communicationsand computational technologies. Such applicationsand the associated new technologies derive frominvestments in advanced instrumentation andinstrumentation development tools that the countryand the next generation will need to sustain ourtechnological edge.

MPS stewardship responsibilities lie primarily withthe university community, which provides much ofthe intellectual leadership and is the source of futuregeneration scientists – the people who will makethe scientific advances and become the next-generation leaders. The prime university role shouldbe to define how we will do science decades fromnow. In an earlier era, universities designed and builtthe new observatories, accelerators, computers,networks, and many of the technologies used inmodern science. In order to provide mechanismsfor universities to continue to participate actively inthe creative process, they must be part of conceiving,designing, constructing, and operating facilities andinfrastructure projects on a national lab scale. Whatare the new areas, basic technology developments,and expertise that we need to support this vitalmission? Universities will provide the vision andthe roadmap to answer these questions. Ourresponsibility is to provide (i) support for the needednew researchers, postdocs, and students to spawnthe development of revolutionary new tools, (ii) thesupport needed to realize these new instruments,and then (iii) the support for their exploitation --new science and sophisticated technical training.

24

Comparison of Picosecond andFemtosecond Lamellar cutting.Journal of Refractive Surgery, 1998

The MPS investment in facilities is approximately25% of its total budget. Among the major currentinvestments are the new GEMINI observatories, theNHMFL, CESR, LIGO, CUOS, the MSU/NSCL,and CHESS. Each of these facilities provides world-leading research opportunities. They provide centralresources to user groups, large and small, fromcolleges and universities around the country. Toprovide for continued forefront science opportunities,new facilities have been regularly identified by theirrespective scientific communities. Each MPS facilityrepresents a new intellectual thrust, and each is 'one-of-a-kind'. They are generally risky undertakings,because in order to make order-of-magnitudeincreases in science reach, new and innovativetechnologies are generally involved. In this regard,and in other ways, each facility is an engine oftechnological innovation. Science facilities havethe institutional resources and infrastructure -- shops,computers, engineers, and engineering support -- toconceptualize and devise new tools, to develop newtechniques, to build new instrumentation, and toimplement new ideas, things that haven't been donebefore and that will advance the field. The advancesrealized by these new facilities rest on technologydevelopment that often appears later in commercialapplications.

An important challenge is networking of facilitiesand remote distributed access so that they can befully exploited. Because of the large capitalinvestment, many of these facilities require multipleagency support and international partnerships.GEMINI and LHC are excellent models of such

partnerships, GEMINI involving six countries, andLHC involving DOE and the CERN member states. The scientific community has learned to conductresearch as visitors to such national facilities. Today,the NSF shares responsibility for constructing andoperating national facilities with DOE, NASA, andNIH. The agencies complement one another in thisregard. NSF should not shy away from leadershipresponsibility, even though the capital costs may behigh. The science payoffs are often much greaterthan anticipated at the outset. Undergraduates,graduate students, postdoctoral researchers andfaculty, in large groups and small, have benefitedfrom access to such user facilities. Students' involve-ment in building instrumentation for these facilitieshelps to develop an advanced technical workforce.

The establishment of effective data archives andmining tools will be a key factor in exploiting thenew science opportunities across MPS. Indeed,this opportunity applies across all of NSF. Theusefulness of these national data banks will beincreased by collaboration with other federalagencies and private organizations. A particularlygood example is the 'national virtual observatory' Data -- several terabytes per day from ground-based and space observatories will be intelligentlyarchived and cataloged, with enabling data miningand visualization tools. Such a national data facilitycould also include the output of huge simulationscarried out on terascale machines. More importantthan the increase in efficiency are the uniqueopportunities for new science arising from creativeuse of such a national data facility.

25

“There is one thing even

more vital to science than

intelligent methods; and that

is, the sincere desire to find

out the truth, whatever it may

be.”

Charles Sanders Pierce

Over the past 10 years, the investment in constructionof MPS' large-scale infrastructure projects (MREand MRE-class projects) totaled more than $600M.For the next 10 years, the university community hasidentified a number of projects that are central tocontinued advances in the core MPS sciences, callingfor funding totaling $2.8B. Without a change in theparadigm of support for large-scale facilities andinstrumentation, NSF will lose many of theseopportunities, and at the same time lose the scientificmomentum and drive to move into new areas. Theexisting paradigm is flat funding. In order to builda new facility, one has to shut down another. Thestory is similar for general instrumentation, whereMPS invested more than $600M over the past 10years. The tension resulting from the constantmismatch between science opportunities and supportlevel for new instrumentation is destructive to theenthusiasm of young people driven by the prospectof discovery. Often, in order to balance newopportunities against exploitation of existinginstrumentation, we are forced into less than optimalutilization of existing investments. As an exampleof the magnitude of this stress, the investment inconstruction of AST's large-scale infrastructureprojects (MRE projects) totaled $110M over thepast 10 years. The accelerated pace of discovery,fueled by rapidly advancing technological capability,demands an increased investment totaling over$860M (Atacama Large Millimeter Array, a nationalvirtual observatory, Advanced Solar Telescope, 8-Meter Deep Sky Survey, 30-Meter Telescope, SquareKilometer Array) over the next 10 years. Othernations have taken bold steps in innovative

26

instrumentation. In the field of ground-based opticalastronomy, for example, Europe and Japan haveinvested far more than the U.S. in recent years. Ifwe fail to move to a new cost curve, we will losefirst rate science opportunities, not simply forgolower priority projects. What is needed is at leasta quadrupling of the present investment in small-and large-scale instrumentation projects.

The outcome of increased investment in advancedinstrumentation and facilities will be world leadershipin science. World leadership in science stronglyimpacts many sectors of our society -- from nationalsecurity to a strong economy to our quality of life,from health to a clean environment to imparting thejoy and excitement of discovery to our citizens.Such investments already have an enormous impacton students. Many of these investments can befurther leveraged by new outreach activities. Forexample, outreach centers associated with facilitiescan reach out to K-12 students and influence theteaching of science as well. Investment ininstrumentation is thus an investment in educationand our future, because education in a discovery-rich society provides the feedback mechanism tosustain and guide the discovery process itself.Similarly, the public's direct participation in advancedvisualization access to national data facilities, suchas the national virtual observatory, will open a muchneeded avenue for public involvement in theexcitement of scientific discovery.