Minutes for the Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee Meeting July 29-30, 1998, Gaithersburg Hilton Hotel, Gaithersburg, Maryland
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Minutes for the Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee Meeting July 29-30, 1998, Gaithersburg Hilton Hotel, Gaithersburg, Maryland BESAC members present: Boris Batterman Thomas Russell Jack Crow Zhi-Xun Shen Marye Anne Fox (Vice Chair) Sunil Sinha Jan Herbst Richard Smalley Linda Horton David Tirrell Franklin Orr Patricia Thiel Geraldine Richmond (Chair) BESAC members absent: Barbara Garrison Carolyn Meyers Robert Horsch Edel Wasserman Stephen Leone Conrad Williams Marsha Lester Also present: Jim Decker, Deputy Director, ER (Wednesday only) Patricia Dehmer, Associate Director, ER, OBES Martha Krebs, Director, ER (Wednesday afternoon only) Iran Thomas, Deputy Associate Director, ER, OBES and Director, Division of Materials Sciences, OBES July 29, 1998 Chair Geraldine Richmond opened the meeting at 8:30 a.m. She had each committee member introduce himself or herself. She then introduced Patricia Dehmer to provide an overview of the Department of Energy (DOE) and of the Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES). In her preliminary remarks, Dehmer welcomed the members to the meeting and stressed the importance of this advisory committee, BESAC, pointing out that it produced outcomes as well as outputs. One outcome has been the Birgeneau Report that reviewed the major light-source initiatives; it will be the force in determining funding for those sources, and it has already become part of the vernacular on Capitol Hill. An output has been the analysis of the shutdown of the High-Flux Beam Reactor (HFBR). She pointed out that BESAC already has three charges for this year: to review the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR), to conduct a workshop on fourth-generation light sources, and to conduct a workshop on complex systems. In her introductory remarks, she highlighted BES=s position and role in the structure of DOE and pointed out that it contributes primarily to the science and technology business line of the Department. Basically, most of the basic research that occurs in DOE is funded by BES; and in the physical sciences, BES funds about four times as much basic research as does the National Science Foundation (NSF). From 1996 to 1997, BES=s funding increased $246 million, with most of that going for construction of the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) and the fourth and final components of the Seitz-Eastman recommendation. She pointed out that BES has four divisions, and that the directors of each of those divisions would address the meeting. In her prepared presentation, she reviewed the organization of the DOE and the distribution BESAC Minutes - 7/98 -2- of FY-1998 appropriations among science and technology, energy resources, national security, and environmental quality. She then summarized these appropriations by Department business line. An organization chart for the Office of Energy Research (ER) highlighted BES, which this committee serves. She noted that the Department ranks within the top five government research organizations for funding the physical sciences, environmental sciences, mathematics and computing, and engineering. She described the structure of the Department=s Energy Research portfolio and noted that it is going to be portfolio roadmapped; the individual activities will then be roadmapped, and the results will be fed back on the portfolio. She stated that research funded by ER undergirds the DOE applied-research portfolio. Positive feedback has already been received about these efforts to analyze and map out present and future activities. BES conducts 1400 peer-reviewed research projects, funds 200 research institutions, and maintains 18 national user facilities. The FY-1999 congressional budget request for BES is $836.1 million, about half of which is for materials sciences; a quarter for chemical sciences; and the rest for engineering and geosciences, energy biosciences, construction, and small- business programs. The mission of BES is: ! to foster and support fundamental research in the natural sciences and engineering leading to both new and improved energy technologies and an understanding and mitigation of the environmental impacts of energy technologies and ! to plan, construct, and operate major scientific user facilities and to promote user communities for researchers at universities, national laboratories, and industrial laboratories. The fundamental tenets to which BES subscribes are: ! excellence in basic research; ! relevance to the nation=s energy future; and ! stewardship to ensure stable, essential scientific communities, facilities, and institutions. She noted that, as DOE does portfolio mapping, roadmapping, planning, etc., the paper flow will be overwhelming. She commented that it will be important to remember these tenets and to maintain a balance among them. Failure to maintain such a balance could lead to loss of intellectual leadership, portfolio stagnation, an ivory-tower mentality, evaluation in terms of short-term economic impacts, fashion-driven churning of the portfolio, a trend toward megascience, and/or an inability to respond quickly to national needs. The legislative mandate for BES was shown to be grounded in the Energy Policy Act of 1992. Dehmer highlighted recent prizes and awards received by researchers funded by BES, including six Nobel prizes since 1986, and underscored the importance of funding work that (1) advances the fields of research and (2) is rapidly recognized as important by scientific peers. All of these Nobel prizes were in fields basic to the mission of DOE, and they show that the Department funds the best researchers in the field(s). BES has been improving its website, and it now has links to program books, contracts, and the home pages of 18 BES-funded facilities around the nation. BES is made up of four divisions: The Materials Sciences Division, which is composed of the Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Chemistry Program and the Metal and Ceramic BESAC Minutes - 7/98 -3- Sciences Program; the Chemical Sciences Division, which is composed of the Fundamental Interactions Program and the Molecular Processes Program; the Energy Biosciences Division; and the Engineering and Geosciences Division, which is composed of the Geosciences Program and the Engineering Program. It supports four out of the five neutron-source facilities in the United States. (The other is operated by the National Institute for Science and Technology.) The program has a high degree of interaction with applied research and industrial applied technology, even though it funds virtually no industry directly. The Office has published four booklets that describe its activities: Scientific Research Facilities; Basic Energy Sciences: Serving the Present, Shaping the Future; Basic Energy Sciences: Research for the Nation=s Energy Future; and Medical Applications of Non-Medical Research. A bar chart showed current DOE, ER, and BES funding of the 15 DOE laboratories; one of the most obvious characteristics of this chart was the dominance of the weapons laboratories. The exercises for determining the FY-2000 budget are now complete, and the outlook is not as rosy as had been hoped. After new initiatives (e.g., SNS) are subtracted, it shows a slight decrease; analyzing these figures shows opportunities and shortcomings. A bar chart of the current BES funding for each of the 15 laboratories identified funds for construction, facility operations, research-related capital equipment, Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), materials sciences, chemical sciences, engineering and geosciences, and energy biosciences going to each site. A refinement of that chart showing just the research operating budget was displayed; it clearly showed where the BES portfolio is: in user facilities and research. It also showed the varied core strengths of the different laboratories. Analysis of these numbers and facts indicates that DOE laboratories ! provide most of the nation=s major scientific user facilities ! have specialized facilities not typically found at universities ! support research that may not be Ain vogue@ at universities ! can be cofunded by the technology offices ! can support research of a longer term than that of a doctoral thesis ! can be home to outstanding individual investigators. It also shows that universities ! provide access to a major scientific talent pool ! train the next generation of scientists ! work in areas important to the mission of DOE ! are not captives of the DOE system ! provide a perspective that often complements that of DOE laboratories. A segmented graph of budget authority versus fiscal year for (1) base research, (2) facilities operations, and (3) capital equipment and construction showed the variation of these components from 1988 to the 1999 request. The Department is currently in the process of identifying themes that represent its objectives and that can guide the attainment of those objectives. The four themes that have been suggested are: BESAC Minutes - 7/98 -4- ! Fueling the Future: Science for affordable and clean energy ! Protecting Our Living Planet: Energy impacts on people and the biosphere ! Exploring Matter and Energy: Building blocks of atoms and life ! Extraordinary Tools for Extraordinary Science From these themes, ER=s research portfolio can be derived and organized, showing the individual offices that contribute to the understanding of each theme. Martha Krebs, the Director of ER, has requested each office to provide roadmaps that show how they will pursue these four themes. Roadmapping pure science like this is difficult