Condensed-Matter and Materials Physics The Science of the World Around Us (2007) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
10 Structure and Level of the Current Research Effort
10 Structure and Level of the Current Research Effort
Pages 172-192
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From page 172... ...
Agencies were asked to provide data for the past 10 years on funding levels, grant sizes, and success rates, as well as on the demographics of the CMMP-supported programs. Additional questions concerned the number and size of centers and of facilities supported.
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From page 173... ...
The primary funding sources in terms of the total amount of funds allocated for CMMP research over the past 10 years have been the National Science Foundation's Division of Materials Research (NSF DMR) ; the Department of Energy Basic Energy Sciences (DOE BES)
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From page 174... ...
study on the Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers, the use of this deflator more realistically captures the actual costs associated with carrying out research at universities. In the present report, the committee identifies this deflator with the funding "buying power." Figure 10.2 indicates that, using this measure, the overall support for CMMP research has steadily declined over the previous decade.
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From page 175... ...
10-2 students, and instrumentation, CMMP research in the United States can only stay competitive if the level of funding increases in a commensurate way. Within individual programs, funding can be delineated by support for individual investigators (or small teams)
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From page 176... ...
1.4 NSF DMR Budget 1.3 1.2 1.1 1.0 0.9 0.8 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 Single PIs Centers Facilities DMR Total FIGURE 10.3 The National Science Foundation Division of Materials Research (NSF DMR) funding profile for the past 10 years.
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From page 177... ...
Funding Success Rates The essentially flat federal funding for CMMP basic research over the past 10 years, coupled with an overall increase in the number of grant applications, has led to an increase in pressure on grant allocations. A modest increase in average grant size for DOE and NSF (discussed below)
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From page 178... ...
25 20 15 10 5 0 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 DMR Average New PI, DMR Average FIGURE 10.4 Grant proposals, success rates, and grant sizes for the National Science Foundation 10-4 a, b Division of Materials Research (NSF DMR)
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From page 179... ...
economic innovation relative to the rest of the world. When considering the increasing costs of doing CMMP research in terms of graduate student support, a doubling of funding levels over 10 years would represent a growth of approximately 20 percent over a decade.
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From page 180... ...
As discussed above, the committee's survey of state and private universities indicates an average increase of 5 percent per year in the cost per graduate student. Median-size grants today often can only support one graduate student in full, plus the costs of materials and supplies and of small pieces of equipment.
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From page 181... ...
SOURCE: American Institute of Physics, Enrollments and Degrees Report, College Park, Md., 2006. Available at http://www.aip.org/statistics/trends/reports/ed.pdf.
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From page 182... ...
. Doctoral recipients in these areas prior to 2004 likely chose "Physics, General" or "Physics, Other" as their field of dissertation research, thus de 500 450 400 350 Number of Doctorates 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 Condensed-Matter and Materials Physics Atomic, Molecular, Optical Physics Elementary Particle Physics Nuclear Physics Plasma Physics Physics, General Physics, Other Biophysics FIGURE 10.8 Physics doctorates awarded by subfield, 1985-2005.
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From page 183... ...
. While the total number of women entering physics each year has reflected, to some extent, the ups and downs in total degrees granted, the dominant trend is a steady rise in the fraction of degrees granted to women, from about 6 percent of Ph.D.
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From page 184... ...
In particular, the NSF Materials Research Science TABLE 10.1 Percentage of Physics Faculty Who Are African-American and Hispanic and Number of African-American and Hispanic Physics Faculty by Degree-Granting Department, 2004 and 2000 Highest Degree Granted by Percentage Department of Physics Faculty Ph.D. Master's Bachelor's Number of departments Total number of physics departments in 2004 185 72 503 2004 Faculty African-American 2.0 64 29 78 Hispanic 2.7 107 56 60 2000 Faculty African-American 1.8 38 41 62 Hispanic 2.0 81 32 42 SOURCE: American Institute of Physics, 2004 Physics and Astronomy Academic Workforce Survey, College Park, Md., 2005.
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From page 185... ...
In addition, NSF DMR recently initiated the Partnerships for Research and Education in Materials program that seeks to enhance diversity by stimulating long-term partnerships between minority-serving institutions and DMR-supported centers and facilities. Together, these efforts provide CMMP National Research Council, The National Science Foundation's Materials Research Science and Engi neering Center Program: Looking Back, Moving Forward, Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press, 2007.
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From page 186... ...
Doctoral Degrees in Physics by Citizenship In contrast to the ups and downs in total Ph.D. production discussed earlier, data compiled by the AIP Statistical Research Center show a steady decline in the proportion of physics Ph.D.
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From page 187... ...
The committee obtained data for the numbers of articles published by and submitted to several journals of the CMMP-relevant American Physical Society and the American Institute of Physics. Comparisons between the United States and other countries and between academia, industry, and national laboratories can be made with these data.
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From page 188... ...
Figure 10.14 compares the combined numbers of articles originating in the United States with those coming from the rest of the world. The committee bases this comparison on two journals that capture the core disciplines within CMMP: Physical Review B, whose subject areas include hard condensed-matter and materials physics, and Physical Review E, which covers statistical, nonlinear, and soft-matter physics.
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From page 189... ...
industrial laboratories in Physical Review B The data reveal a precipitous drop in publications between 1996 and 2001 by the two major industrial research laboratories, Bell Laboratories and the IBM Research Centers, indicating a dramatic drop in CMMP basic research being performed at these institutions.
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From page 190... ...
CMMP publications are one source of evidence that individual investigators and small numbers of collaborators dominate advances in the field. Furthermore, CMMP research at large facilities also tends to be done by individual groups or by small groups of collaborators.
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From page 191... ...
The proposed doubling of the physical sciences budget, with particular focus on supporting individual investigators (by increasing both average grant size and the number of awards) , would be an excellent first step toward accomplishing this goal.
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From page 192... ...
Recommendation: The average success rates for the funding of proposals should be increased to more than 30 percent over the next 5 years in order to give junior scientists the opportunity to obtain research results before the ten ure decision and to enable currently funded researchers to maintain continuity in their research programs. Recommendation: The size of grants to individual and small groups of in vestigators should be increased to maintain the buying power of the average grant and to retain scientific talent in the United States.
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