Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers

NSF Division of Materials Research

MRSEC Site Visit

Rama Bansil, William Brittain, Sean Jones,

Thomas Rieker, and Charles Ying

MRSEC Program Directors

Housekeeping

• Conflict of Interest Form • Sign-in sheet• Travel form• Copy of Viewgraphs• Site Visit Report Template

• We will collect money for meals provided• Dinner usually handled individually• Host will help organize transportation to the airport• Site Visit Report finished on-site, then circulated for

final edits• MRSEC will prepare a written response to NSF

Charge to the Panel

• The purpose of this review is to provide NSF and the MRSEC an independent assessment of the MRSEC’s progress and direction since the award was made in 2005.

• Panels can recommend changes to this award.• Maximum NSF award is for 5 years – Panel

Recommendation for continued support for the 6th year of the award.

Site Visit Panel Workflow

Day 1• MRSEC presentations to the panel along with Q&A• Lunch with Students and Post-docs• Panel discussion – generate questions for the MRSEC Director

and Executive Committee• Posters• Dinner w/ faculty (opt.)

Day 2• MRSEC Director reports back to the panel• Panel discussion to build consensus on the report• Work through the site visit report as a team• Out-brief with MRSEC Director and Executive Committee

MRSEC:High Impact - High Visibility

Science Output • 224 Ph.D.s awarded• 145 Post-docs completed• 1620 publications• 57 patents issued

‘07-’08 data

Education Outreach,Developing a Diverse Workforce

Annual Education Investment• 921 Graduate Students• 265 Post-docs• 597 REU students• 79 UG year ‘round• 117 RET• 83 undergrad faculty• 10 PREM partnerships

‘07-’08 data

Industry, National Labs, International

QD Vision, Inc. founded in 2004

Collaborations• 800 Academic• 277 Industry• 165 National Labs• 166 International w/ 32 countriesNumerous Start-ups

’07-08 data

Infrastructure

Users of MRSEC Facilities• 657 Academic• 351 Industry• 71 National LabsResulting in 512 Publications

108 Technicians93 Administrative staff

’07–’08 data

MRSECs

Support multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary materials research and education of the highest quality while addressing fundamental problems in science and engineering that are intellectually challenging and important to society.

MRSEC Program Goals

• Stimulate and support outstanding interdisciplinary research and education in materials

• Address fundamental, complex materials problems that are intellectually challenging and important to society

• Foster partnerships between academia and industry as well as other sectors

• Broaden participation of groups under-represented in the sciences

A Little History

• Late 1950s National Materials Program• 1960-61 First IDLs (ARPA etc)• 1968 Mansfield Amendment• 1971 Proposal to transfer IDLs to NSF• 1972 NSF establishes DMR, MRL program• 1986 DMR establishes MRG program• 1994 DMR establishes MRSEC program• 2002 MRSECs changed to six year awards

Interdisciplinary Research Groups: Core unit

• One or more IRG(s) in each MRSEC

• Each IRG;– Addresses a major materials topic or area.

– Involves several researchers with complementary backgrounds, skills, knowledge

– Provides sustained support for interactive effort

– Is more than a ‘collection of individual investigators’

• Interaction within IRGs is critical

• Interaction between IRGs not required, but may strengthen the Center

Other Elements of a MRSEC

• Flexibility to develop new areas, support for ‘Seeds’– Potentially Transformative

– Important to review mechanism and effectiveness of Seed Program

• Education (precollege to postdoctoral) and development of human resources– REU only requirement

– Other education outreach activities scale with the size of the MRSEC

• Diversity Strategic Plan

• Active collaboration with industry and other sectors.

• Shared experimental facilities

MRSEC Awards

• Six year awards• Semi-annual PI Meetings• Program Director Site Visit in year two• Site visit review with a panel during year four• Existing Centers compete with new proposals in open

competition in the sixth year of the award

• Continuum from small to large Centers• Current support ranges from ~ $1M-$3.6M• Non-research activities scale with the size of the Center

The MRSEC Program in 2009

• 27 Centers• ~$54M total this year

– 13 MRSECs class of 2005– 14 MRSECs class of 2008– 5 new awards made in 2008– 4 MRSECs phased out after 2008 competition

MRSEC Class of 2005

Institution IRGs Institution IRGs

Brown 2+1 Northwestern 3

UC Santa Barbara 4 Oklahoma / Arkansas 2

Cal Tech 3 Pennsylvania 5

Carnegie Mellon 1 Washington - new 1

Cornell 4 Wisconsin 3

Johns Hopkins 1 Yale - new 1

Maryland 2

MRSEC Class of 2008

Institution IRGs Institution IRGs

Brandeis – new 1 MIT 3+2

Chicago 4 Minnesota 4

Colorado 1 Nebraska 2

Colorado School of Mines – new

2 New York University - new 1

Harvard 3 Ohio State University - new 2

Georgia Tech – new 1 Penn State University 4

U. Mass - Amherst 2+2 Princeton 4

MRSEC Program Balance by DMR Programs*

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Pe

rce

nta

ge

of

IRG

s

MRSEC 2005

Preproposal

MRSEC 2008

*Theory distributed among programs

MRSEC Expenditures 2007-2008* as % of Total Budget

63.18.5

9.0

2.9

11.55.0

IRGs Seeds

Education Knowledge Transfer

Shared Facilities Administration* Latest data

MRSEC Faculty by Departmental Affiliation

Nu

mb

er o

f F

acu

lty

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

2000200420062008

MRSEC Participants FY2008 Compared to 2006 National Stats* in Red

Total Women Under-represented Minorities

Faculty 738 16.1%14.1%

5.3%6.6%

Postdocs 265 21.5%23.2%

5.3%4.3%

Graduate Students

921 24.8%24.6%

7.1%11.7%

Undergrads 367 38.4% 19.6%

REU 459 38.3% 28.1%

*Extracted from NSF's Science and Engineering Indicators 2008

Diversity Strategic Plan for MRSECs

• “MRSECs must seek to embrace the cultural, gender, racial, and ethnic diversity of the U.S. in the composition of their participants at all levels.”

• Each MRSEC will prepare and execute a diversity strategic plan with goals and intended actions to increase the diversity of the center’s leadership, faculty, undergraduate, graduate students, and postdoctoral associates, and assure diversity in REU and RET programs.

Part of the Cooperative Agreement for MRSECs starting in 2005. Part of MRSEC Annual Reports. Expect plans to be updated annually.

Diversity Trends in MRSEC

MRSEC Diversity Trend - Faculty

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Year

Per

cen

tag

e % Women Faculty

% URM Faculty

National Women Faculty

National URM Faculty

MRSEC Diversity Trend - Post Docs

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Year

Per

cen

tag

e

Post Docs - women %

Post Docs - URM %

Post docs - womenNationally

Post docs - URMNationally

MRSEC Diversity Trend for Graduate Students

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

35.0%

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Year

Per

cen

tag

e GRAs - women %

GRAs - URM %

GRAs - women Nationally

GRAs - URM Nationally

MRSEC Site Visit Report

A. Recommendation for 5th and 6th year of funding

B. Summary – Intellectual Merit– Broader Impacts– Impact of MRSEC

Evaluation - strengths and weaknesses / panel voiceC. Interdisciplinary Research Groups D. The Center as a Whole

– Strategic Plan– Institutional Setting and Rationale for the Center– Seeds and Emerging Areas– Education and Human Resource Development– Diversity Strategic Plan– Collaboration with Industry, International, and other Sectors– Shared Experimental Facilities– Institutional Support, Management Plan, and Budget

A reminder that information exchanged at this

meeting is confidential as are all NSF reviews.