NSF Efforts to Achieve
the Nation’s Vision for
the Materials Genome
Initiative
Designing Materials to Revolutionize
and Engineer Our Future (DMREF)
______
Committee on Advising NSF on Its Efforts to Achieve the
Nation’s Vision for the Materials Genome Initiative
National Materials and Manufacturing Board
Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences
Consensus Study Report
NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001
This activity was supported by Award 2054501 with the National Science Foundation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization or agency that provided support for the project.
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-69401-8
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-69401-9
Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.17226/26723
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Suggested citation: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. NSF Efforts to Achieve the Nation’s Vision for the Materials Genome Initiative: Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer Our Future (DMREF). Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/26723.
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COMMITTEE ON ADVISING NSF ON ITS EFFORTS TO ACHIEVE THE NATION’S VISION FOR THE MATERIALS GENOME INITIATIVE
RONALD LATANISION (NAE), Exponent, Inc., Co-Chair
KARIN M. RABE (NAS), Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Co-Chair
RAYMUNDO ARROYAVE, Texas A&M University
GERBRAND CEDER (NAE), University of California, Berkeley
FELICIANO GIUSTINO, The University of Texas at Austin
AMIT GOYAL (NAE), State University of New York at Buffalo
OLIVIA GRAEVE, University of California, San Diego
DAVID GREEN, University of Virginia
PREETI KAMAKOTI, ExxonMobil
ROBERT V. KOHN, New York University
JOHN MAURO (NAE), The Pennsylvania State University
RISTO NIEMINEN (NAS), Aalto University (Emeritus)
SHERINE OBARE, Western Michigan University
TRESA POLLOCK (NAE), University of California, Santa Barbara
AARTI SINGH, Carnegie Mellon University
DEIDRE STRAND, Wildcat Discovery Technologies
KATSUYO THORNTON, University of Michigan
RICHARD VAIA (NAE), Air Force Research Laboratory
KAREN L. WOOLEY (NAS), Texas A&M University
Staff
ERIK B. SVEDBERG, Scholar and Study Director
MICHELLE SCHWALBE, Director, National Materials and Manufacturing Board and Board on Mathematical Sciences and Analytics
NEERAJ GORKHALY, Associate Program Officer
AMISHA JINANDRA, Associate Program Officer
JOSEPH PALMER, Senior Project Assistant
NATIONAL MATERIALS AND MANUFACTURING BOARD
THERESA KOTANCHEK (NAE), Evolved Analytics, LLC, Chair
JOHN KLIER, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Vice Chair
KEVIN ANDERSON (NAE), Brunswick Corporation
CRAIG ARNOLD, Princeton University
FELICIA J. BENTON-JOHNSON, Georgia Institute of Technology
WILLIAM B. BONVILLIAN, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
JIAN CAO (NAE), Northwestern University
ELLIOT L. CHAIKOF (NAM), Harvard University
JULIE A. CHRISTODOULOU, Office of Naval Research (retired)
TERESA CLEMENT, Raytheon Missile Systems
STEPHEN FORREST (NAS/NAE), University of Michigan
AMIT GOYAL (NAE), State University of New York at Buffalo
JULIA GREER, California Institute of Technology
SATYANDRA K. GUPTA, University of Southern California
BRADLEY A. JAMES, Exponent, Inc.
THOMAS R. KURFESS (NAE), Georgia Institute of Technology
MICHAEL (MICK) MAHER, Maher & Associates, LLC
RAMULU MAMIDALA, University of Washington
SHIRLEY MENG, University of Chicago
OMKARAM (OM) NALAMASU (NAE), Applied Materials, Inc.
MATTHEW J. ZALUZEC, University of Florida
Staff
MICHELLE SCHWALBE, Director, National Materials and Manufacturing Board and Board on Mathematical Sciences and Analytics
ERIK B. SVEDBERG, Scholar
NEERAJ GORKHALY, Associate Program Officer
AMISHA JINANDRA, Associate Program Officer
JOSEPH PALMER, Senior Project Assistant
Reviewers
This Consensus Study Report was reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in making each published report as sound as possible and to ensure that it meets the institutional standards for quality, objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process.
We thank the following individuals for their review of this report:
Viola L. Acoff, University of Alabama
Tia Benson Tolle, The Boeing Company
Charles Kuehmann, SpaceX and Tesla Motors
Jianfeng Lu, Duke University
Nadya Mason (NAE), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Erica P. Murray, Louisiana Tech University
Orlando Rios, The University of Tennessee Knoxville
Susan Sinnott, The Pennsylvania State University
Sara Skrabalak, Indiana University
Although the reviewers listed above provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations
of this report nor did they see the final draft before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Aziz Asphahani (NAE), QuesTek Innovations, LLC, and Elsa Reichmanis (NAE), Lehigh University. They were responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with the standards of the National Academies and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content rests entirely with the authoring committee and the National Academies.
Acknowledgments
The committee would like to thank the following individuals who added to the members’ understanding of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF’s) Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer Our Future (DMREF) program, the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI), and many other programs both domestically and internationally:
Kevin Anderson, Mercury Marine; Peter Anderson, NSF; Saleh Akram Bhuiyan, Michigan Technological University; Marian Bocea, NSF; Rajendra Bordia, Saint-Gobain; Bryan Boudouris, NSF; Alex Bourque, 3M Corporate Research Analytical Laboratory; Richard Braatz, ExxonMobil; Donald Brenner, North Carolina State University; Connor Callaway, University of Kentucky; John Cavin, Northwestern University; Adam Chamberlain, Rolls-Royce; K.S. Ravi Chandran, The University of Utah; Julie Christodoulou, U.S. Navy; Andrew Cooper, Liverpool Materials Innovation Factory; Michael Demkowicz, Texas A&M University College of Engineering; Ben Derby, Los Alamos National Laboratory; Jim Donlon, NSF; Claudia Draxl, FAIR Data Infrastructure for Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science, and Astronomy e.V.; Padraic Foley, University of Toronto; Lisa Friedersdorf, National Nanotechnology Coordination Office; Giulia Galli, University of Chicago; Tiziana Giorgi, NSF; Ruyan Guo, NSF; Hendrik Heinz, University of Colorado Boulder; Elizabeth Holm, Carnegie Mellon University; Chaofan (Bill) Huang, student; Bryan Huey, University of Connecticut; Ben Jean, student; Priya Katyal, University of Connecticut; Veerle Keppens, The University of Tennessee Knoxville; Bassel Khoury,
Cornell University; Gabi Kotliar, Rutgers University; Tom Kuech, NSF; Yakov Kutsovsky, MateriaX and previously Cabot; Paul Lane, NSF; Alexis Lewis, NSF; Yifan Liu, student; Ziwei Liu, Cornell University; Elisabeth Lloyd, The Pennsylvania State University; Mark Losego, Georgia Institute of Technology; Nicola Marzari, Laboratory for Materials Simulations; Ian McCue, Northwestern University; Emily McGuinness, student/postdoc; Michael Mills, National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Amit Misra, University of Michigan; Aravind Mohanram, Saint-Gobain; Ahmad Moini, BASF Catalysts; Joseph Montoya, Toyota; Greg Mulholland, Citrine.io; Janice Musfeldt, The University of Tennessee Knoxville; Bill Olbricht, NSF; Eugene Olevsky, San Diego State University; Greg Olson, QuesTek; Elizabeth Opila, University of Virginia; Tugce Ozturk, SAP; Ranjith Krishna Pai, Ministry of Science and Technology India; John Parise, State University of New York at Stony Brook; Atoosa Parsa, University of Vermont; Kristin Persson, University of California, Berkeley; Jed Pitera, IBM; Siddiq Qidwai, NSF; Dierk Raabe, Max-Planck-Institut fuer Eisenforschung GmbH; Yevgeny Rakita, Columbia University; Yi Ren, student; George Rodriguez, ExxonMobil; Gregory Rutledge, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Tony Sanders, Ortho Development; Linda S. Sapochak, NSF; John Schlueter, NSF; William Schneider, University of Notre Dame; Stephan Andreas Schunk, High Throughput Experimentation Company; Shahab Shojaei-Zadeh, NSF; Sandra H. Skjaervoe, Columbia University; Timothy Smith, National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Ignacio Garzon Sosa, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; Rob Stone, NSF; Tibor Szilvasi, University of Alabama; Izabela Szlufarska, University of Wisconsin–Madison; Kevin R. Talley, Qorvo; Suk-Wah Tam-Chang, NSF; Rahul Venkatesh, Georgia Institute of Technology; Ralph Wachter, NSF; John Walsh, advisor to Sekkyun; Jia Wang, University of Nebraska–Lincoln; Charles Ward, U.S. Air Force; Jim Warren, National Institute of Standards and Technology; Seokkyun Woo, Georgia Institute of Technology; and Sophia Yaliraki, Institute for Digital Molecular Design and Fabrication.
Every member of the committee made heroic efforts to complete this daunting task. Erik Svedberg provided guidance and management, and we also appreciate similar support from Michelle Schwalbe. We thank the outside speakers listed and are grateful for the input from the entire community.
Contents
1INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW OF THE MATERIALS GENOME INITIATIVE
The Materials Genome Initiative
Other Agencies Involved in the MGI
2DESIGNING MATERIALS TO REVOLUTIONIZE AND ENGINEER OUR FUTURE: THE FIRST 10 YEARS
Evolution of the DMREF Solicitations
The Quality and Impact of DMREF Contributions
Education and Outreach in DMREF
3THE CURRENT STATE OF MATERIALS RESEARCH
Automated Synthesis and Characterization
Large-Scale National Facilities
Repositories of Experimental Data
Information About Workforce Development
Course and Curriculum Development
Junior Participant Research Experiences in DMREF
5COUNTERPARTS AROUND THE WORLD
6LOOKING TO THE FUTURE: OPPORTUNITIES FOR DMREF
The Scope and Character of DMREF
Opportunities for International Partnership
BCommittee and Staff Biographies
Preface
This report is the final product of an approximately 18-month study by the Committee on Advising NSF on Its Efforts to Achieve the Nation’s Vision for the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI), a group of 19 experts under the auspices of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The committee’s charge was to evaluate the goals, progress, and scientific accomplishments of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF’s) program on Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer Our Future (DMREF) within the United States and abroad.
The DMREF program represents NSF’s role in the MGI, and it has focused on accelerating materials discovery and development through the establishment of the fundamental knowledge base needed to design and make a material with a specific and desired function or property from first principles. DMREF considers the integration of computation, experiments, and data as its core principle. In particular, emphasis is placed on feedback loops among these elements, in which theory guides computational simulation, computational simulation guides experiments, and experiments guide theory. The MGI’s goals to enhance health and human welfare and improve national security, among others, are in alignment with those at NSF, which are to be accomplished by supporting fundamental science and engineering.
During the course of this study, the committee met more than 60 times, all virtually, often with national and international representatives from academia and industry. For a list of information-gathering sessions, see Appendix C. In addition to its virtual meetings, the committee solicited input from relevant communities
in the form of small, focused groups that met primarily by video or teleconference. High-level, strategic recommendations are presented in this report, aligning DMREF to take full advantage of existing and future opportunities to accelerate the progression of materials research from fundamentals to deployment.
This report begins with an overview of the evolution of the MGI, which then leads to an assessment of the first 10 years of DMREF. The cultural shift in materials research and practice is palpable, and future growth of the MGI-DMREF partnership is integral to reaching the ultimate goal of deploying new materials that meet societal needs and national priorities. The current state of materials research, which has been driven by this partnership, is examined next. While much has been accomplished, gaps that remain to be filled going forward are described. The committee spoke with graduate and postdoctoral students to assess their awareness of the MGI-DMREF partnership and to elicit feedback on improvements that might be considered as DMREF matures. There are many international MGI-like efforts, and the committee spoke with the leaders of many of these programs. Finally, the committee considered its findings and recommendations in the context of the potential evolution of DMREF in the future.
As mentioned above, this study was conducted over a relatively short time frame and in an entirely virtual format. We thank the study committee members for dedicating their remarkable technical expertise and experience to the task that was assigned to them, and for their efforts to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by the all-virtual meeting framework while overcoming its limitations. The committee is also grateful to the many people and organizations that have provided the information needed to compile this report.
The committee thanks the director of the National Materials and Manufacturing Board, Michelle Schwalbe, and the study director, Erik Svedberg, for their help and guidance in performing this study. We also express special appreciation to staff members Joe Palmer, Amisha Jinandra, and Neeraj Gorkhaly for assistance with virtual meeting arrangements and all of the daily tasks.
Ron Latanision, Co-Chair
Karin Rabe, Co-Chair
Committee on Advising NSF on Its Efforts to Achieve the Nation’s Vision for the Materials Genome Initiative