MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES $863,580,000 |
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The FY
2002 Budget Request for the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Activity
is $863.58 million, an increase of $12.74 million, or 1.5 percent, over
the FY 2001 Current Plan of $850.84 million.
(Millions of Dollars)
Totals may not add due to rounding. The Mathematical and Physical Sciences Activity (MPS) supports a strong and diverse portfolio of research and education in astronomical sciences, chemistry, materials research, mathematical sciences and physics. The purpose of this work is threefold: to deepen our understanding of the physical universe; to use this understanding in service to society; and to prepare the next generation of scientists who are essential for continued progress. The mathematical and physical sciences underpin many other scientific endeavors and serve as the training ground for at least half of all doctoral scientists now employed in U.S. industry. The MPS Activity supports areas of inquiry that are critical for long-term U.S. economic strength and security, providing a substantial portion of federal funding for fundamental research at academic institutions in these areas, and in some subfields, provides for most of the federal investment. The new opportunities are many. Research at the atomic level will result in a period of discovery that could be termed a "molecular revolution." The study of complex chemical and physical systems offers critical insights into climate change and other natural phenomena. Biological systems can be understood and controlled via powerful mathematical and physical techniques, such as the creation of algorithms critical for drug design and for the development of biopolymers, gels, and other biomolecular materials. Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics is leading to profound new understandings of the physics of the universe. New tools critical to scientific progress - from advanced magnets, to novel sensors, to quantum computers, to more powerful telescopes - are being developed and refined, and will make possible the understanding of physical phenomena at a much more profound level. Essential to achieving these goals is the development of new mathematical tools and algorithms for modeling and simulation of physical and biological phenomena. MPS places a high priority on multidisciplinary work and on partnerships. The Multidisciplinary Activities Subactivity is designed to catalyze efforts in emerging areas of research and education at disciplinary boundaries. By fostering closer connections with other federal agencies, state governments, industry, and other countries, MPS investigators enhance the impact of their efforts and increase the return on NSF investments. International partnerships are critical to progress, both intellectually and financially, especially in the areas of astronomy, physics, and materials research, all of which require the use of large facilities. An example is the strong international cooperation that the Astronomy Subactivity has generated in support of the Gemini Observatories. Another is the collaboration with the Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science and with the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) that the Physics Subactivity has pursued toward the development of detectors for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). World leadership in science is a critical objective for the Foundation. Receipt of Nobel Prizes by MPS-supported physical scientists and Fields Medals by MPS-supported mathematical scientists is a strong indicator of the long-term importance of MPS research. Alan J. Heeger, Alan G. MacDiarmid and Hideki Shirakawa shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2000 for the discovery and development of conductive polymers. NSF has supported both Heeger and MacDiarmid since the 1970s, their collaboration was fostered by support from the NSF-funded Materials Research Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania. As a practical example of their work, conductive plastics are used in anti-static substances for photographic film, as shields against electromagnetic radiation, and for "smart" windows that can exclude sunlight. Zhores I. Alferov and Herbert Kroemer shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2000 with Jack Kilby. Alferov and Kroemer invented and developed fast opto-microelectronic components based on layered semiconductor structures, termed semiconductor heterostructures. Their work has laid the foundation of modern information technology, particularly through the development of fast transistors. Kroemer has been a key participant in the Science and Technology Center (STC) for Quantized Electronic Structures at the University of California, Santa Barbara established by NSF in 1989 as one of the first class of STCs. People are NSF's most important product. At NSF, placing research and learning hand-in-hand is our highest priority, and the people involved in our projects represent both the focus of our investments and the most important products of them. Across its programs, MPS provides support for approximately 20,000 people, including teachers, students, researchers, post-doctorates, and trainees. Support for programs specifically addressing NSF's strategic outcome of "People - developing a diverse, internationally competitive and globally-engaged workforce of scientists, engineers and well-prepared citizens" totals more than $97.55 million in FY 2002, an increase of 12 percent over FY 2001. Moreover, about 45 percent of the funding for research grants -- an amount approaching $260 million in FY 2002 -- provides support for researchers and students, including approximately 12,200 post-doctorates, trainees, and graduate and undergraduate students. In FY 2002, MPS will support research and education efforts related to broad, Foundation-wide priority areas in Biocomplexity in the Environment, Information Technology Research, Nanoscale Science and Engineering, and Learning for the 21st Century. Biocomplexity in the Environment (BE): MPS will support the Biocomplexity in the Environment (BE) priority area with $5.35 million in FY 2002. New activities in BE will begin to integrate the molecular level studies already under way with more global studies of geochemical and geophysical cycles in the environment. MPS will also support the development of new mathematical and statistical techniques for understanding extreme environmental events, for analyzing complex, multi-variable data, and for undertaking risk assessments. A critical feature of the MPS-supported research activities will be the training of the future workforce and the creation of an informed public in this area. Information Technology Research (ITR): MPS contributes very heavily in all of its Subactivities to the national effort in large-scale computational science. This work has dramatically improved understanding of fundamental scientific phenomena in astronomy, chemistry, mathematics, materials research and physics. The computational sciences have also provided increasingly sophisticated techniques for gathering, manipulating, storing and analyzing experimental data. MPS-supported research may bring about entirely new ways of computing, for example, quantum computing, by which the rules of quantum mechanics may be exploited to expand our ability to store and process information. In addition, the mathematical sciences make essential contributions to fundamentals of computer science itself, as well as providing the calculational algorithms, imaging methods, and cryptographic techniques needed across an enormous spectrum of activity in science, engineering, national defense, and business. MPS support for ITR will total $29.62 million in FY 2002. This investment will focus on specific thrusts that include:
These fundamental computational challenges in MPS have and will continue to push the state-of-the-art of software and hardware developments in many areas of information technology. Expanding these capabilities will require additional investment in: advanced computational hardware and software development; the ability to store, to transmit, and to analyze very large databases using new grid-based technologies; enabling remote access and control of experimental facilities such as accelerators, telescopes and large databases; the development of new imaging technologies; and educating the workforce using the power of the World Wide Web. Nanoscale Science and Engineering: In FY 2002, the MPS request includes $88.08 million for nanoscale science and engineering, an increase of $5.0 million over the FY 2001 Current Plan. MPS grantees have contributed significantly to many of the exciting advances made over the past year, which illustrate both the scientific fascination and the technological potential of nanoscale phenomena and structures. Examples include: researchers and students at Washington University have created nanometer-sized spheres containing a mobile core surrounded by a membrane-like shell; invention of a new polymeric electro-optic modulator that could increase the speed and capacity of fiber-optic communications by as much as tenfold by researchers at the University of Washington; and the Cornell University MRSEC investigators have demonstrated a new mechanism for controlling nano-scale magnetic domains that relies on the quantum-mechanical interaction between electron spins and the magnetic material. In FY 2002, together with the Engineering Activity, MPS will initiate support for a Nanotechnology Experimentation and Testing Facility (NEXT). NEXT will provide a University-based infrastructure to move fundamental research in nanoscale science and engineering more effectively towards eventual application through synthesis and processing, characterization, imaging, modeling and simulation, and pre-competitive manufacturing. MPS will continue to play a major role in the NSF's contribution to the interagency National Nanotechnology Initiative in the following areas: Nanoscale Structures and Quantum Control; Multi-scale, Multi-phenomena Modeling and Simulation at the Nanoscale; Nanostructures in the Environment; Biosystems at the Nanoscale; and Device and System Architecture. An integral component of this priority area includes the preparation and training of the future workforce in this critical field. Learning for the 21st Century: MPS support will increase $1.0 million, for a total of $4.0 million in FY 2002 for this priority area. This includes continued support for the NSF-wide program for Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education; for the Interagency Education Research Initiative program, a collaborative program with the Department of Education and the National Institutes of Health; and the Digital Library program. STRATEGIC GOALS
MPS's support for ongoing and new activities contributes to NSF efforts to achieve its strategic goals, as well as to the administration and management activities necessary to achieve those goals. MPS's investment in NSF's strategic goals is as follows: (Millions of Dollars)
Totals may not add due to rounding. PeoplePeople are the most important and the most immediate result of the MPS investment in research and education. Through its support of education and training activities as well as its support of the research of individual investigators, groups, centers, and facilities, MPS enables the development of a diverse, internationally competitive and globally engaged workforce of scientists, engineers, and well prepared citizens. This workforce must be ready to shoulder the responsibility for bringing forth the ideas and discoveries that expand the frontiers of understanding, and for developing and using new tools that enable discovery and learning. To this end and to increase the understanding of the mathematical and physical sciences by the nation's citizens, MPS will increase its FY 2002 investment in People by $10.48 million, or 12 percent, to a total of $97.55 million. Funding identified in the following table includes only dedicated education and training activities supported by MPS alone and in partnership with other Activities, and excludes the much more extensive education and training activities supported by MPS through research awards and those taking place at centers and facilities. (Millions of Dollars)
Totals may not add due to rounding. MPS activities play a key role in integrating science and education at the graduate and undergraduate levels, and in helping people of all ages discover science and its processes. For example, over 200 REU Sites are supported by MPS that expose almost 2,000 undergraduate students each year to the excitement of discovery at the frontiers of mathematics and science. In addition to supporting REU sites, MPS sponsors many outreach programs at its centers and facilities that help bring the excitement of current scientific discovery to the public. The FY 2002 increase for People includes:
IdeasMPS supports research activities across a very broad spectrum - from studies of the origin of the universe to investigations of the inner structure of matter; from understanding the dynamic nature of chemical reactions in real time to the design, from fundamental principles, of materials with new properties; and from the proof of centuries-old mathematical theorems to the development of new statistical techniques to evaluate environmental data. Support for discovery across the frontier of science and engineering, connected to learning, innovation and service to society accounts for about two-thirds of the funding in the MPS Activity. Awards range from support of single investigators, to support for centers or groups of investigators, to funding for research at large, complex state-of-the art facilities. Some of the most interesting current intellectual problems arise at the intersection of the mathematical, physical and biological sciences, in those areas in which research from each of the fields informs the other. MPS is joining with the Biological Sciences Activity (BIO) to establish mechanisms for responding to the new science emerging at this boundary. The two Activities will seek ways to jointly review and fund proposals in this environment. Funding for Ideas will decrease in FY 2002 by $8.50 million, to a total of $538.02 million. Funds will be redirected through targeted reductions within existing research activities to support new research opportunities. Interdisciplinary research is becoming an increasingly important aspect of progress in all of the sciences. In FY 2002, funding will focus on the following areas characterizing a large portion of the MPS portfolio:
In FY 2002, MPS will continue to implement efforts to address the Foundation-wide concern about grant sizes by increasing the average size of awards. MPS will also continue to encourage competitive research grants for investigators who are members of underrepresented groups. MPS also supports a number of centers: (Millions of Dollars)
Totals may not add due to rounding. Center-based research brings together scientists from diverse disciplines to work on complex problems, often in partnerships with other academic institutions, national laboratories, and industry. Centers are strongly committed to the integration of research and education, at levels from pre-college to postdoctoral, and they maintain sophisticated experimental facilities generally accessible to a broad range of users. In FY 2002, MPS will support 2 Science and Technology Centers (STC), 29 Materials Science and Engineering Research Centers (MRSEC); 1 International Materials Institute; 12 Chemistry Centers; 4 Physics Frontier Centers (PFC); and 3 Mathematical Sciences Research Institutes (MSRI). In addition, several Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centers (NS&E) to be established in FY 2001 will be supported in whole or in part by MPS. MPS Centers integrate cutting-edge research with a broad spectrum of educational and outreach activities; they help to bring science and engineering to a wider audience and to foster international cooperation in research and education. For example, about 400 undergraduates participated in MRSEC-sponsored research during FY 2000; of these, about 150 were women and 100 were members of ethnic minorities underrepresented in science and engineering. To bring nanoscale science and engineering to pre-college students and the general public, the University of Wisconsin MRSEC has developed a web-based program "Exploring the Nanoworld" accompanied by hands-on demonstrations that illustrate nanoscale materials and characterization techniques. In FY 2002, support for centers will include:
ToolsTools have allowed a stunning view into nature that has captured the imagination of the world - from the far reaches of the universe and the beginnings of time to the fundamental makeup of matter and the workings of life. Investment in instrumentation has many other payoffs, with perhaps the most powerful relating to the training of the next generation of leaders in science. While instruments and their supporting infrastructure are becoming more costly and complex, the scientific problems of today involve phenomena at or just beyond the limits of current measurement capabilities. These phenomena can only be studied with new generations of powerful tools. Continued advances and leadership in the physical sciences depend critically on the availability of state-of-the-art user facilities to enable research and education at the cutting edge of science for large communities of researchers and students. Investment in facilities necessarily requires support for ongoing operations, maintenance, and periodic upgrades to the core facility as well as to ancillary instrumentation that may be needed to provide continued forefront research opportunities to these users. Research and development towards new capabilities at existing facilities and for new facilities to meet the needs of the MPS disciplines is carried out with support provided through core disciplinary research. Activities include: R&D towards next generation Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors; future accelerators at the energy frontier; enhanced neutron scattering capabilities at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS); high magnetic field capabilities at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL); and new capabilities at the national astronomy centers. In addition, MPS manages the U.S. Large Hadron Collider (LHC) detector construction project jointly with the Department of Energy. For additional information see the Major Research Equipment Account. (Millions of Dollars)
Totals may not add due to rounding. In FY 2002, support for Tools in MPS includes the following:
Number of People Supported in MPS Activities
Totals may not add due to rounding. MPS Funding Profile
Statistics for award size and duration are for Research Grants only. |
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