1661- iyod3a nvnNNV ABOUT THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION

• The National Science institutions, and small busi­ • NSF welcomes proposals on Foundation is an independent nesses. The agency operates no behalf of all qualified scientists federal agency created by the Na­ laboratories itself but does and engineers and strongly en­ tional Science Foundation Act of support National Research courages women, minorities, and 1950 (P.L. 81-507). Its aim is to Centers, certain oceanographic persons with disabilities to com­ promote and advance scienttSc vessels, and antarctic research pete fully in its programs. progress in the United States. stations. The Foundation also The idea of such a foundation was supports cooperative research In accordance with federal an outgrowth of the important con­ between universities and industry statutes and regulations and NSF tributions made by science and and U.S. participation in policies, no person on grounds of technology during World War II. international scientific efforts. race, color, age, sex, national From those first days, NSF has origin, or disability shall be had a unique place in the federal The Foundation is run by a excluded from participation in, government: it is responsible for presidentially appointed Director denied the benefits of, or be the overall health of science and and Board of 24 scientists and subject to discrimination under engineering across all discipfines. engineers, including top any program or activity receiving 111 cuiiLrdoi, uuier leuerdi agencies university and industry officials. fiiisjicisl 3.ssist3.ncG from txiG support research focused on spe­ National Science Foundation. cific missions, such as health or NSF is structured much like a defense. The Foundation is also university, with grant-making Facilitation Awards for Scientists committed to expanding the na­ divisions for the various and Engineers with Disabilities tion's supply of scientists, engi­ disciplines and fields of science (FASED) provide funding for neers, and science educators. and engineering. The Foundation special assistance or equipment to staff is helped by advisors, enable persons with disabilities NSF funds research and primarily from the scientific (investigators and other staff, education in science and en­ community, who serve on for­ including student research gineering. It does this through mal committees or as ad hoc assistants) to work on NSF grants and contracts to more than reviewers of proposals. This projects. See the program 2000 colleges, uiuversities, and advisory system, which focuses announcement or contact the other research institutions in all on both program direction and Program Coordinator at parts of the United States. The specific proposals, involves more (202) 357-7456. Foundation accounts for about 25 tlian 59,000 sciendsts and percent of federal support to engineers a year. NSF staff The National Science Foundation academic institutions for basic members who are experts in a has TDD (Telephonic Device for research. certain field or area make award the Deaf) capability, which decisions; applicants get unsigned enables individuals with hearing In FY 1991, NSF received some copies of peer reviews. impairment to communicate with 38,000 proposals for research, the Foundation about NSF pro­ graduate and postdoctoral fel­ Awardees are wholly responsible grams, employment, or general lowships, and math/science/ for doing their research and information. This number is (202) engineering education projects; preparing the results for pub­ 357-7492. it made almost 16,000 new and lication. Thus the Foundation renewal awards. These typically does not assume responsibility went to universities, colleges, for such findings or their academic consortia, nonprofit interpretation.

Cover Design: Rachel Delgado n/t«y"/

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

Washington, D. C.

DEAR MR. PRESIDENT:

I have the honor to transmit herewith the Annual Report for Fiscal Year 1991 of the National Science Foundation, for submission to the Congress as required by the National Science Foundation Act of1950.

Respectfully,

Walter E. Massey Director, National Science Foundation

The Honorable The President of the United States

E N T S

NSF Annual Report 1991

Chapter 1: Director's Overview

Chapter 2: Research Reports

Chapter 3: Education and Outreach

Chapter 4: International News

Chapter 5: Instrumentation and Facilities

Chapter 6: Awards and Organizational News

Appendixes

Appendix A. NSF Senior Staff and National Science Board Members (FY 1991)

Appendix B. Patents Report and Financial Tables for FY 1991

Chapterl

Director's Overview

The Annual Report is hath a retrospective loolz at the past year and an opportunity to reflect upon the future. With this in mind, Chapter 1 introduces the 1991 Annual Report with excerpts from speeches, writings and testimony that NSF Director Walter E. Massey delivered during the year. Collectively, they provide a sense of Dr. Massey's views and priorities, as they address issues affecting not only the research and education enterprise hut the entire nation.

modest one by comparison—at least of a modem, competitive and healthy in 1962 there was general agreement society. Many of the hopes and on where the moon was located. promises of the future will be fulfilled through that aspect of knowledge At the most elementary level, created by science and engineering. becoming number one in the world Already there is scarcely any area of implies a zero-sum game that is our lives that has not been touched reminiscent of the Cold War practice by—or benefitted from—science and of keeping score on the number of engineering.... gold medals we won in the Olympic Games. At a time when we were Increasingly, national competitive­ producing some of the best athletes ness is based on important advances in the world, we were content to sug­ in science and engineering and the gest that fhe number of gold medals ability to introduce those advances earned was a surrogate measure for into the market quickly, efficientiy Walter E. Massey the quality of our society—that in and creatively. For example, the late Director, itself our Olympic performance re­ John Bardeen, a Nobel laureate, National Science Foundation flected positively on our system of pioneered the development of the government and economics. first ttansistor. Within his lifetime, this inspiration revolutionized Even before the Cold War officially computing, communications and Science and Math Education concluded, I think we came to realize electronics. We can expect equally The education summit called by that whatever was being measured by dramatic and unexpected benefits President Bush in concert with the the performance of our Olympic from breakthroughs in areas as governors of the states has presented athletes, it was far too simplistic to diverse as biotechnology, new us with an extraordinary challenge: reflect the richness and diversity of materials and others—probably "By the year 2000, U.S. sdidents will our country.' within our lifetime.'^ be first in the world in science and mathematics achievement." Economic Competitiveness These are times of extraordinary Someone remarked that this ' December 6,1991, Keynote Address at the commitment is equivalent to Presi­ change. The resources that are most Secretary's (U.S. Department of Education) critical to progress today are no Conference on Improving Math and Science dent Kennedy's promise in 1962 to Education, Washington, D.C. put a man on the moon by the end of longer mined from the Earth but are the decade. I would submit that created in the mind. Knowledge and ^ February 7,1991, Confirmation Testimony, human talent are now the hallmarks United States Senate, Committee on Labor and President Kennedy's pledge was a Human Resources.

1 Public Trust But this public trust in science is Simply put, the whole edifice of not automatic, nor is it guaranteed. science and engineering research is As a source of funding for much of It must be earned by the scientific buUt upon honesty. More than in any the basic science that underlies pro­ community and by those of us who other endeavor, individuals conduct­ gress in these areas, the National help set policy. And it must be earned ing fundamental research depend Science Foundation depends on anew every year. This demonstration upon the veracity of the accumulated widespread public acceptance of the of faith in science, backed up as it is insights and accomplishments of idea that an investment in science by public funds, is in part an out­ others. Sir Isaac Newton expressed it is useful and valuable. For those growth of the expectation of a return best when he said, "If I have seen gathered here, such a statement is so on that investinent. It is a belief that further, it is by standing on the obvious as to be almost ridiculous. Of eventually all scientifically derived shoulders of giants." course we agree that science is valu­ knowledge will be put to use that able. Of course it is deserving of helps sustain public confidence in Not even giants can see clearly if public support. Of course it is impor­ science.' their feet are on shaky ground. Few tant that every citizen understand things are more damaging to the what science is, what scientists do, research enterprise than false­ and how science affects their lives. hoods—be they the result of error, Scientific Integrity self-deception, sloppiness and haste, We often take this for granted or, in the worst case, dishonesty. without reflecting on the fact that In science and engineering, there can be no permanently unsolved widespread public faith in science is a It is the paradox of research that inysterics nor perfect crimes If 3. the reliance on truth is both the finding is important, sooner or later though we can point to heads of state source of modem science and en­ the experiment will be repeated and throughout history who supported gineering's enduring resilience and the results subject to independent various intellectual pursuits, it is only its intrinsic fi-agility.' in the past 50 years or so that govern­ verification. The rules of research ments have provided a significant, keep science and engineering sustained investment in basic truthfiil. scientific research.

' October 23,1991, Address at the North Carolina State University Convocation, Raleigh, North Carolina.

•* June 3,1991, Commencement Address, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

' December 6,1991, Statement of Goals and Priorities, Memorandum to NSF Staff.

2 On the Foundation First, I am committed to increas­ ing support to individual investigators The National Science Foundation Physicist Walter E. Massey be­ through budget allocations and larger is uniquely positioned to contribute to came the Foundation's ninth Director grant size and extended award dura­ the health and welfare of the nation on March 4, 1991. He previously was tion. To meet new needs in selected through the creation and dissem­ Vice President of the University of areas of research and education, I ination of knowledge resulting from Chicago for Research and for the will continue to strive for balanced our support for research and Argonne National Laboratory. support for alternative modes of fund­ education.... Dr. Massey also is a former member ing research, such as groups, centers of the National Science Board. [NSF] enjoys an abundance of and major facilities. talent among our staff and con­ Second, NSF must be responsive siderable resources have been to current critical national needs, entrusted to us by the public. My particularly in education and human highest priority is to use these resources and in economic devel­ resources to maintain and enhance opment. Foundation programs in all the health and vitality of our nation's directorates should focus on edu­ research and education enterprise. cating our citizenry to meet current This includes building stronger and future requirements for scientific bridges between academia and in­ and technical personnel, and on dustry in order that the excellence of promoting retention of human our academic institutions contributes resources.' substantially to the standard of living of all members of our society ....

3 Chapter 2

I i^ooai Lri I I i^pUi lo

Geosciences and scientists who participated in the ex­ Biosciences pedition.

Kuwait Oil Fires Scientists returning from the Gulf said the black smoke was unlikely to Retreating Iraqi troops set hundreds reach the stratosphere. In addition, of oil fires in Kuwait during the last levels of toxic compounds such as days of the Gulf War (late 1990 to ozone, oxides of nitrogen, carbon early 1991). The resulting inferno monoxide and sulfur dioxide were emitted large amounts of carbon lower than anticipated. The airborne dioxide and other gases into the teams detected no smoke plumes atmosphere, while locally the thick above some 260 meters (19,000feet). olliwlvc: U'lOv.xv'Cvj. c5UiiiiiKilL, HJi Vv t3i t:v_i For smoke to have a significant im­ temperatures and engulfed the area pact on climate or weather, it must in a mist of microscopic oil droplets. remain in the atmosphere for a long NSF-funded researchers flew time. But evidence indicated no sig­ aircraft through daytime skies nificant fraction of the smoke would darkened by smoke, extreme heat, dust and fumes. Before emerging in oil-coated planes, they gathered data Oily twilight. A lunar-like sun appears through black smoke caused by Kuwait oil well fires. On from every part of the plumes. From ground, team member checks instruments for May 16 through June 12, the heavily atmospheric data collected on flight by NSF-funded scientists, who sometimes needed to instrumented planes completed a wear protective masks. total of 35 flights, typically of six hours duration or more.

These data may be the most exten­ sive yet collected on the atmospheric behavior of the fires' giant smoke plumes. NSF coordinated the U.S. study, which also was funded by the Defense Nuclear Agency, the Depart­ ment of Energy and the National Geographic Society. Peter Hobbs at the University ofWashington and Lawrence Radke, at the NSF-sup­ ported National Center for Atmos­ pheric Research (NCAR), led 27

Robert Bumpas, NCAR

4 . . . And what is the meaning of so tiny a being as the transparent wisp of a protoplasm that is a sea lace, existing for some reason inscrutable to us —a reason that demands its presence by the trillion amid the rocks and weeds of the shore? The meaning haunts us and ever eludes us, and in its very pursuit we approach the ultimate mystery of Life itself

Rachel Carson The Edge of the Sea

reach the stratosphere, where it El Nino has been associated with many damaged reefs, predators such might escape relatively fast removal Christmas on the Pacific coast of as snails and starfish find fewer corals from the atmosphere. According to South America because of its timing. to eat; the remaining coral frag­ Hobbs and Radke, who studied the In an oceanic and atmospheric ments are attacked more frequentiy. Mount Saint Helens volcanic eruption phenomenon that recurs with varying If the corals are eradicated, key in 1980, the 1991 volcanic eruption of intensity every four to five years, the predator populations ultimately may Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines would easterly trade winds slacken and plummet as well. result in a longerdived atmospheric warm water moves east across fhe The Economics of Global signature than the Kuwait oil fires did. surface of the tropical equatorial Change: Scientists in the United Pacific Ocean. The severe States and abroad have embarked on 1982-83 El Nino prevented research aimed at reducing scientific upwelling of nutrient-rich uncertainties and improving predic­ cold water along South tions about global change. There is America's Pacific margins. also more attention on assessing the It also was associated with probable benefits and costs of various torrential storms along the policies to mitigate the adverse im­ west coast of the Americas pacts of changing environmental and with droughts in Asia conditions. and southeast Africa. U. Miami The "bleach­ Kuwaiti oil fires. ing" and death of corals may result from sea- Global Change: Selected Projects surface warming. Coral reef color is due mainly to sym­ Eastern Pacific Corals: Two biotic algae living in coral tis­ species of reef-building corals sue. The algae provide food apparently have become extinct from and receive nutrients and their ranges off Panama's Pacific protection in return; the coast, according to NSF-funded corals calcify and form reefs. researcher Peter Glynn, a marine When corals are stressed, biologist at the University of Miami. Ecological omen. Diver investigates dead and eroded colony of algae are expelled and the The apparent extinctions are the Pacific coral resulting from the periodic warming of ocean waters corals whiten and may die. known as El Niiio. result of ocean warming caused by a William Nordhaus at Yale Univer­ weather disturbance called El Nino. With funds from NSF and the sity has done economic analyses on Since they are related to sea warming Smithsonian Institution, Glynn has some of these policies, including ef­ and coral bleaching caused by a stiidied the aftermath of the 1982-83 forts to reduce greenhouse gas emis­ severe El Nino event, such ex­ El Nino as it continues to affect corals sions. He concluded that such emis­ tinctions could indicate possible in the Galapagos Islands and off sions could be reduced by up to 10 global climate changes ahead. Central America's Pacific coast. On percent for relatively little money; for

5 Columbia University Archaic archive. their separate ways more than 200 Scientists seel

6 It relies on the basic research con­ In environmental engineering, compounds, and insect cells are used tributions of science and engineering NSF funds research on micro­ to synthesize viral insecticides. fields, applying research principles organisms to detoxify hazardous An Engineering Research Center to novel goods and services. Bio­ organic substances that threaten the at MIT seeks new ways to use mam­ processing and environmental quality of surface and ground waters. malian cells to synthesize highly applications such as waste manage­ An NSF Engineering Research valued proteins. Engineering re­ ment are two major biotechnology Center at Montana State University search is also directed at economical, applications that benefit from NSF- studies the effects of biofilms— commercial-scale processing, includ­ supported research programs. layers of biomolecules formed on ing separation and purification pro­ or adjacent to solid surfaces such as NSF funds research on the func­ cesses for biochemicals. And Mon­ containers, pipes or other struc­ tional interactions among plants, tana State University's Engineering tures—on corrosion and biofouling in animals and microorganisms and on Research Center is examining the enterprises such as the electric power the ecological and genetic bases for possibilities for "bioleaching" valu­ industry. variations in organisms that let them able minerals from mine wastes. respond to changing environments. Bioprocessing and bioconversion This support is a strong basis for include the efficient production of biotechnological developments. Fund­ commercially valuable molecules Plant Genome Megamap ing to botanical gardens and zoos— such as specialty chemicals and phar­ and for other biological collections as maceuticals, along with the use of Arabidopsis thaiiana is a simple well—maintains a germplasm re­ diverse biological systems and weed that has spawned intemational source base important to new biotech­ bioreactors to recover, produce or collaboration among plant scientists. nologies. In addition, the Foundation, modify novel molecules for commer­ Their goal is to map the complete set by supporting the Center for Mi­ cial applications. Bioprocessing and oiArabidopsis genes, called a ge­ crobial Ecology at Michigan State bioconversion are especially strong in nome. This achievement will result University and research sites dedi­ the NSF engineering programs that in a better understanding of all flow­ cated to long-term ecological studies, focus on new ways to culture bac­ ering plants and will help genetic is helping scientists do crucial re­ teria, yeast and fungi; plant, insect engineers improve economically search in developing environmentally and mammalian cells; and hybrid important species. This project, in focused biotechnologies. cells. For example, plant cell cultur­ which many individual investigators ing produces secondary metabolites worldwide are coordinating their that may be useful as therapeutic Elliot Meyerowitz

Scientific mutant. Worldwide research to uncover mo secrets of plant biochemistry is focusing on the simple W' Arabidopsis thaiiana. The plant is shown as it buds, normally flowers and ows in cauliflower mutant form, which was engineered to in identifying genes.

7 research, is a model for multinational NSF was a key supporter of re­ (EPSCoR), has been supporting collaboration. search that the Red Cross performed Sallie Sheldon's efforts to find a bio­ in collaboration with Virginia Tech logical control for the weed. First-year research accomplish­ University. Dmgs are available now ments include expanding by 36 per­ In 1989, biologist Sheldon dis­ to prevent clotting, but they have cent the plant's number of known covered that watermilfoil had myster­ unwanted side effects that appear to genetic markers. This increase is due iously declined on its own in Brown- be absent in Protein C. in part to advances in techniques ington Pond near Middlebury, Vt., developed with Arabidopsis for sing­ where she conducts her research. ling out, identifying, mapping and Samples taken from the pond showed moving genes. Intemational col­ Vitamin K Research the plants were covered with her­ laborators have tried to identity as Until recently, little was understood bivorous weevils. Further investiga­ many genes as possible by inducing about vitamin K's role in physiologi­ tion revealed that these weevils dine mutations in the plants and relating cal processes such as bone calcifica­ almost exclusively on watermilfoil genetic changes with changes in tion. Now, NSF-funded researchers at fronds. Sheldon's research could form and function. Researchers have the University of Pittsburgh have show whether the weevils will control identified more than 200 nev/ muta­ discovered new methods to analyze Vv'atenriilfoirs grovrth if transplanted tions associated with genes control­ the effects of vitamin K, a substance to other lakes, and whether or not the ling embryo development, meta- essential for blood clotting in mam­ weevils are harmless to beneficial , - - _ . y , ^ _ . mals. Cnemists FatU Dowd, i>eiing capacity and resistance to disease. Wook Ram and Steven J. Gelb de­ economically viable, environmentally veloped a model that simulates the non-toxic answer to the watermilfoil clotting process in humans and will problem—a bonanza for failing aquatic ecosystems. Pigs Make Protein for Humans help unlock the role vitamin K plays in tandem with other blood-clotting Molecular biologists at the Ameri­ NSF created tiie EPSCoR program agents. The potential for these can Red Cross have used milk from in 1976 to strengthen research at in­ models is enormous—comparable pigs to make a protein that prevents stitutions in states that generally findings in other areas have revealed the formation of blood clots in hu­ receive a small share of federal re­ previously unknown biochemical mans. This transgenic research aims search dollars. In 1990, program processes that led to better ap­ to generate animals with a human grants totaling $6 million were proaches in treating disease. gene that makes tire therapeutic awarded to Arkansas, Maine, Mon­ Protein C. Pigs are used because tana, South Carolina and West Vir­ they have a short gestation period, ginia. EPSCoR benefits scientists, about 3.5 months, and have six or Experimental Program to engineers and mathematicians who Stimulate Research seven piglets per litter. In this are at the threshold of competitive funding; the grants help them over­ research, a gene that encodes a Millions of dollars are spent come barriers to their research and specific protein is isolated from a annually in attempts to halt the obtain financial support from major human cell, then placed into a growth of watermilfoil, a reedy funding agencies. one-cell pig embryo. Pigs bom with aquatic plant that has spread from the special gene produce the protein lake to lake in the noitlieastem in their milk. The milk is then United States and Canada since its purified, processed and used to accidental intto- duction in the early treat patients who have unwanted 1980s. NSF, through its Experimental blood clots. Program to Stimulate Competitive Research

8 Family Income Changes

Recent attention has focused on the relative decline in the number of middle class families. Most dis­ cussions center on the aggregate number of households in different income categories, but Timothy Smeeding at Syracuse University is studying the changing income levels of specific families over time. He uses data from the NSF-supported Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), a longitudinal survey begun in 1967.

Interviewers gather information annually about income and related factors in about 7,000 households drawn from a representative national typically is centered in the right hemi­ Social and Behavioral sample. Because the same families sphere. Sciences are monitored each year, the PSID permits analyses of how individual Language and the Brain To demonstrate how the brain deals with a language based on visual households respond to changing con­ The principal research aim of those pattems, Poizner has been observing ditions—information often lost in the new field of cognitive science is brain-damaged signers, noting dif­ through aggregate statistics. to understand the human mind; an ferential effects of lesions to the Smeeding's analysis of PSID data important part of such research is brain's left and right hemispheres. compared trends across the 1970s leaming how the mind relates to the The results are striking. He found and 1980s to identify significant brain. Aphasiology, the study of how that lesions to the left, but not to the changes in factors that explained why different kinds of brain damage affect right hemisphere, affect linguistic income levels for some households a person's ability to use language, has properties of sign language such as rose faster than others. produced key knowledge in this area grammatical organization. People and continues to be a source of sig­ In the 1970s, formal education and with right-hemisphere damage show nificant new discoveries. job experience were the two most im­ distinct losses in non-linguistic spatial portant predictors of a family's likely cognition, but their sign-language Howard Poizner of Rutgers Univer­ economic success. The higher the proficiency is unimpaired. This find­ sity/Newark is studying the effects of educational attainment and the ing advances understanding of the brain damage on users of American greater the job experience of a neuroanatomical stmctures important Sign Language, the manual-visual family's head, the more likely it was for language, and of the way neural language of Northern America's deaf that family income would increase mechanisms for language seem to community. Sign language offers an and that the increase would be per­ function. interesting research perspective be­ manent. During the 1980s, however, cause linguistic abilities typically are the influence of education increased centered in the brain's left hemi­ while the effect of job experience sphere, while spatial cognition (the virtually disappeared. This finding im­ ability to recognize visual patterns) plied that job experience no longer could substitute for education if

9 families wanted their incomes to urements of partisan bias, thereby grow. Income earned by women also aiding the redistricting process. Straining for New Magnetic Materials became more important in the 1980s These programs not only have stimu­ Researchers at the University of as a factor contributing to household lated more research on this important lUinois, Johns Hopkins LTniversitj'^, income growth. topic; they also have been used by of­ the University of Nebraska, Notre ficials involved in several federal and Dame and the University of Michigan state redistricting cases around the are applying the technique of Political Representation nation. "strained layer epitaxy" to fabricate and Redistricting new magnetic materials, layer by layer, on an atomically smooth Once every decade, all U.S. political Physical Sciences starting substrate. The structure and jurisdictions that hold elections spacing between the epitaxial layers within districts redraw the bound­ New Route to Nyfon Building Block of atoms—iron atoms, for ex­ aries of those districts, in response to In the wake of reports that nylon ample—are controlled by atomic population changes. This process of production may cause atmospheric spacings in the substrate, and are redistricting has important conse­ increases in ozone-depleting nitrous generally different from that in or­ quences for v/ho vdns elections and oxide, chemists have found a better dinary bulk iron. The stretching or how well voters are represented. way to convert a simple molecule to compression is "strain." Two measures of redistricting effects adipic acid, a key nylon intermediate. ITie discover>^ by Maurice BrooMart Strained-layer epitaxy "sandwich indicates how sensitive electoral at the University of North Carolina films are of interest to those studying results are to changing votes from and Sylviane Sabo-Etienne at the fundamental and practical magnetism one election to the next, and partisan Laboratory for Coordination Chem­ because the magnetic properties of bias, which indicates whether one istry in France, resulted in part from materials are exquisitely sensitive to party is generally favored by the NSF-funded research on metal- the atomic spacings between the ad­ drawing of district boundaries. directed catalysis. jacent atoms in the materials—which Gary King at Harvard University can be metals, oxides, or even com­ The chemists discovered a catalyst has examined these effects both plex high-temperature superconduc­ based on the metal rhodium, which theoretically and by analyzing tors. New materials are being created links two molecules of the three- 20th-century congressional election and known materials customized by carbon compound methyl acrylate to data. scientists studying the coupling be­ produce hexenedioate, a srx-carbon tween these sandwiched layers. Using new procedures that mini­ compound easily converted to adipic mize the statistical bias plaguing acid. The researchers designed an im­ Physicists at participating institu­ earlier studies. King has found that proved catalyst after using a tech­ tions find remarkable differences in redistricting increases electoral nique called magnetic resonance magnetic behavior as the films' thick­ responsiveness. He also noted that spectroscopy to reveal the chemical ness varied from tens of atoms (three- any partisan bias in the system was mechanism that rendered their first- dimensional-like conditions) to a few entirely a result of the electoral ad­ generation catalysts inactive. The atoms (two-dimensional-like condi­ vantages of incumbents, which is al- new catalyst system accomplished tions) . This effect leads to enhanced m.ost twice as large as som.e previous the chemical transformation more optical properties aud ouier unusual measures had indicated. rapidly and with a higher yield. magnetic phenomena. All are of fun­ damental interest and a key to new Along with analyzing the changing materials for practical applications— dynamics of political representation, for example, ultra-high-capacity, King and his colleagues developed a magneto-optical recording devices. computer program that allows meas­

10 from a small piece of the galaxy, then Researchers at the NSF-funded Na­ Astronomy determining how many stars are tional Radio Astronomy Observatory within that piece. in Socorro, N.M., and other institu­ Size and Age of the Universe tions located the double-star system A clearer understanding of huge by tracing intermittent radio signals cosmological structures and better Stellar Destruction that indicated a second body was estimates for the universe's age and moving rapidly around the first. Like A team of astronomers has found size are possible thanks to a tech­ other pulsars, this one is a remnant of evidence of one star actively desttoy- nique used to make the most precise a past supemova explosion. It is only ing another. In this bizarre double- measurements yet of relative dis­ 10 kilometers across but has a mass star system, a pulsar—a rotating star tances among astronomical objects. 1.5 times that of the sun. Its com­ that emits radio waves— is slowly To make the measurements, NSF- panion, a white dwarf, is probably a vaporizing its companion. The pulsar funded astronomers at the Massa­ small star about the size of the Earth and its accompanying white dwarf are chusetts Institute of Technology with a mass about a tenth of the sun's. so close together that the former is (MIT) used sensitive electronic The first indications of this unique literally boiling away the white dwarf. detectors and statistical techniques pair arose from telescope observa­ Astronomers hope the discovery will newly applied to astronomical data. tions made in June 1989 by astrono­ illuminate what causes these celestial They focused on 13 galaxies in the mers from Australia, Italy, Britain bodies to evolve and die. Virgo cluster. Although the galaxies and the United States. are nearly equidistant from Earth— about 50 million light-years away— the technique revealed new depth Astronomy research. An "Einstein Ring" within the cluster. (a symmetric case of gravitational lensing This approach was developed proposed by Einstein in . 1936) has been observed under a team led by MIT astronomer at the NSF-supported National Radio Astro­ John Tonry. It enables scientists to nomy Observatory. The measure objects of 29th to 31st mag­ lensing occurs when the radio emission of a nitude. (An observer on Earth can distant source is bent by see only stars as faint as Sth mag­ a massive unseen radio galaxy. The Observatory nitude with the naked eye.) The tech­ has an ongoing major nique should immediately be appli­ project to identify many more lensing candidates. cable to studies of mysterious large scale structures; these include the "Great Wall," a string of immense galaxy clusters; the "Great Attractor," a region that exerts a strong gravita­ tional pull on stars and galaxies in sur­ rounding space; and voids in space where little matter is apparent.

Tonry believes the approach will prove valuable in efforts to determine the age of the universe, now es­ timated to be between 10 and 20 billion years old. The new method in­ NRAO volves measuring the light recorded

11 Mathematics and new method of sorting variables will sequences in materials research, Computer Science work on common-variety computers where one method of determining because it allows computers to "fuse" flaws involves measuring the spectral A New Sorting Algorithm numbers so they can sort hundreds response of the material. For more than 30 years, instructors of them simultaneously. and textbooks have taught that there is a limit to how fast a computer can Applications of Advanced sort—a barrier called the "infor­ The Drum and the Spectrum Technologies mation-theoretic lower bound." In Picture a figure from plane geom­ This NSF program supporfs 1991, two NSF-funded computer etry stretched over a frame to form a research and development on scientists developed a new algorithm dmm. (While most dmms are round, applying advanced technologies— that debunked this conventional there is no requirement that they be particularly computer and com­ wisdom and ultimately will have an so.) To each plane figure, puter-controlled technologies—to impact on information technology, mathematicians assign a set of science and mathematics education. sorting, searching and retrieval. numbers they call the spectmm of It supports innovative projects to lay An algorithm is a precisely the Laplacian, which roughly de­ the conceptual foundations for speciiied mathematical procedure scribes the sound a dmm makes technology that will be available for processing data on computers. when stmck. A question that puzzled within 10 years. The program also Michael Fredman at the University of experts for years was neatiy phrased aims to speed the advent of rev- Califomia at San Diego and Dan as, "Can you hear the shape of a olutionary computer and telecom­ Willard at the State University of dmm?" That is, does the spectmm of munications ideas and developments New York at Albany devised one that the Laplacian completely determine into classrooms. These applications could allow surprisingly fast sorting the size and shape of the plane figure? include the following 1991 awards: of huge databases. Its speed relative Mathematicians Carolyn Gordon • InteUigent Tutors in Algebra and to standard sorting algorithms im­ and David Webb ofWashington Geometry, John R. Anderson at proves as the database grows. University and Scott Wolpert of the Camegie-MeUon University. Fredman and Willard used a new University of Maryland have shown Goals of this research are to method of organizing data, called a that the answer to this question is no. develop and demonstrate greatly fusion tree, which allows a computer By using knowledge of how the improved intelligent (compu­ to compare one number against inaiiy spectmm of the Laplacian behaves terized) tutoring techniques, and others during a single computa­ for three-dimensional surfaces (such to produce an integrated algebra tional step. The method may be use­ as that of a sphere) and by taking ad­ and geometry tutor that wiU cover ful in very large data processing vantage of three-dimensional sym­ in one year the material normally tasks, such as transportation prob­ metries, they were able to squash covered in two. lems involving the least costiy way to surfaces together to produce two • Visual ModeUng: A New Ex­ ship supplies and materials, or deter­ plane figures with identical spectra perimental Science, Wallace Feur­ mining the cheapest way to connect that are visibly different. zeig, BBN Systems & Techno­ nodes in a telecommunication net­ For m_athem_aticians this work is logies Corp., Cambridge, Mass. work. The researchers stumbled important because analytical tools Computer modeling is becoming across fhe method while trying to such as the spectmm of the Laplacian a standard tool for both experi­ solve another data-retrieval problem. provide a means to compute the char­ ment and theory, used to study Early results suggest that future acteristics of geometric objects. The complex processes ranging from avenues of research eventually may tools being developed in this re­ the proton's inner stmcture to the benetit from this discovery. And the search may also have important con­ formation and decay of star

12 William Dwyer clusters. This project aims to make modeling accessible and comprehensible to high school students through the use of pow­ erful new kinds of modeling tools.

• Using Astronomy to Teach Precol­ lege Science and Mathematics, Ir­ win R. Shapiro, Harvard University Observatory. This pro­ ject supports the continuing devel­ opment of a high school science course that teaches physical sci­ ence and mathematics, using as­ tronomy as its focus. Material is Supercomputer learning. Two representatives from Nortfiwest Indian College learn to use software designed for students who would produced at tiie National Center for Supercomputing Applications. not elect traditional science courses such as physics and chem­ istry during their last years in and Galileo spacecraft, simulating • Cornell Theory Center at Cornell high school. brain circuits, and developing certain University in Ithaca, N.Y.; engineering enzymes. Foremost • National Center for Supercom­ among consortium goals is stimula­ puting Applications at the Univer­ ting progress in massively parallel Touchstone sity of IlHnois/Urbana-Champaign; supercomputing. Several research institutions, univer­ • Pittsburgh Supercomputing Cen­ sities and government agencies have ter at Carnegie Mellon University formed the Concurrent Supercom­ NSF Supercomputing Centers and the University of Pittsburgh; puting Consortium' combining their resources, ideas and experience in These centers bring together mem­ • San Diego Supercomputer Center parallel computation to tackle some of bers of the academic, industrial and at the University of Califomia at the most challenging computa- tional governmental communities to colla­ San Diego. problems. borate on scientific and engineering In addition, supercomputing research with the aid of high-perfor­ resources also are available at the In November 1990 the consortium mance computation and visualization National Center for Atmospheric announced it would acquire the tools. The four centers are: limited-production Intel Touchstone Research in Boulder, Colo., estab­ Delta System, a high-performance, lished in 1960 by a consortium of message-passing, concurrent com­ universities to further research in atmospheric science, oceanography puter. This ultra-high-speed multi­ ' iVIembers of the consortium include the computer will enable consortium California Institute of Technology and its Jet and related sciences. Propulsion Laboratory, Argonne National scientists to tackle the kinds of prob­ Laboratory, Pacific Northwest Laboratory, the Typical projects using supercom­ lems that could not be attempted on Center for Research on Parallel Computation (an NSF Science and Technology Center led by puters include studies of air pollution less powerful systems. These include Rice University), the Defense Advanced Re­ dispersal, long-term analysis of global global climate modeling, determining search Projects Agency, Intel Corporation's Su­ percomputer Systems Division, NASA, Law­ warming, gene sequence analysis, the structure of viruses, analyzing rence Livermore National Laboratory, Los dmg design, and the development of radio telescope data, visualizing infor­ Alamos National Laboratory, Purdue Univer­ sity, and Sandia National Laboratories. mation returned from the Magellan

13 superior materials. In 1991, research ally apply supercomputers to their developing an application-specific involved everything from oysters to problems. These ultrafast instm­ computer that closely matches the magnetic recording technology (see ments perform calculations serially, problem's computational stmcture— box). one after another. But such an promises to be fast and efficient. approach is expensive and still too NSF-funded researchers at Duke slow for very complex problems. University and Comell University Another approach is to program RayCasting Engine have developed a new computer that general-purpose parallel computers, uses thousands of individual proces­ Researchers seeking to speed the but many think this is also too sors working in parallel to analyze process of solid modeling tradition- expensive. A third approach—

Two Supercomputer Centers

At the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, Y. Peter Sheng, from the University of Florida, has developed a special three-dimensional model for estuaries, lakes and coastal waters—one that deals with exploding algae and suffocating fish, as described below.

Some summers in the Chesapeake Bay, fish can be seen rushing toward the shore and leaping out of the water. They are suffocating in the bay's oxygen-depleted water. Because of excess nutrients—nitrogen and phosphorous—^that enter the bay fi^omphosphat e detergents, treated sewage, agricultural runoff and acid rain, algae in the water grow more rapidly than usual. Biologists call this growth explosion an algal bloom, and it uses so much of fhe water's oxygen that the fish, particularly bottom dwellers such as crabs and oysters, do not have enough, t he result? In the 1970s, Maryland fishermen caught more than two million bushels of oysters a year in the bay; in the early 1990s, they are catching fewer than half a million.

To help manage this problem, Sheng has applied his computer model to several Florida lakes and also in the Chesa­ peake Bay. Using his simulation of fhe circulation pattems in a water body, environmental agencies now have a way to relate measured contaminant concentrations to pollutant sources. With tills information, it is possible to initiate appropriate control strategies. Sheng's approach—a three-dimensional, curvilinear-grid, hydrodynamic model call CH3D—provides that management tool.

Testing a model such as CH3D requires dozens of long-term simulation mns, and the project is only feasible with a super­ computer like the Pittsburgh Cray Y-MP, on which a month-long Chesapeake Bay simulation takes only 40 minutes. The supercomputer model can help calculate how much to reduce nutrient flow, and it can tell researchers how long a system will take to respond to reduced nutrient levels.

At the San Diego Supercomputer Center, Neal Bertram has been anticipating the need for rapid advances in mag­ netic recording technology—^for applications ranging fi-om high-definition television (HDTV) to collecting data fromNASA' s earth-orbiting satellites. In 1991, Bertram held one of four endowed chairs at the Center for Magnetic Recording Research, an institute on the University of Califomia/San Diego campus funded predominantiy by NSF and 21 corporations involved in storing and retiieving magnetically written information. These include IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Kodak, Digital Equipment Corp. and Seagate Technology, a disk-drive maker.

One big problem was magnetic noise in the metallic thin-film media used to coat high-density disks. Bertram and post­ doctoral research Jian-Gang-Zhu (now at the University of Minnesota) have used the SDCS supercomputer to model thin- film microstmctures composed of many tiny grains. Each grain is like a tiny cobalt magnet surrounded by nonmagnetic materials. This grainy, particulate nature of the medium is a source of noise and produces errors in digital recording. Grains interact, and these interactions can increase noise.

The researchers have explored the effects of two primary types of interactions, concluding that the smaller they could make distinctiy separable grains, the higher the density at which they could record and retrieve digital bits. The key was to devise alloys and fabrication processes to assure nonmagnetic boundaries between grains, thus eliminating noise.

14 and render shapes of three-dimen­ workstations. The researchers pre­ sional objects. The relatively inexpen­ dict a commercial RayCasting Engine Engineering Research Centers sive, special-purpose machine is could be available in a few years and Five Engineering Research Cen­ called the RayCasting Engine (RCE). should costless than $100,000. Such ters (ERCs) received new five-year By rapidly producing mathematical a device will preserve and enhance awards fi-omNS F in 1991. ERCs are models of complex geometric shapes the engineering design industry's large, campus-based organizations jointly funded by industry, state gov­ such as mechanical parts, the RCE $3 billion investment in hardware and ernment and NSF. They bring to­ promises to affect profoundly the $5 biUion investment in software. gether faculty, students and field of mechanical design. The industry professionals from various engine allows engineers to design discipfines in multi-faceted efforts to solve fundamental enginering mechanical parts quickly and auto­ Engineering and Related Research problems. These researchers also matically sculpt their intricate sur­ develop new interdis-cipUnary engi­ faces with computer-controlled Manufacturing Research neering courses and curricula re­ machine tools. The RayCasting En­ lated to questions under study in ERC laboratories. The Centers re­ gine easily allows machines to be Engineering Research Centers ceiving renewal awards include: built at multiple levels of performance (ERCs) were established in FY 1985 by scaling the number of processors. with a strong orientation toward • Center for Telecommunications manufacturing. About half the Research, Columbia University. This product resulted from a col­ centers now funded deal directly with • Cardiovascular Technologies laboration between researchers with manufacturing, design and materials Research Center, Duke Univer­ expertise in applications and systems processing; the rest indirectly affect sity. development./o/iM Ellis and Gershon manufacturing. Typically, these • Biotechnology Process Engi­ Kedem at Duke, and Richard Marisa, centers address such issues in a neering Center, MIT. Jai Menon and Herb Voelcker at Cor­ large-scale, cross-disciplinary and • Center for Advanced Technol­ nell described their research in the systems-integrated way that is ogy for Large Structural Sys­ February 1991 issue of Mechanical difficult if not impossible with tems, Lehigh University. Engineering magazine. The team individual projects. A good example • Systems Research Center, Uni­ seeks to integrate the RCE into com­ is Purdue University's Center for versity of Maryland. mercial modelers, expanding the Intelligent Manufacturing Systems— system with more processors and those that go beyond current em­ redesigning the engine to plug into phases on flexibility and computer system that has this property integration to of inteUigence requires cross- Lehigh University the next logical disciplinary system integration. step in the A variety of software is needed to evolution of CORROSION MONITORING CELL assess rapidly the information aspects manufacturing of alternative manufacturing choices, practices. Such COPPER CUP and these tools must function as a systems wiU coherent system. have the capa­ city to respond Research is organized in three promptiy and areas: product design, materials correctly to processing and factory systems. The changes in re­ key technical issue in product design DRAIN HOLE quirements. is to anticipate the consequences of Creating a design choices on later "downstream" activities. In materials processing, it Corrosion warning. This cell, developed at Lehigh University's Engineenng Research manufacturing Center, can be mounted on a bridge to warn of needed repairs. It results from a is to achieve process predictability. program to develop sensors that detect deterioration of large structures.

15 Engineering excellence. A University of Maryland research center was established through an NSF grant that stresses research to maintain U.S. industry's giobai competi­ tiveness. Here two researchers inspect a laboratory-manufactured part while another works on the rotary magneto­ strictlve motor.

John T. Consoli, U. Maryland while integration is the key technical plex work of a large-scale wireless issue in factory systems. Projects in­ Industrv-Universitv Cooperative network's dispersed equipment. Research Centers clude models that relate materials and process limitations to final proper­ VVlNLAB: In networks of the fiitiire, ties; flexible materials handling with telephones and telephone numbers Small Business Awards Spur sophisticated traffic control; sensing will belong to people, not to specific Cuttina-Edae Research locations. A network wiii find users at i>maU high-technology firms in 29 basic assembly theory and niethous; the beginning of a communication states received NSF grants to tools and methods to design and con­ and keep them connected as they conduct cutting-edge, high-risk, and trol large-scale factory systems. move around. To make this possible, potentially high-payoff research WINLAB—the Wireless Information The NSF manufacturing focus is under the Small Business Innovative Network Laboratory at Rutgers university-based research on generic Research (SBIR) program. In FY University—has pioneered new manufacturing and automation. One 1991, some 184 Phase I awards were approaches to network control and of these special efforts is STRAT- made to 146 firms. Under Phase I of information routing. WINLAB is MAN, the Strategic Manufacturing the three-phase program, NSF working to unite the features of Initiative, which aims to expand awarded up to $50,000 to each firm, cellular and cordless telephones with strategic efforts in integrating manu­ selected from more than 1,200 those of pagers for wireless access to facturing processes and systems, proposals. Funded projects range information networks and services. rapid prototyping, and next-genera­ from new instmmentation and NSF has designated this lab as one of tion tools and equipment detectors to the growth of cells on its Industry-University Cooperative textured surfaces. NSF also supports research on Research Centers; a five-year grant fabrication manufacturing and for research on network infrastmc­ Upon completion of Phase I re­ processing technologies for the ture, equipment and computer pro­ search, projects that appear most microelectronics, photonics and grams will support the 21st century's Ukely to result in economically and optoelectronics industries. This in­ wireless communications industry. socially beneficial products or ser­ cludes funding for the National vices receive Phase II grants of up to Tlie laboratory is a cooperative Nanofabrication Facility at Comell $300,000 for two years of continuing effort of industry, govemment and University. Research there includes research. Private investors then fund university representatives, focusing work on ultra-miniaturization of Phase III product development, on third-generation wireless technol­ electronic devices, quantum mech­ manufacturing and marketing efforts. ogy. The grant is being used to study anical devices, and integrated computers that coordinate the com­ electronics.

16 Cumulative private investment and Multidisciplinary Research product sales attributable to the at Science and SBIR program now exceed $1 billion. Technology Centers Awards in previous years have re­ sulted in commercial products such Geometry Center as truck drag-reduction devices for in­ In 1991, mathematicians and com­ creased fuel economy, extended-wear putational scientists from an NSF orthopedic implant devices and Science and Technology Center hybrid bass for improved fish farm­ (STC) at the University of Minnesota ing. Other examples: began working together to create everything from computer models of • DTM Inc. of Austin, Texas, re­ beating hearts and soap bubbles to ceived an SBIR Phase I award to dynamic illustrations of abstract investigate a concept for a desk­ mathematical concepts in fractal top manufacturing system. The geometry and chaos theory. The system uses a computer with a Center for the Computation and three-dimensional rendition of the Visualization of Geometric Structures object to be manufactured; the is a joint effort by NSF, the U.S. computer controls a laser, which Desktop prototype. This part, produced by a method Department of Energy, the University "builds" fhe object by sintering called laser sintering, illustrates a technique developed through NSF's Small Business Innovation of Minnesota and the Greater powders, layer by layer. This Research Program. Introduced into the marketplace when the researchers' small firm was acquired by Minnesota Corp. Its goal is to link work led to a buyout of fhe firm B.F. Goodrich, the technique will enable engineers, operating with off-site computers, to convert ideas researchers from many universities by B.F. Goodrich Inc., and produc­ quickly into hard-to-produce parts. and mathematical subdisciplines tion units are being built to order. under the unifying topic of geometry • The quality of fruits, berries and and geometric representation on the vegetables that have been frozen computer. Computer graphics Fresher frozen. To improve the quality of frozen for storage can be damaged by produce, Pamela Dunsmuir and her fellow designed at the center will help scientists developed transgenic tomato plants the effects of ice. But under an­ with "antifreeze" genes, under an NSF Small researchers carry out their work, and other SBIR project, several pro­ Business Innovation Research grant. wiU be used to teach mathematics teins were identified that inhibit concepts to high school and uni­ ice crystal growth. A grant to versity students. DNA Plant Technology Inc. of The center has received a five-year Oakland, Calif., allowed company award from NSF. Its scientific pro­ researchers to identify a gene for gram is based on a core of scientific one of these proteins. Research­ investigations whose origins are in ers Pamela Dunsmuir and Peter pure mathematics and models of Lund seek to modily the gene so physical phenomena. (See box for that the protein is larger and more examples of other Science and easily detected. Technology Centers supported by NSF in 1991.)

DNA Plant Technology Corp.

17 U. Minnesota

Geometry illustrated. Tiiese scenes are from Not Knot, a videotaped production illustrating computer graphics used to teach mathematical concepts. The tape and accompanying study supplement were produced for the NSF-funded University of Minnesota Geometry Center.

outreach/education program to give NSF also awarded a second five-year Southern California Earthquake the public up-to-date information on grant to the National Center for Earth­ Research Center quake Engineering Research, based at earthquakes before they occur and the State University of New York at Nsf desiffnated the Universitv of immediately after major events. Re­ Buffalo. Established in 1986 with NSF monies and matching tunds from the Southem Califomia as the site for search areas include the history of state of New York and others, this center one of its 1991 Science and Tech­ fault movements, a look at past focuses on topics such as risks to lifeline systems, seismic retrofitting of existing nology Centers. The Southem earthquake sources, and a study of buildings, control of building vibrations, Califomia Earthquake Center is how the earth's surface responds and disaster preparedness. Researchers are affiliated with a consortium of creating a central data archive for to seismic waves generated by institutions, including SUNY-Birffalo, scientists and developing an earthquakes." Cornell University, Princeton University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

18 researchers from the Camegie enough filament confined at high More Center Neuis: Analyzing Institution ofWashington, D.C. The pressure could be a high-temperature Microscopic Metal Filaments Camegie researchers are associated superconductor. (Such materials are Scientists have determined the with the NSF Science and Tech­ sought for their potential to carry crystalline structure of a microscopic nology Center for High-Pressure electricity without losing current to bismuth wire about one-tenth the Research at the State University of electrical resistance.) Although the width of a bacterium. The filament— New York/Stony Brook. initial filament is not supercon­ a single unbroken crystal—is the ducting, at this writing the research The scientists collaborated on a smallest sample for which a struc­ group was studying another wire, Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) tural determination has been made about three times thinner, which project to make the stmctural deter­ using x-rays, according to NSF could help scientists make that break­ mination. Theoretically, a smaU Science and Technology Center through.

Science and Technology Centers

NSF announced the awarding of $15 million to 14 new Science and Technology Centers in fiscal1991 . Through partnerships with the private sector, state governments and other federal agencies, these Centers will receive another $26.9 million. They are an important model for enhancing education, encouraging technology transfer and developing innovative approaches to multi-dis- cipUnary problems. The new Centers* are:

CALIFORNIA Southern Califomia Earthquake Center, University of Southern Califoraia Center for Engineering Plants for Resistance Against Pathogens, University of Califoraia/Davis

ILUNOIS Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica, University of Chicago/Yerkes Observatory Center for Magnetic Resonance Technology for Basic Biological Research, University of lUinois/Urbana-Champaign Clouds, Chemistry and Climate Center, University of Chicago

MICHIGAN Center for Ultrafast Optical Science, University of Michigan

MINNESOTA

Center for Computation and Visualization of Geometric Stmctures, University of Minnesota

NEW YORK

Center for High-Pressure Research, State University of New York/Stony Brook

OHIO

Center for Advanced Liquid CrystalUne Optical Materials, Kent State University

PENNSYLVANIA Center for Research in Cognitive Science, University of Pennsylvania Center for Light Microscope Imaging and Biotechnology, Camegie-MeUon University TEXAS Center for the Synthesis, Growth and Analysis of Electronic Materials, University of Texas/Austin UTAH Center for Computer Graphics and Scientific Visualization, University of Utah VIRGINLA Center for Biological Timing, University of Virginia * Grantees only (some centers involve researchers from more than one institution) 19 Chapter 3

Education and Outreach

and management advice as the projects are developed and imple­ Scope, Sequence and Coordination mented, and to estabUsh agreed- A far-reaching reform effort in U.S. upon, measurable project milestones. 7th- through 12th-grade science To ensure the programs' perma­ education is being tested through the nence, state legislatures and other Scope, Sequence and Coordination pubfic and private sources are ex­ (SS&C) model, which receives partial pected to support systemic changes support from NSF. Students could through long-term fiscalcommit ­ have new class schedules, with time ments. spent in science courses increased by Proposals from the 10 funded as much as 50 percent. Course content is closely coordinated from states—Florida, Montana, Nebraska, North CaroHna, Ohio, Rhode Island, one subject to another, and subjects are offered over three or four years Louisiana, Delaware, South Dakota instead of one, leading to a more and Connecticut—reflected a variety integrated high school science of integrated plans to focus on major education. For instance, concepts components of their educational sys­ from physics, chemistry, biology and tems. Each project involves a partner­ earth science might be coordinated in ship of executive, legislative, a teaching approach to depletion of educational, business and pubUc Statewide Systemic Initiative the ozone layer. leadership. In Florida, for example, Ten states received NSF support in the SSI-funded project takes a Pilot projects, reaching more than 1991 for system-wide reform of math thematic approach to elementary a million students in five states, could and science education programs, science and mathematics, one based help transform middle-level and high from kindergarten through teacher on the environment. Connecticut has school science classes nationwide. training. The awards—^totaling $75 targeted poor urban and rural dis­ Some examples: million for up to five years, to be tricts through state and local coopera­ matched by the states—were the first tive efforts. Nebraska is improving • In California, teams of teachers in under NSF's Statewide Systemic science and mathematics education 199 schools are adapting existing Initiatives (SSI) program. by featuring "distance learning," an materials to the SS&C model, and opportunity for students in a rural the University of Cafifornia syst­ There was intense competition for state to overcome isolation. They are em has approved several high these awards, designed to act as a participating in lessons presented school courses for college-en­ catalyst for comprehensive reform in through the state's interactive trance laboratory credit. science and mathematics education. telecommunications system. Unlike most NSF grants, SSI awards • At the University of North Caro- are part of a cooperative agreement fina/Wilmington and East Caro­ between NSF and each state, allow­ Hna University/Greenville, ing the Foundation to give technical teachers and project staff use a

20 computer network and interactive Scope, Sequence video telecommunications to help and Coordination Program. Houston the State Education Department students see revise curriculum guidelines science in action under this program, based on SS&C concepts. coordinated at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas. At Puerto Rico's Center for Sci­ ence and Engineering, junior high school teachers are integrating sci­ ence and mathematics instruction.

University of Iowa science teach­ ers are working with social stud­ Baylor College ies, English, music and art of Medicine teachers to develop modules that • 9 percent—calculus; 49 percent— explore science-related issues in Science and Mathematics Education: algebra 2; 81 percent—algebra 1; conjunction with other topics of in­ State Indicators 2 percent—advanced placement terest to students. The modules calculus; are helping motivate students to The Council of Chief State School Officers led the development in fiscal study science in more depth. • 20 percent—physics; 45 percent— 1991 of a state-by-state system of chemistry; 95 percent—biology. indicators on the condition of science and mathematics education. The • In advanced placement science project, partly supported through an courses, 2 percent—biology; 1 NSF grant, is expected to help state, percent—chemistry; less than 1 Baylor College of Medicine national and local percent—physics. decision-makers assess the rate of progress in Elementary Instruction: improving educational Elementary teachers (grades 4-6 in quality. Following is a the median state) reported that they summary of some spent 4.9 hours per week on math­ indicators for 1990: ematics and 3 hours per week on science. State figures for mathema­ Taking Courses in tics vary from 4.1 to 5.5 hours a week, Mathematics and and the time spent on science varies Science: By the time from 2.2 to 4.1 hours a week. they graduated from pubfic high school, the Role of State Policies: State in­ foUowing percentages of dicators on high school course-taking U.S. students took these show higher enroUments in science courses: and math during the 1980s, when

21 Survey Results

Half of a representative sample of 2,033 adult Americans said they believed Japan has forged ahead of the United States in basic scientific achievement, according to a 1992 study, Public Undtrstunding ofScie'nce and Technulogy m tlie. United States. The report was based on a survey by Jon Miller, director of the PubUc Opinion Laboratory at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. Other findings:

• Some 46 percent of the Americans polled expressed the view that the United States was ahead of Europe in basic sci­ entific achievements, although 14 percent thought Europe was ahead of the United States.

• Only 7 percent said that the then Soviet Union was in front of the United States in these achievements.

• In terms of industrial technology, most survey respondents assigned dominance to the Japanese. About 70 percent thought Japan was ahead of the U.S. in technological developments in 1990.

• The survey also showed broad pubfic concern about science and mathematics education. Some 72 percent of those polled felt the quafity of such education in American schools was inadequate. Those with more formal education and with more courses in science and mathematics tended to be more critical of T^erican education.

• About 73 percent supported high school requirements of one science course each year, while 87 percent supported one math course each year.

A key to greater U.S. achievement in science and mathematics education is fundamental change in U.S. coUeges and 70% universities, according lo a 1991 report

60% prepared by Project Kaleidoscope. This NSF-funded project is outlining effective models; its report. What Works: Strength­ ening Undergraduate Mathematics and Sci­ ence, advocates a change in the way teachers are prepared, replacing the edu­ cation major with a regular major in tradi­ tional arts and sciences. A key component of the report is advocacy of a lean, lab-rich curriculum that concentrates on making a 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 Year limited number of courses superb, inte­ grated and important—rather than creat­ H Total Public ^ Attentive Public ing a menu of courses to provide an Percentage of Total Public and Attentive Public Indicating exhaustive survey of the disci-pUne. Such that the Government is Spending Too Little for Scientific Research, 1981-90. a curriculum, the report noted, would help expose smdents to the research-fike modes of taking initia­ Attitudes on science funding. Measuring public attitudes toward science, a survey conducted by Jon D. Miller showed the percentage of total public and "attentive public" who felt that the government spends too little for tive, figuring things out and working scientific research. "Attentive Public" refers to those who said they were very interested in scientific research, with others. consider themselves well informed and regularly read newspapers and relevant national magazines. many states raised graduation by gender had almost equivalent requirements. Generally, the results rates of enroUment in science and Alliances for Minority Participation of this project tend to confirm pre­ math, up to the advanced course National goals spurring this NSF vious studies, which show overafi levels. In most states, boys had program are ambitious: to produce higher enroUment figures in science higher enroUments in physics and 50,000 minority baccalaureates and with higher requirements. advanced mathematics courses 2,000 doctorates annually in the (trigonometry and calculus); girls natural sciences and engineering by Gender Differences: Girls and had higher enrollments in advanced the year 2000. The United States now boys in 16 states that reported data biology courses. produces 14,000 minority bacca-

22 National Science Foundation Minority participation. ample, is developing an introductory Alliances for Minority Participation Shown here are ten- meteorology course in which under­ Baccalaureate Degree Production in SEM year goals for increas­ Degrees Awarded (Thousands) ing B.S. degrees to graduates use microcomputers to ar­ minorities in science, chive weather data, satellite and radar engineering and math­ Delta AMP Values ematics, under NSF's imagery and weather plots. Integrat­ Alliances for Minority Participation (AMP) ing meteorology, mathematics and Program. "Delta AMP computer science, students can visual­ Values" indicate projected changes ize the development and movement resulting from the pro­ of weather systems. gram, beginning in lllllll 1991. 1977 1979 1981 1983 1986 1987 1989 1991 1993 1996 1997 1999 2001 Many UCC awards aim to improve courses for non-science majors. One B.S. Degrees IWIthoul AMP [ZJwith AMP such project at Columbia College, Princeton University and Indiana University involves developing a freshman chemistry course that laureates and 300 doctorates. The responsible for undergraduate centers on environmental issues and Alliances for Minority Participation instruction to work toward better emphasizes hands-on, exploratory (AMP) initiative, focusing on the classroom and lab instruction in activities. undergraduate years, aims to stem science, mathematics and engi­ the loss of Black, Hispanic and Native neering. Almost 90 projects in 31 American students from science and states, the District of Columbia and engineering careers. For its invest­ American Samoa were funded. Engineering Education Coalitions ments in the AMP initiative over the An award to the American Institute From transforming classrooms to next decade, NSF seeks other federal of Physics supports an effort to intro­ teaching young engineers about the support and matching efforts from duce more contemporary physics into societal impact of their work, two the private sector. In 1991, the introductory, calculus-based physics university coalitions funded by NSF Foundation announced the first of courses. A similar project in seek to revolutionize the education of several AMP grants for planning chemistry involves 10 campuses those who design computers, chem­ activities.' across the country and was stimu­ ical processors and environmental lated by an earlier NSF workshop on systems. The coalitions were formed undergraduate curriculum develop­ to represent diverse geographic Course and Curriculum Grants ment. In biology, the Biological Scien­ locations, missions and institutions. One group is the eight-university isF made its first set of awards ces Curriculum Study Group in National Engineering Education under a new Undergraduate Course Colorado is developing life science Coalition; its members are Califomia and Curriculum Development (UCC) curricula for high schools, com­ Polytech, Cornell, Hampton, Iowa program, which encourages faculty munity colleges and universities. Awards in mathematics, to the Univer­ State, Southern, Stanford, Tuskegee, and the University of Califomia/ 'In early FY 1992, NSF funded the first final sity of Florida and Califomia State grants. AMP awards went to the University of University-Hayward, could lead a na­ Berkeley. Alabama/Birmingham, Tkizona State Univer­ sity, University of California/Irvine, lackson tional effort to improve the teaching With its NSF award, this coaUtion State University in Mississippi, Texas A&M of statistics. University, and fhe University of Puerto Rico. is developing tools and curricular These institutions have established partner­ materials for altemative modes of ships with other universities, community col Another group of these awards in­ leges, national laboratories, govemment volves using computers to improve instmction and access; these include agencies, private firms and other institutions. visualization technologies, variable Their goal is to establish far-reaching networks course offerings. The University of of educational opportunities for minority under­ North CaroUna/Asheville, for ex­ pacing and individual attention, and graduates in science, engineering and math.

23 frameworks for next-generation land and Washington. ECSEL is modular textbooks. The frameworks establishing a communications net­ Engineering Faculty Internships allow successive instructors to add work for support and faculty ex­ A common criticism of U.S. special chapters, case studies, changes and to make workshop education and research in the field of problems, demonstrations and reports and other publications manufacturing is that many faculty software. available to all engineering schools. have no practical experience in Another effort is an outreach manufacturing organizations. In 1991, The second NSF-funded group, program for industry and for K-12 NSF developed the Engineering the Engineering Coalition of Schools and community college students. Faculty Internship Initiative to for Excellence in Education and Coalition targets include teaching address this gap. The initiative Leadership (ECSEL), includes the en­ and learning innovations in the form supports up to half the total budget gineering schools of Howard Univer­ of course modules and new delivery for a one-summer or one-semester sity in Washington, D.C, the City systems; recruiting and retain­ internship with an industrial partner; College of New York, MIT, Morgan ing prospective students, especially proposals must include written State in Baltimore, Pennsylvania women and minorities; and aiding commitments from industry partners State, and the universities of Mary­ faculty development. to support the other half The amount of NSF support depends on industry GIFT to Materials Research matching funds, up to $25,000 per grant. This initiative was launched as Georgia high school teacher B. Booth Quimby helped advance semiconductor a pilot program in 1990, with 15 materials research in 1991, during her summer as an NSF-funded research as­ sistant through GIFT—Georgia Industrial FeUowships for Teachers. GIFT is an awards totaling $600,000 in NSF- industry-initiated and directed partnership involving corporations, research centers industrial support. Some proposals and teachers. Other partners are Georgia Tech and the American Association for not funded by NSF were supported the Advancement of Science; they are coUaborating on a project caUed Initiatives in Science and Engineering Education. by industry instead, thus expanding the initiative's impact GIFT began in 1990 in response to the prospect of diminishing science and technical talent in the United States. Program sponsors hope to combat declining student achievement in science and mathematics by improving the quaUfy of precollege instmction. During the summer of 1991, eight teacher fellows, inclu­ ding B. Booth Quimby, helped Georgia Tech faculfy with research through NSF's Outreach to Disabled Research Opportunity Awards program. Students and Faculty

In research NsF has awarded the American perlonned wilh K.F. Association for the Advancement of Martin and T.J. Drabik of Georgia Tech and C. Science (AAAS) a five-year grant to Fan of the Uni­ address the needs of engineering versify of Califomia at San Diego, Quimby students and faculty with disabiUties. fabricated a "quantum This project foUows a 1990 report by effect" device for the Foundation's Task Force on etching semicon­ ductor components. Persons with DisabiUties. She also developed a videotaped tour of a Under this long-term project, en­ materials laboratory— gineering schools will develop recruit­ including the clean room, microscopes, ment and retention strategies, also silicon chips and identifying technologies and support micromotors—^to services that give the disabled easier GIFT: Georgia Industrial Fellowships for Teachers. Through this ''^H^^f-'^^t '^If,^ f access to careers in science and en­ program to improve high school science instruction, B. Booth Quimby students to the neld ot worked with university faculty to fabricate a device (shown here) for microelectronics, gineering. Among the schools se­ etching semiconductor components. She also produced a videotaped lab tour for students. lected as sites for model projects:

24 • Uie University of Wyoming, where Ocean wonder­ land. Design senior-year students in electrical siiows new Steptien Bircfi engineering have worked to de­ Aquarium- velop custom-designed electronic Museum at ttie Scripps Institu­ hardware for people with dis­ tion of Ocean- abilities, to improve their quality ograptiy, San Diego. Tfie of life. Projects have included a 1 museum will modified wheelchair controller, a feature exfiibits and simulated remote dialing device, a heat rides to the un­ alarm, an electric wheelchair diag­ dersea world. nostic unit and an infrared data link between a client's remote con­ troller and the device it operates.

• Mississippi State University, where Scripps Institution of Oceanography undergraduates in biological engi­ neering have designed and built such devices as a door opener to work with conventional door­ Hastings Star-Gazette knobs, a bookholder and page River re­ searchers. High- turner, a paint tube squeezer, an school students elevator button-assist device, an from Hastings, Minnesota exercise bike for wheelchair- worked with stu­ dents from 41 bound students and a space- other communi­ heater controller. ties along the Mis­ sissippi River, analyzing its wa­ • Mercer University, where fresh­ ters. Some water men and senior engineering stu­ samples showed high levels of pol­ dents have designed a crawling lution and led to device for children with cerebral identification of a creek as their palsy, an electronic self-feeding de­ source. vice, alternative and augmentive communication devices, mobility aids and other equipment.

STIS—Reaching Out Electronicalli) can view the full text of a publication STIS was developed by NSF as a online or print it while on the system. prototype for electronic dissemina­ In 1991, NSF began offering a Anyone with a personal computer and tion. Its database includes the NSF computerized alternative to searching a modem, or with access to the Bulletin (newsletter), the Guide to through volumes of printed material Internet or BITNET computer Programs (annual catalog), NSF pro­ from the Foundation. The Science networks, can use the system without gram announcements, news about and Technology Information System charge. Access hours are unlimited international science and technology, (STIS) makes it possible to search and there is no need to register in abstracts of many NSF awards and quickly through scores of NSF advance or obtain a password. other documents and publications. publications, using words or terms that appear in the materials. Users

25 Science and Humanities Education

Three federal agencies joined in a 1991 effort to help colleges and universities develop undergraduate courses and curricula linking the sciences and the humanities. NSF, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Department of Education called for grant proposals that cut across traditional academic disciplines to give students a coherent, interrelated view of varied fields of human Megaherbivores. Museum knowledge. Projects may include workers drape themselves in a soft sculpture representing a giraffe's efforts to improve core curricula, digestive system. Others prepare a create new majors or develop new, life-size model of a tree-grazing giraffe. NSF Informal Science Educa­ integrated course sequences or tion funds were used for the exhibit. senior "capstone" courses. The three federal agencies hope these projects will become models for other colleges and universities.

Informal Education

A simulated ride in a deep-sea submersible is one of the highlights of a new museum exhibition at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Funded in part by NSF, the exhibit Field Museum of Natural History will be in the new Stephen Birch Aquarium-Museum, being built on the Scripps campus at the University ographic research vessel. In a "Life in with the airing of its 5,000th episode. of California/San Diego. the Sea" exhibit, visitors can take a A production of the McDonald Obser­ vatory at the University of Texas/Aus­ The museum offers exhibits on simulated ride in a deep-sea submers­ tin, Star Date aired in June 1977 on ocean science, marine biology, global ible and view the undersea world Austin station KLBJ-FM as Have You warming, and sea-floor plate tec­ through observation ports showing a tonics. Visitors can view an exhibit on kelp forest, the La Jolla Canyon wall, Seen the Stars Tonight? The show was an expanded version of a tele­ early oceanography, followed by a the open ocean's sandy sea floor, and recreated below-deck laboratory of a deep-sea hot spring. phone message service the obser­ vatory had offered for several the historic HMS Challenger, used Star Date, a two-minute NSF- months. With NSF's help, the show in the late 1800s as the first ocean- funded radio broadcast that takes 10 was syndicated nationally in 1978 milUon listeners on a daily star trip, under its current name. marked a milestone in February 1991

26 Mars mission. A would-be astronaut explores tiie surface of Mars in a simulated voyage that is part of an exhibit at the Center of Science and Industry in Columbus, Ohio.

SuperQuest finalists. This student team from J. Oliver Johnson High School in Huntsville, Alabama, applied classroom knowledge to a supercomputer at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois. Eleven high-school computing teams won the NSF-sponsored SuperQuest competition to attend expense-paid summer institutes at three research centers.

Center of Science and Industry

Special Week.'Ouriosity is the Frontier" was the theme for National Science and Technology Week 1991.

Curiosity is the Frontier NnilONnL

TeCHNOLOGV UU€€K '91 nmiL 21-27

Science Week. Family Science Night at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington was National Science Foundation part of several 1991 activities tor National Science and Technology Week, held each year in April. 1800 G Street. N.W.. Washineton.DC20550

27 Chapter 4

nternationa! News

This was the first manned station Columbia University Antarctic Research: Record Year ever established on floating ice of the The NSF-managed U.S. Antarctic Southem Ocean. The scientists dis­ Program had its most ambitious iield embarked from the Akademik season in 1991, with a record 111 Fedorov, an icebreaking research projects scheduled. Researchers ship, 2,080 kilometers south were on land, sea and in the air, of the tip of South America. There, solving mysteries across many on the frozen surface of the western scientific discipfines. Natural Weddefi Sea, they set up camp and an phenomena under observation airstrip. After drifting northward included unusual invertebrates, some several kilometers per day on the moving ice floe, they were evacuated could lead to new dmgs or other in the summer of 1992, before the products; the mmblings of volcanic camp reached the open ocean or the Mount Erebus; the formation and floe began to melt. break-up of continents; the distant Floating lab. Map shows projected path of pioneer Heficopters, icebreaking research ice-floe lab carrying scientists investigating ocean circulation and climate in Antarctica. origins of cosmic rays; and the ships and sateUites aided the re­ dynamics of the sun and the aurora searchers as they conducted experi­ australis—the southern fights. ments on the ice floe and gathered Success in Antarctic research de­ extensive data on the complex and A chief goal was to discover rates pends on the efforts of scientists poorly understood interactions of air, of heat exchange between the atmos­ working in remote, barren field sites ice and ocean in the ice-riddled Wed­ phere and ocean, the intervening role and on data gathered from sensitive defi Sea. The delicate balance of this of the sea-ice cover, and the nature of instmments borne aloft on aircraft. system affects global climate and ocean circulation beneath the ice. Some highlights: ocean currents. The poles are the Antarctic Environmental Ice Research: Witii 1991 fimds only regions on Earth where water Efforts: In 1991 NSF suspended tiie from NSF, 10 U.S. scientists joined becomes cold enough and dense practice of open buming at McMurdo enough to sink. During this process, 10 researchers from the former Station and ceased operating the Soviet Union in Febmary 1992 on an large quantities of heat, carbon landfiU there. The one-acre landfifi ad­ dioxide and other gases are ex­ Antarctic ice floe. There they drifted jacent to the scientific base existed changed with a huge deep-water for months and studied how the ice for more than 30 years. It was built to cover affects ocean circulation and reservoir. But unlike areas to the dispose of sofid and fiquid waste east, where ice melts in summer and climate. The research team and a sup­ generated from constmction and port staff of 12 camped on an ice floe remains thin even during winter, the other materials deposited in an era western Weddefi is covered afi year 300 centimeters thick, 1.6 kilometers when environmental knowledge, sen­ long and .8 kilometers wide; they by ice and has never been surveyed sitivity and concerns were not as from research ships. drifted some 640 kilometers over a great as they are today. NSF is in the four-to-flve month period. midst of a five-yearSafety , Environ-

28 When moving forward toward the discovery of the unlznown, the scientist is liite a traveler who reaches higher and higher summits, from which he sees in the distance new countries to explore.

—Louis Pasteur

ment and Health Initiative designed rubber tires and hazardous materials 1980 to help scientists leam more in part to clean up debris from past (batteries, solvents and waste oil) are about ecosystems and their dynamics operations and enhance protection of recycled or segregated from the over time. These studies could help the Antarctic environment. The waste stream and removed from researchers distinguish among rare Foundation first built a temporary in­ Antarctica. events, cycUcal ecological processes cinerator, then in October 1991 and long-term environmental trends. Exploring fhe Antarctic Marine installed a more efficient three- The Antarctic location is the first of Ecosystem: NSF awarded a six-year chambered commercial device. The 18 active research sites estabfished grant in 1991 to begin new studies state-of-the-art incinerator burns outside U.S. territory. Work is cen­ on how populations of Antarctic or­ nonhazardous materials, waste food tered near Palmer Station just off ganisms are influenced by seasonal and food-contaminated waste. the western Antarctic Peninsula, one and year-to-year variabUity in the of three U.S. Antarctic research sta­ U.S. Department of Agriculture harsh polar physical environment. tions managed by NSF (see box). regulations prevent waste food and This new Long-Term Ecological Re­ Studies involve established field sites food-contaminated wastes (such as search site could act as an early warn­ at and near penguin colonies, along napkins and paper plates) from enter­ ing system for changes in Antarctic with regional cmises in the Southern ing the United States without prior ozone, temperature, Southem Ocean Ocean. Satelfite imaging provides sterifization. Thus these materials Water circulation and sea ice cover. data on the extent and thickness of are burned at 1600 degrees F to Field studies began in October sea ice and on ocean surface tempera­ preclude human health hazards; in­ 1991, led by researchers from the tures, while weather stations gather cinerator ashes are then removed University of California at Santa Bar­ meteorological data. from the continent. Plastics, metals, bara and Old Dominion The Next Frontier: The remote University in Norfolk, and barren Antarctic continent could Va. The scientists are serve as a testbed for technologies gathering data and and systems to support human Ufe developing computer beyond Earth, thanks to an agree­ models to describe ment signed in January 1991 by South Amenca ecosystem dynamics. NASA and NSF. The interagency pro­ The models wiU relate gram, called the Antarctic Space E changes in the food Analog, buUds on NSFs polar ex­ chain, or food web (the perience and paves the way for the term ecologists prefer) Bush Administration's Space Explora­ to physical factors, in­ tion Initiative, aimed at estabUshing a cluding sea ice cover, permanent presence on the moon 0 200 400 600 I ocean circulation and South Pacific Ocean and sending humans to Mars. Under meteorology. the Analog program, NSF and NASA NSF launched the are pursuing research and technol­ Antarctic activity bases. Researchers study Antarctic Long-Term Ecological ogy demonstrations in life support environment at these major stations. Research program in

29 Antarctic Station Report

McMurdo Station: operating irom a sea-ice runway on Aiiiarcuca s irozen McMurdo Sound, aircraft from slk nations supported science in tiie Transantarctie Mountains and west Antarctica, marlcing tiie growing coordination among countries involved in research on the continent. The air­ field is associated with McMurdo Station, the largest re­ search operation managed by NSF as part of the U.S. Antarctic Program. The airfield hosted planes from the United States, the then Soviet Union, Germany, Italy, New Zealand and Canada. The flights delivered equipment and scientists, dispatching them to study sites for the short Antarctic summer season, which ends in February.

McMurdo, with a peak population of 1,100 during the austial summer, normally is visited by U.S. Antarctic Pro­ gram planes and those of one or two other nations. Just New facility, i his science and engineering facility at McMurdo Station includes 830 miles from the South Pole, the station is well placed (in center from right to left) main lab, geoscienee lab, and seawater aquarium. for high-latitude research. It has the world's southernmost Administration and dormitory facilities are in background and foreground. port for receiving ship-borne cargo and fuel for planes.

In 1991, a 28-milfion-cubic-foot bafioon was launched near McMurdo for a three-week South Polar circumnavigation. It carried astrophysics experiments aloft and was part of a joint NASA-lN'SF effort.

Amundsen-Scott Station: October stratospheric ozone levels over Antarctica have been decUning for at least 10 years. In 1991 ozone levels were more highly depleted than in other years, just as they were in 1987 and 1989. Ozone monitoring continues at aU three U.S. stations, includ­ ing Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, also a site for studying greenhouse gas and other atmospheric chemistry.

The South Pole is an exceptional site for researchers conduct­ ing astronomy and astrophysics experiments because it is high, dry and provides nearly constant viewing angles. Amundsen-Scott Station also is an ideal spot to study variations of the sun, which can be observed for extended periods.

During the 1990-1991 season, solar observers attempted to make nearly continuous images of the sun for three months. The images should aUow unprecedented determinations of solar vibra­ tions, which provide information about the sun's internal struc­ Historic site. Across the bay from pioneer explorer Robert F. Scoffs hut (dating from 1902 expedition) is McMurdo's new Albert P. Crary ture. These hefioseismologic studies already have improved our Center. Installation's air strip is behind hut point. understanding of the sun.

Palmer Biological research was a major thrust at Palmer Station, on a smafi island off the Antarctic Peninsula. Biologists studied the area's marine ecosystem, focusing on seals, penguins, seabirds, fish, marine worms and other invertebrates and microbes. A research cruise in the waters off Palmer aimed to determine the impact of the ozone hole on the continents marine ecosystem. Researchers used a new underwater spectrophotometer to obtain data on ultraviolet (UV) levels from Antarctic waters. The scientists measured visible and UV fight at many depths to study how water circulates and transports plankton. They also examined photosynthesis, biomass pigment production and genetic damage to several species.

30 and environmental control systems, mulating responses to the effects of research proposed in NSF's Long— energy generation and storage changing climate on humans. Term Ecological Research and Global subsystems, automation and robotics, Change programs. ARCSS is seen as a 10-year effort. telescience, and human behavior and Its three components are: As part of its contribution to the performance research. U.S. Global Change Research Pro­ Paleoenvironmental Studies. This Scientists believe Antarctica's gram, NSF started a program called effort is made up of two initiatives— climate, terrain and isolation provide Arctic System Science (described GISP2, the second Greenland Ice an Earth environment that most close­ above). Its goals—to understand the Sheet Project (see box), and Paleo­ ly parallels conditions of isolation and many Arctic system processes and to climates of Arctic Lakes and Estu­ stress to be faced on long-duration advance a scientific basis for predict­ aries (PALE), underway since 1988. human missions in space. The pro­ ing environmental change—^were gram enables NASA to do scientific Ocean/Atmosphere/Ice Interac- determined by the Arctic research research and demonstrate new tech­ tionsT)M.s component, implemented community through the Arctic Re­ nology while tapping NSF's 35 years in 1991 and due to be expanded as search Consortium of the United of experience in the harsh Antarctic funds become available, addresses States (ARCUS), inaugurated in environment. such priority areas as Arctic Ocean October 1988. circulation, atmospheric radiation and Today, ARCUS has 21 voting- clouds, the Arctic Basin's hydrologic member institutions from 17 states, cycle and paleoceanography in the Arctic Research and four non-voting intemational region. Arctic System Science: The U.S. affiliates. Its long-term goals are to Global Change Research Program is Land/Atmosphere/Ice Interactions. produce identifiable improvements in both a major thrust in the geosci­ Research areas identified for initial U.S. Arctic science; build research ences and a good example of inter­ emphasis (beginning in fiscal 1992) communities of scientists and disciplinary cooperation. As part of its include changes in biotic commu­ scholars in the United States; and contribution to this broad initiative, nities, how these will affect Arctic and open avenues for interdiscipfinary ap­ the Foundation launched a program global systems, and the interaction of proaches and new techniques. In the called Arctic System Science, or those changes with human activities. near term, the consortium has been ARCSS. Efforts to document and focusing on the Arctic's role in global ARCUS: In the mid-1980s, understand global change focus spe­ change and requirements for a nation­ evidence of sensitivity and change in cial attention on sensitive regions of al education program on the region. the higher latitudes led to several the globe, such as the Arctic, where proposals from the U.S. Arctic Re­ anticipated changes will be great and search Commission and the Polar Re­ where changing processes could search Board (National Academy of have global consequences. ARCSS is Sciences) for more emphasis on scien­ an interdisciplinary, "system science" What we know is tific research in the Arctic. Other effort; through it, scientists seek to a drop. proposals included the NASA Global understand the physical, geological, Tropospheric Experiment to study at­ chemical, biological and social What we don't know mosphere-biosphere interactions in is an ocean. processes of the arctic system that the uppermost regions of North interact with the total Earth system. —Isaac Newton America; a call for an Arctic com­ Researchers also hope to advance a ponent of the International Geo- scientific basis for (1) predicting sphere-Biosphere Programme environmental change on a decade- developed by the Royal Society of to-centuries time scale, and (2) for­ Canada; and new elements of Arctic

31 Bruce Koci Arctic science. chemicals—CO2, for example— Researctiers examining ice occurred during ice ages and may core from have caused more extreme cfimate Quelccaya Ice conditions then.

Biodiversity Studies

NsF-AID Projects: In 1991, NSF and the U.S. Agency for Intemational Development (AID) jointiy supported 14 biodiversity projects around the globe. The agencies teamed to sponsor research that wiU expand ocean and the way this chemical cy- knowledge of potential threats to Greenhouse Gas Studies cfing interacts with the global atmos- ecosystems and species in de­ here. Records of the ancient past, In greenhouse gas studies, carbon is veloping countries, which harbor obtained from cores driUed in polar the coin of the realm. Increases in much of the world's wealth of atmospheric carbon dioxide mea­ ice, show that changes in certain sured in recent decades do not match increased emissions caused by the buming of fuel and forests, leaving For Global Change Researchers, Ice is Nice scientists stmggling to account for Near the summit of the Greenland ice cap—667 kilometers north of the Arctic the difference. Now it appears that Circle—Paul Mayewski is scientific leader at a base camp housing 40 researchers, more carbon ends up as biomass in engineers, equipment operators, drillers, cooks, laborers and a physician. For tiie third year, he guided the most ambitious U.S. drilfing effort ever undertaken to re­ tiny ocean plants than previously cover an ice core, an unbroken record of past cfimates. The drilling is part of the thought. This finding comes from Greenland Ice Sheet Project Two (GISP2). When driUing is completed in 1992 or the first intemational field study to 1993, the continuous core should provide an archive of environmental history examine the fate of carbon and other spanning 200,000 years or more. nutrients in the ocean. Climate modelers have predicted that global temperatures wiU rise because of increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases caused by fossil fiiel The ocean biomass reservoir acts buming and deforestation. However, these predictions need refining. The ice-core as a buffer that offers a control on at­ record wiU enable scientists to leam more about how natural phenomena interact mospheric carbon dioxide. Scientists over time to bring about cfimate changes; this knowledge should be useful in refin­ ing the models. know that much of the missing CO2 ends up in ocean waters through a The U.S. team is using a new, speciaUy designed drifi and drilfing fluid. The simple chemical reaction. Now, as 13.2-centimeter core sections—the largest ever extracted from deep ice—provide more ice for analysis than did previous equipment. This special equipment also en­ part of a long-term international effort sures the purity of samples drawn from the core's center. Purity is especiaUy im­ caUed the Joint Global Ocean Flux portant because the concentrations of chemical markers are so low that a human Study, scientists are calculating for touch or exhalation could contaminate the sample. the first time the impact of ocean NSF coordinates the U.S. GISP2 effort with the European Science Foundation. plant life perturbations on atmosphe­ The European scientists are coring ice from the summit of the Greenland Ice ric CO.. Sheet, whUe U.S. researchers are drilfing 32 kilometers away. Having data from two ice cores wiU allow scientists to check and reinforce their findings.An d the The Flux Study targets processes two cores considered together should reveal how physical properties of the Green­ that control the movement of biologi­ land Ice Sheet have changed over time. cally important chemicals in the

32 biodiversity. The projects will help the presence of seed-dispersing interactions of tropical rainforest com­ strengthen biodiversity research and animals all can influence reforestation munities. Ewel's work compares ex­ education in these countries, and will rates. Through field studies and ac­ perimentally restored rainforest, foster productive working relation­ cess to satellite imagery, Moran's communities with original rain­ ships between U.S. and foreign team tracked changes in ground forests, looking at key processes scientists. cover. The project focused on the such as gas exchange, nutrient reten­ ways native people affect reforesta­ tion, soil protection and the ability of With these awards, U.S. re­ tion near Belo Monte in the central the forest tree community to resist searchers led studies in 1991 in Amazon Basin. For example, natives pest outbreaks. Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, and peasants often plant fmit trees a Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, This study aims to identify the few years after clearing the land, at­ Ecuador, Gabon, Madagascar, minimum amount of biological com­ tracting bats and other organisms Panama and Venezuela. Projects plexity of the rainforest tree species that reseed the deforested land with included studies of ecosystems, in­ that uses the resources, while mini­ native species. dividual species and land-use impacts. mizing the risk that the community Sustainable Ecological Systems will collapse. The work is being done For example, anthropologist and Biological Diversity: Tropical at La Selva Biological Station of the Emilio Moran at Indiana University in rain forests are being degraded at an Organization for Tropical Studies in Bloomington has studied Amazon alarming rate, and our ability to re­ Costa Rica. deforestation and carbon cycling in store these ecological systems Brazil. In collaboration with Brazilian depends on an understanding of eco­ agencies and graduate students, he logically sustainable communities. and other researchers studied American Researchers in Japan Work by Joiin Ewel of the University revegetation on deforested lands in of Florida, Gainesville, assesses the During 1991, 50 American science the Amazon basin. The size of clear­ amount of biological diversity needed and engineering graduate students ings, soil type, land-use pattems, and to sustain the complex processes and spent two months at Japan's science city, Tsukuba. They studied the language and pursued research in Japan's national labs, and—for the Biodiversity studies. Scientists and graduate first time—in some leading corporate students studied mammals and their parasites in Bolivia under several I\ISF grants. laboratories. The Summer Institute in Animals native to the area include short-tailed Japan, sponsored by NSF and Japan's opossum and llamas, shown here. Science and Technology Agency, is an NSF effort to help balance the flow of science and technology between Japan and the United States.

The 1991 summer interns repre­ sented two dozen disciplines, ranging from engineering (21) and computer science (8) to the physical and geo­ logical sciences (13) and biological sciences (8). Their fields of research include biomedical engineering, ento­ mology, marine chemistry, polymer science and technology management. The students come from 29 univer-

33 in mathematics and than half the participating populations 1 science. The TIMSS 13-year-old boys performed sig­ f timeline extends nificantly better than girls did. In from 1991 until the science—on a one-hour test that in­ turn of the century. cluded 72 questions—achievement Data collection ranged from an average of 52 percent i !5 ,,"'4 began through task to 78 percent correct, with boys per­ forces set up for forming better than girls. III iiiyiiiiiJiiiii^ each student popu­ A lation; they collected and cataloged Network News ILllllltlllililJN'. achievement items Intern in Japan. Shown here is one of several U.S. students who studied in Japan under a special NSFprogram . from intemational NsF-U.S. Sprint Agreement: sources. Further NSF has entered into a five-year sities and 19 states. Twelve of the data will be gathered in the 1993-94 cooperative agreement with the U.S. interns are women; seven are from school year, then in 1997-98. Inter­ Sprint Corporation to implement and racial or ethnic minorities. They were national reports of preliminary results manage international connections to hosted by 20 Japanese govemment will appear in 1995 and 1999. NSFNET. The agreement calls for laboratories and nine corporate U.S. Sprint to provide and manage cir­ cuits, initially linking NSFNET to Euucatiorial if rogi'ess: m 1991, with In 1991, NSF also increased salary INRIA, operator of the French scien­ funding from NSF, 20 countries sur­ and travel support for U.S. research­ tific and research networks, and to its veyed the mathematics and science ers who wish to visit Japan for she Scandinavian equivalent, NORDUNet performance of 13-year-old students; months or more. in Stockholm. (NORDUNet finks tiie 14 nations also assessed 9-year-old academic networks of Denmark, Fin­ students in the same subjects. The land, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.) United States, Canada, France, Hun­ Science Achievement Assessments gary, Ireland, Jordan, Korea, Scotland NSFNET, which connects more and Taiwan were among those in­ than 400 U.S. academic and research Third Intemational Mathematics volved. Some 175,000 children were institutions, is a major component of and Science Study (TIMSS): assessed in March 1991. the intemational network, Intemet, Supported in part by NSF, this is which links several thousand net­ expected to be the most important In mathematics, achievement works and more than 350,000 host intemational survey of educational ranged considerably, from an average computers worldwide. Sprint interna­ outcomes in the 1990s. TIMSS of 28 percent to 80 percent correct on tional circuits wiU give NSFNET involves more than 40 countries and a one-hour test that included 76 ques­ more cost-effective control of its over­ four age-grade levels of students: tions. There is evidence for the poten­ seas data communications and wifi those ages 9 and 13, those in the last tial of each nation's population, as handle growing traffic demand. As year of secondary education, and shown by the top 10 percent of stu­ NSFNET's international connections students in the last year of secondary dents in each country. Data from the manager. Sprint AviU operate a round- education who are smdying mathe­ bottom 10 percent indicate that even the-clock network operations center matics or science as an important the most successful countries have through Comefi, reporting to NSF on part of an academic program. students who need help. refiabifity and perfonnance, "reach­ ability" of nodes or access centers, Program goals include constmct­ AVhile students in most countries hardware outages and traffic patterns. ing parallel descriptions of the edu­ believed mathematics is equally im­ cational systems of participating portant for boys and girls, in more countries and comparing curricula

34 national systems for research takes as they formulate new science New Model for Eastern Europe funding, the three political entities and technology poficies. Poland, Hungary and Czechoslo­ hope to develop merit-based vakia (now the Czech and Slovak decision-making that stimulates Federated Republic, or CSFR) have innovative thinking and rewards the embraced peer review as the chosen best appficants. This wifi help channel One thing I have instrument of reform for their re­ limited resources to the healthiest learned in a long life: search communities. As each entity elements of research communities. that all our science, moves away from centrally controlled Since resource limits and other measured against block funding, peer review has come problems are known to Westem reality, is primitive to mean much more than the tech­ countries having more experience and childlike— nical critique of proposals by quali­ and yet it is the most with peer review and various competi­ fied experts. Rather, it is a way to precious thing tive models, NSF has responded to introduce a more open, competitive we have. requests for advice from Poland, Hun­ system of resource distribution gary and CSFR. Timely assistance —^Albert Einstein across broad national research and has helped them avoid costly mis­ development sectors. By integrating peer review principles into new

35 Chapter 5

Doilitioc \ lOil Ul 11^1 iiaiiui I ai I Faoiiiui^o

libraries, to perform computationally capacities, and connecting the back­ Computers and Supercomputers intensive applications that tum model­ bone networks of other agencies. A NrEN Data Superhighway: The ing and simulation results into pic­ major activify of the interim NREN: National Research and Education tures, and to control experiments and developing and deploying safeguards Network (NREN) is a national simulations remotely. to enhance securify and control over access to the connected computer sys­ high-speed computer network of NREN's developers seek to con­ tems and the individual network com­ networks that ultimately will provide nect the nation's educational in­ ponents. computer access to millions of people frastmcture to its knowledge and in research and educational in­ information centers. In this system, NSFNET: NSF's new 'T3" net­ stitutions. NREN dramatically elementary schools, high schools, work was completed in 1991, increas­ expands and enhances the U.S. two and four year colleges and univer­ ing capacity for the more than 4,400 sities will be linked with researchers universify, industry and govemment infrastructure of interconnected and laboratories, so all can share ac­ research networks linked by NSF­ computer networks called Internet, cess to libraries, databases and such NET. T3 operates at 30 times which already links three million diverse scientiiic instmments as su­ fhe speed of the original network researchers, educators and others percomputers, telescopes and par­ infrastmcture (called Tl). It also around the world. A substantial ticle accelerators. supports a Fiber Distributed Data In­ fraction of the domestic Intemet is terface (FDDI) to regional sites, with Merit Networl<, Inc. supported by Federal agencies, which T3 ex­ principally the Defense Advanced ANTICIPATED GROWTH changes informa­ Research Projects Agency (DARPA), IN COMPUTER USERS AND NETWORK CONNECTIONS 1990-2000 tion. The FDDI the Department of Energy, NASA 6 million . is a specification and NSF. for an optical- 1 Million - 6 nillion A recent research agenda—the 90O.ODO - fiber local area 800.Q00 - network that Federal High Performance Comput­ 700,000 - 600.000 - 3 million _ operates at high ing and Communications program— 500,000 - aims to extend U.S. leadership in 400.000 - speed—100 meg­ 300,000 - abits per second. high performance computing and 200.000 - ^^^m^^ ^ million - 100.000 - computer network technologies. To " V llf Increased T3 satisfy this program's goals, NREN 1990 2000 1990 2000 capacity also was ^2 = 200,000 must do more than provide network ^|yl= 1 million extended to eight Network of networks, i lie anticipation of explosive growtti in computer network T3 network stitutions at all levels and locations— connections and users underlies creation of tlie National Research and Education Network. nodes ("gate­ it must also deliver new capabilities. way" computers Some of these, such as distance leam­ NSF has been coordinating early connecting to a local area network); ing, may initially be extensions of cur­ NREN activities by upgrading the these nodes are now operational at aU rent technology. The new technology NSFNET backbone, helping regional 13 sites of the original Tl network— is needed to support access to digital networks upgrade their facilities and Ithaca, N.Y.; CoUege Park, Md.; Pitts-

36 burgh, Penn.; Ann Arbor, Mich.; only in a supercomputer laboratory. searchers from universities and scien­ Urbana-Champaign, 111.; Princeton, For example, climate models ex­ tific institutions in five nations, and N.J.; Houston, Texas; Lincoln, Neb.; amine geographic areas in 500- dozens of instruments were stationed Boulder, Colo.; Salt Lake City, Utah; kilometer or smaller grid areas, often near Hilo for this project. HaRP in­ San Diego and Palo Alto, Calif.; and requiring three months or more of su­ sights into the formation and deple­ Seattle, Wash. Three new sites are percomputer time to simulate 100 tion of Hawaiian rainbands— operational in Cambridge, Mass.; years of the Earth's climate. In con­ elongated shower clusters without Atlanta, Ga.; and Argonne, 111. When trast, it takes about five hours of Cray thunder or lightning—are helping to all T3 installations have been tested, Y-MP time to produce an accurate 10- illuminate theories of rainfall develop­ the Tl network will be dismantled. day forecast. ment throughout the tropics and the world's temperate regions near The NSFNET partnership includes Among the NCAR projects the coastiines. NSF, the state of Michigan and four Cray will assist are efforts to predict companies: Merit Network Inc., Ad­ weather in space and to understand Mathematical, statistical and com­ vanced Network & Services (ANS), rainfall development in the tropics. putational models run on NCAR's IBM and MCI. Cray supercomputers played a sig­ Understanding Rainfall in the nificant role in HaRP. Researchers NCAR's New Cray: A new super­ Tropics: The Hawaiian Rainband consulted computer models during computer, one of the few systems in Project (HaRP) gathered data on the each step of planning, from deciding the world devoted solely to climate- development of warm-weather rain where to place instruments to choos­ modeling research, began operation over Hilo, Hawaii in July and August ing the best time of day for data- at the NSF-funded National Center 1990. More than 75 NCAR staff, re­ gathering flights. Models also con- for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in

Boulder, Colo. The two-processor Global data Cray Y-MP will boost the capability of cruncher. A new Cray NCAR's eight-processor Cray Y-MP supercomputer supercomputer in analyzing climate at the Mational Center for research experiments from around Atmospheric the world. Research will be used to analyze Mathematical and statistical scenarios for models are the primary tool for inves­ future climate variations. tigating possible future climate variat­ ions caused by both human activities and natural events, including chang­ ing land-use practices, deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions, and volcanic eruptions. Such models generate huge amounts of data and require calculations that can be made NCAR

37 Hawaiian rainbands. Clusters of iieavy rain, seen tiere from the ground, are analyzed with the help of computers, pro­ viding data on tropical and warm-climate coastal rainfall. Data-gathering tools include tethersonde (left) and solar-

(right), which use satellite relays.

NASA, NCAR, D. Dempsey/San Francisco State Univ.

Iributed to daily decisions in the field. structure that were field-testedb y much of the rest of the world rain Internet—the U.S. portion (fiinded in HaRP in 1990. HaRP was one of the forms as ice or snow and melts as it part by NSF) of a worldwide infra­ largest field experiments ever to com­ fafis. HaRP research wifi help scien­ structure of interconnected computer pare a large-scale atmospheric pro­ tists separate the effects of water networks—connected the University cess with computer models. droplets from the effects of ice crys­ of Hawaii's Hilo campus to NCAR tals, furthering the study of lightning The Hawaiian site was chosen be­ headquarters in Boulder; there pre­ and other phenomena tied to ice cause almost every summer—as air cipitation models were run on the formation. flows down mountainous terrain and Cray Y-MP using HaRP data. Results encounters opposing trade winds off­ were relayed in minutes to Hilo, shore, rainbands form off the east where researchers used the real­ coast of Hawau's largest island. As Telescopes and Other Instrumentation time data to deploy data-cofiection they sweep toward the island, these instruments and aircraft. Gemini Intemational 8-Meter bands can produce heavy rain, but re­ Telescopes: The United Kingdom Five years before HaRP, NCAR searchers are more interested in the and Canada have agreed to join the scientists explored the microphysics regularity with which they form. Iso­ United States in funding a pair of of Hawaiian rainband formation as lated in the mid-Pacific from other 8-meter ground-based telescopes. part of the Joint Hawaii Warm Rain influences, Hawaii provides a giant These wifi be located in the northern Project. With those results, com­ natural laboratory for cloud physics and southem hemispheres. The U.K. puter modelers produced a set of and dynamics research. Over Hawaii, Science and Engineering Research hypotheses on rainband origin and rain forms and fafis as water; over Councfi and the National Research plans for a more powerful telescope that could be built in the second half of the 1990s.

The Global Oscillation Network Group: We now know that the sur­ face of the Sun shows oscillations, similar to those seen in other stars. Studies of these oscillations will enable astronomers to determine physical conditions in the Sun's in­ terior. Six observatory sites make up NSF's Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG), whose goal is to ob­ tain the best and most continuous data on these intemal vibrations. A prototype instmment, a Fourier tachometer developed for this applica­

Future giant. Titis Gemini eiglnt-meter telescope, yet to be built, is expected to be tlie world's best for tion, has been tested at Arizona's Na­ ground viewing in the late 1990's. tional Solar Observatory in Tucson. The network will begin collecting Council of Canada voted to col­ a site for infrared and submillimeter data in 1994 and operate for at least laborate with NSF in building two astronomy. three years. The instmments will be advanced-technology telescopes, NSF partners in the project in­ as electrically, mechanically and opti­ each 8 meters (26 feet) in diameter. clude the University of Chicago's cally identical as possible. One will be built on Mauna Kea, a Yerkes Observatory, with collabo­ volcano in Hawaii; construction GONG sites are located so that rators at Princeton University, AT&T begins in 1992 and is scheduled for three always are in daylight, and at Bell Laboratories, Rockwell Intema­ completion in 1998. The other—on low latitudes where seasonal variation tional Corp., Boston University, Cerro Pachon, a peak in the Chilean in hours of daylight is not as great. Haverford College, the University of Andes—will be completed in the Project scientists expect to be able to Illinois, George Williams College, the year 2000. collect data 93 percent of the time. University of Colorado, the Smith­ Their findings may help to refine To ensure full coverage of the en­ sonian Astrophysical Observatory ideas about particle physics and the tire sky, telescopes are required in and Adler Planetarium. age of the universe. both hemispheres. For example, the Three initial Center experiments, 1987 supemova was observed from LIGO: Probing the Universe: covering a spectral range from 2 to NSF's 4-meter telescope at La Serefia, Gravitational waves generate ripples 3,000 microns, will observe primeval Chile, and is not visible in the in the fabric of space-time, as pre­ galaxies, investigate the processes by northem hemisphere. Studies of the dicted by Einstein's theory of gravita­ which stars form from interstellar universe's stmcture and evolution tion. They are produced by accelera­ gas, and measure lack of homo­ also require full-sky coverage. tions of bulk matter, or by oscifiations geneity in the distribution of matter of strong gravitational fields, and are South Pole Telescope Complex: and energy in the early universe. In a expected to distort space as they Funding has been authorized to estab­ fourth effort, the Advanced Telescope pass. Gravitational waves can be lish the Center for Astrophysical Re­ Project, Center researchers and a detected by measuring the smafi oscil­ search in Antarctica, which will ex­ group of astronomers from other U.S. lations they produce between sep- plore the South Pole's advantages as and foreign institutions will develop

39 arated masses, but doing so calls for instrumentation of unprecedented sensitivity.

llie new measurement technology comes from 20 years of research and development in the United States and Europe. Scientific teams spent the past decade building prototypes to demonstrate the scientific feasibility of a laser interferometer system. In the United States, physicists and engineers at the Califomia and Massachusetts Institutes of Technol­ Measuring solar vibrations. Sites in the Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG), which monitors internal solar vibrations, are Caltech's Big Bear Observatory; the University of Hawaii's iVIees Solar Observatory ogy—joined by physicists from the (Haleakala); Australia's Learmouth Solar Observatory; India's Udaipur Solar Observatory; Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias El Tiede Observatory (Izaha, Canary Islands, Spain), and the Cerro Tololo University of Colorado, and Stanford Inter-American Obsewatori' in Chile. and Syracuse Universities—planned the constmction of a new national re­ search facility: the Laser Interfero­ meter Gravitational Wave Observa- toiy (LIGO). This facility will consist of two receivers, widely separated Understanding our star. "GONG" models propose lhat nuclear energy radiating from the sun's core is connected to oscillations on its surface. within the continental United States—each of them L-shaped, with 4-kilometer-long arms.

Locating the direction of astro­ nomical sources of gravitational wave signals requires four geographically separate, technically compatible detectors. In Europe, collaborators in France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom are developing plans for LIGO-like facilities. Two European detectors are expected to be approved in 1992. This would pro­ vide the geographical dispersion needed for an international network to begin astronomical research in the next century, using gravitational waves as a probe of the entire universe.

National Optical Astronomy Obsen/atories (NOAO) Green Bank Telescope: A new NSF radio telescope at Green Bank, West Virginia, will be the world's largest fully steerable telescope. After

40 the collapse of an aging 90-meter (300 pected to become fully operational. a 45-Tesla-class hybrid magnet. This foot) telescope at Green Bank in No­ The four-year, $23 milfion MIT award magnet, achieved by combining su­ vember 1988, NSFs National Radio is helping to ensure that scientists perconducting and water-cooled mag­ Astronomy Observatory proposed to who use powerful magnets in their nets, would achieve a magnetic field replace it with a state-of-the-art, fully research have access to this sophis­ 900,000 times the sttength of the steerable 100-meter telescope. In ticated technology. The Board's Earth's magnetic field. 1989 Congress appropriated $75 mil­ action also helps to maintain the U.S. The magnet project is a joint ven­ lion for the project. Assembly and position in high magnetic field ture between the Bitter Lab and the installation near the old instrument's technology. new National High Magnetic Field location should be complete in 1994, The Bitter Lab was used in 1990 Laboratory in Tafiahassee, Fla. with astronomical observations by nearly 400 scientists, engineers Funded by NSF and the state of scheduled to begin in 1995. This will and students who conducted re­ Florida, the High Magnetic Field Lab be the first large telescope with an un­ search in condensed matter physics, is being estabfished by Florida State blocked aperture, a feature that materials science and engineering, University, the University of Florida eliminates much intemal and local chemistry, biological sciences, and and the Los Alamos National Labor­ ground interierence. other discipfines. In addition to pro­ atory in New Mexico. Studies of radio emissions permit viding services to the user commun­ The hybrid magnet, to be com­ astronomers to leam about astronomi­ ity, part of the MIT funding is ear­ pleted by 1995, wifi provide the cal objects and phenomena that can­ marked to design, develop and build highest steady-state magnetic fields not be weU understood through optical astronomy alone. The Green NRAO Bank instmment will have a reflect­ ing surface that can be adjusted to op­ timal shape during operation, using a computer to control the position of in­ dividual reflecting panels. The new instmment wifi contribute to astrono­ mers' understanding of the timing and regularity of pulsars and the chemical content and evolution of young galaxies. The telescope also wifi be used to study radio emissions from the sun's surface and through­ out its corona, providing observa­ tional data for testing theories of solar physics.

National Magnet Laboratory: A panel of scientific experts ad­ vised the National Science Board in 1991 to approve continued NSF support of the Francis Bitter Na­ tional Magnet Laboratory through September 1995. At tiiat time, the new magnetic field laboratory now Starry listener. Model of a proposed new NSF instrument at Green Bank, West Virginia. I be ttie being built with NSF funds is ex­ world's largest fully steerable telescope.

41 T. Readhead, Palomar Observatory

Stellar clarification. These images of the star Sigma Hercules through our atmosphere and with image corrected for earth's atmospheric distortions show how a technique l

Adaptive Optics from the Strategic Defense initiative Astronomers will be able to see stars and galaxies more clearly, a result of the declassification of adaptive optics technology and equipment developed through a research effort of the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO). This equipment has been transferred to NSF.

Atmospheric turbulence, which causes the twinkling of stars, degrades the performance of ground-based telescopes. Adaptive optics employs "deformable" mirrors to remove the blurring effect and correct images of astronomical objects. This correction must be performed every few hundredths of a second. The technique was developed over the past decade through classified re­ search under Defense Department (DoD) sponsorship.

In a March 1991 report, the National Research Council (NRC) suggested that adaptive optics should be the highest priority for the next decade among moderate-cost, ground-based astronomy projects because of its potentially huge impact on many branches of astronomy. With adaptive optics and the latest telescope mirrors and detectors, ground-based astronomers may be able to observe the evolution of other solar systems in the galaxy, and detect Jupiter-sized planets. Researchers will be able to re­ fine their search for evidence of black holes—incredibly dense objects whose gravitational field is so strong that not even light can escape—and for quasars, stellar objects as bright as entire galaxies. With the new technology, it should prove easier to meas­ ure the distribution of stars in galaxies and of galaxies in the universe. Moreover, according to the NRC report, reducing back­ ground noise with adaptive optics could improve the limited sensitivity of ground-based telescopes by up to a factor of 50.

42 available, enabling scientists to make ILI objectives include the use of major discoveries in disciplines modern instmments, equipment shar­ Academic Research Facilities closely connected to competitive ing via consortia or centers, and de­ In 1991 NSF announced awards to 78 high-technology fields. For example, velopment of new experiments or cofieges, universities and nonprofit physicists and materials researchers applications that extend the instmc­ institutions for the repair and renova­ wifi be better able to understand and tional capabfiities of equipment. tion of their science and engineering develop high-temperature super­ Projects that wifi produce models for facilities. These funds are being com­ conductors, semiconductor multi­ the future are especially valued. In bined with institutional, state and layer structures used for high 1991, awards included grants to: local govemment funds to provide performance computers, fiquid more than $100 miUion in total sup­ • LaRhee Henderson at Iowa's crystals, novel magnetic materials port for projects in 37 states. Drake University—for both a and biomolecular materials. program and instmmentation to These were the first awards made Instrumentation and teach biochemistry. under NSF's Academic Research Laboratory Improvement (ILI): Facilities Modemization Program, es­ • George MacRitchie at Owens Tech­ Future scientists and engineers, tablished by Congress as part of the nical Cofiege, an Ohio community teachers, leaders in business and Academic Research Facfiities Mod­ cofiege—^for a state-of-the-art Me­ govemment and literate citizens need emization Act of 1988. Recipients in­ trology Data Center. strong undergraduate instmc­ clude 26 baccalaureate and master's tion in science, mathematics and • Kate Lajtha at Boston University— degree-granting institutions, three engineering. Laboratory or field for innovative laboratory exer­ museums and one consortium. experiences with suitable instm­ cises for students in an inter­ Projects typically involve renovat­ ments are cmcial elements of that discipfinary environmental studies ing laboratories and faciUties; upgrad­ instmction. The Foundation's ILI program. program supports the acquisition of ing or replacing plumbing, heating, those instmments for laboratory • James Beall at St John's Cofiege ventUation, air conditioning and courses. "Laboratory" is defined as in Annapofis—for the purchase of electric power systems; and replacing any setting where students actively a telescope to be instaUed in a per­ fume hoods, laboratory benches and participate in leaming subject matter; manently mounted dome on cam­ other equipment. Tennessee's Fisk the setting can be an observatory, the pus. A faculty study group has University, for example, is upgrading field, a computer room or a tradi­ been developing manuals and col­ a 60-year-old chemistry and physics tional laboratory. lecting original papers to guide buUding. Other grants are aiding the use of astronomical telescopes renovation of Morgan State Uni­ in a liberal arts setting. versity's Baltimore Science Complex, MIT's water resources and en­ vironmental engineering lab, the University of Kentucky's chemistry and physics buUding and California's Point Reyes Bird Observatory.

43 Chapter 6

and

In 1956, Van Allen made the trapped within the extemal geo­ Vannevar Bush Award proposal that led to his most famous magnetic field." Beginning with Barnes A. Van Allen, an inter­ discovery. After conducting Explorer I, Van Allen was a scientific nationally known pioneer in space productive cosmic ray experiments leader on 24 missions involving Earth science research and education, for several years with and lunar satelfites and planetary received the National Science balloon-launched rockets, he spacecraft. These include the con­ Board's (NSB) 1991 Vannevar Bush suggested using a satellite to conduct tinuing journeys of Pioneer 10 and Award. Given periodically, this award such research as part of the 1957-58 Pioneer 11, which are stifi retuming acknowledges outstanding contri­ Intemational Geophysical Year. In data after passing beyond the planets butions in science and technology. January 1958, the NSF-funded Iowa and into the outskirts of the solar Van Allen, Regent Distinguished Experiment rode into space aboard system. Professor of Physics at tne Uiu- an Army rocket. The payload, dubbed versity of Io wa, received a rnedal Explorer I. was the first placed into orbit by the United States. struck for the occasion and a Alan T. Waterman Award citation at the Board's annual With the data collected. Van Werbert Edelsbrunner, professor of dinner. The 24-member NSB is the Allen demonstrated that Earth is computer science at the University Foundation's policymaking body. surrounded by a massive, intense of Ilfinois at Urbana-Champaign, Van Allen was recognized for a radiation belt. He called it "a huge received NSF's 1991 Alan T. long, productive career in space region of space populated by Waterman Award. Given annually science, including his discovery of energetic charged particles since 1976 to outstanding young the radiation belt around Earth that [principally photons and electrons] researchers in science, mathematics bears his name. The Board also cited or engineering, this award includes his longtime advocacy of using grants (up to $500,000) for up to satellites to explore the planets; his three years of scientific research. role as an advisor to the U.S. Edelsbmnner, the 16th Waterman government on space science policy; Award recipient, was chosen from and his contributions as an educator among 97 nominees. and mentor of young scientists. Van The selection committee Allen has been an advisor on recognized Edelsbmnner for his atmospheric and space exploration work in computational geometry, a and science since 1946, using field that finks mathematics and improvements in rocketry to expand computer science. In his research, research horizons. He also was a Edelsbmnner combined geometry pioneer in cosmic ray and with algorithms—a finite series of geophysical studies at high altitudes pro- gramming steps needed to and over a range of latitudes. represent and manipulate geometric shapes and pattems. This has made it Vannevar Bush awardee James A. Van Allen

44 easier for computer programmers to award is given periodically to those write software for complex who distinguish themselves through National Medals of Science and Technology applications such as modeling leadership, public service and ded­ airplane design, airflow and surface ication in support of U.S. science, tension. Many consider his book, engineering, and education in National Science Board member and Algorithms in Combinatorial those fields. current chainnan James J. Duderstadt, Geometry—^published in 1987 before president of the University of Mich­ Beginning in the 95th Congress he reached age 30—the best igan, was among 18 engineers and (1977), Representative Boggs textbook and reference in industrialists to receive the National became a member of the House computational geometry. Medal of Technology. President Appropriations Committee, serving George Bush conferred these honors on the subcommittee that has at a White House ceremony in oversight of the NSF budget. In this September 1991. Duderstadt received capacity she became an advocate of his award for contributions to engi­ the Foundation's research and neering education and efforts to bring education efforts. Representative women and minorities into the Boggs was, for example, an early engineering profession. supporter of the agency's Experimental Program to Stimulate At the same ceremony, President Competitive Research (EPSCoR), Bush also awarded the National created to help research institutions Medal of Science to 20 scientists, in designated states overcome including former NSF Director H. barriers to successful competition for Guyford Stever. federal research support.

New NSF Director

yN alter E. Massey became Director Alan T. Waterman awardee Herbert Edelsbrunner of NSF in March 1991. He is the former Vice President at the University of Chicago for Research Distinguished Public Service Award and for the Argonne National ^indy Boggs, a former U.S. Rep­ Laboratory. Earlier in his career, the resentative from Louisiana who new NSF Director was a physics advocated programs to support the professor at the University of education of women and minorities Chicago; both associate and full throughout nine terms in Congress, professor of physics at Brown received the 1991 Distinguished University (where he was also Dean Public Service Award from NSF. The of the College); and assistant Distinguished Public Service awardee professor of physics at the University Lindy Boggs

45 of Illinois. His research in physics robotics and intelligent systems; centered on fhe many-body theories advanced scientific computing; of quantum liquids and solids. microelectronic information pro­ cessing systems; networking and Dr. Massey also has been a communications research and member of the President's Council of infrastructure; and cross-disciplinary Advisors on Science and Technology, activities. Habermann oversees the a former member of the National Sci­ CISE portfolio of NSF-supported ence Board and President of the research, which totaled $189.5 miUion American Association for the in fiscal 1991. Advancement of Science.

NSB News: Science and New Assistant Directors ' Engineering Indicators

Joseph Bordogna, dean of the Ocience and technology are University of Pennsylvania School beginning to reflect the effects of of Engineering and Applied Science Joseph Bordogna extraordinary global, political and during the past decade, became economic changes. In its 10th edition, A Nico Habermann, dean of the Nationai Science Board's Science neering in September 1991. In his Camegie MeUon Universitj^'s School and Engineering Indicators 1991 new position, Bordogna is respon­ of Computer Science since 1988, examined trends in research and sible for 23 programs representing became Assistant Director for development (R&D) expend­ eight major engineering research Computer and Information Science itures, science and math education, areas—among them electrical/ and Engineering (CISE) in October and other areas. HighUghts include: communications, chemical/ther- 1991. In this position, Habermann is mal, mechanical/structural, and responsible for 25 programs in sik Science and Engineering (S&E) design/manufacturing systems. divisions, representing computer and Personnel: The S&E work force in the Bordogna oversees the engineering computation research; information. United States continued its long portfolio of NSF-supported research, trend of growth through 1989 at an which totaled more than $237 miUion annual rate of about four percent. in fiscal 1991. Expansion of science and engineer­ ing employment continued at a faster rate in the larger nonmanufacturing

'In FY1992, NSF estabUshed a new sector than in manufacturing. Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences and chose its first During the 1990s, the number of Assistant Director. She is Cora Bagley S&E jobs in manufacturing increased Marrett, professor of Sociology and Afro-American Studies at the University by one-third to 993,000 in 1989, even of Wisconsin since 1974. Programs though total manufacturing employ­ under the new directorate were formerly in the Directorate for Biological, ment declined. In nonmanufacturing Behavioral, and Social Sciences (now industries, S&E jobs increased even called Biosciences), and in the now-disestablished Directorate for more rapidly—by nearly half—to a Scientific, Technological, and Inter­ total of 920,000. By 1989, 5.1 percent national Affairs. Marrett is responsible for four divisions representing social and of manufacturing jobs and 1.7 percent economic science, behavioral and cog­ of nonmanufacturing jobs were in nitive sciences, international cooperative scientific activities, and science science and engineering. resources studies. A. IMico Habermann

46 Supply and demand indicators adults strongly support the scientific Comparative data from the United suggest that, during the 1990s, there enterprise and federal support for ba­ States, Canada and the 12 European will be relative stability in these labor sic research, even if it brings no im­ Community countries on public markets, in which lower demographic mediate benefits. However, there is knowledge about science and tech­ growth will be matched by generally increased concern about the use of nology show strikingly similar slower economic growth. animals in research and about the degrees of knowledge. These new quality of science and mathematics data also indicate that Americans Public Perceptions of Science and education in U.S. schools. The pro­ and Canadians view science and Technology: As measured in NSF's portion that felt too little is being technology more positively than do biennial survey of public perceptions spent on education increased from 60 Western Europeans. of science and technology, U.S. percent to 71 percent between 1985 and 1990.

Senior Foundation and Board Officials, Fiscal Year 1991

Thomas B. Day, Vice-Chairman, National Science Board

47

Appendix A

NSF Senior Staff and National Science Board IVIembers (FY 1991)

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION SENIOR STAFF

(as of September 30, 1991)*

Director, Director, Office of Information Systems, Assistant Director for Engineering, Walter E. Massey Constance K. McLindon Joseph Bordogna

Deputy Director, Director, Office of Science and Assistant Director for Geosciences, Frederick M. Bemthal Technology Infrastructure, Robert W. Corell Nathaniel Pitts General Counsel, Assistant Director for Mathematical Charles H. Herz Assistant Director for Biological, and Physical Sciences, Behavioral, and Social Sciences, David A. Sanchez Mary E. Clutter Director, Office of Legislative and Public Affairs, Assistant Director for Scientific, Raymond E. Bye, Jr. Assistant Director for Computer and Technological, and International Information Science and Affairs, (Acting) Engineering, (Acting) Kurt G. Sandved Controller, Office of Budget Charles N. Brownstein and Control, Sandra D. Toye Assistant Director for Administration, Assistant Director for Education Geoffrey M. Fenstermacher and Human Resources, Luther S. Williams

• NSF was reorganized in the early part of fiscal 1992. That reorganization affected several of the offices listed above.

49 NATIONAL SCIENCE BOARD (as of September 30, 1991)

Terms Expire May 10, JOHN C. HANCOCK, Terms Expire May 10, 1992 Retired Executive Vice President, 1994 United Telecommunications, Inc., Consultant, FREDERICK P. BROOKS, JR., Kansas City, MO WARREN J. BAKER, Kenan Professor of Computer President, Califomia Polytechnic State University, Science, JAMES L. POWELL, San Luis Obispo, CA University of Nortli Carolina, Chief Executive Officer, Chapel Hill, NC The Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, PA ARDEN L. BEMENT, Jr., F. ALBERT COTTON, Vice President, Science W.T. Doherty-Welch Foundation and Technology, FRANK H. T. RHODES, TRW, Inc., Distinguished Professor of President, Cornell University, Cleveland, OH Chemistry and Director, Ithaca, NY Laboratop/ for Molecular Structure and Bonding, W. GLENN CAMPBELL, Texas A&M University, (2 Vacancies as of 9-30-91) Counselor, Hoover Institution, College Station, TX Stanford University, Stanford, CA MARY L. GOOD, (Chairman, National Science Board), DANIEL C. DRUCKER, Senior Vice President, Technology, Graduate Research Professor, Allied-Signal Corporation, Inc., Department of Aerospace Morristown, NJ Engineering, Mechanics and Engineering Science, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL

50 CHARLES L. HOSLER, Terms Expire May 10, MARYE ANNE FOX, Senior Vice President for Researcfi 1996 Rowland Pettit Centennial and Dean of Graduate Scliool, Professor of Chemistry and Director, Pennsylvania State University, Center for Fast Kinetics Research, University Park, PA PERRY L. ADKISSON, Department of Chemistry, Chancellor Emeritus and Regents University of Texas, Professor, Austin, TX PETER H. RAVEN, Department of Entomology, Director, Texas A&M University, Missouri Botanical Garden, PHILUP A. GRIFFITHS, College Station, TK St. I^uis, MO Director, Institute for Advanced Study, BERNARD F. BURKE, Princeton, NJ ROLAND w. scHMrrr, William A. M. Burden Professor President, of Astrophysics, JAIME OAXACA, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Massachusetts Institute Vice Chairman, Troy, NY of Technology, Coronado Communications Cambridge, MA Corporation, BENJAMIN S. SHEN, Los Angeles, CA Reese W. Flower Professor THOMAS B. DAY, of Astronomy, (Vice Chairman, National HOWARD E. SIMMONS, JR., Department of Astronomy Science Board), Vice President for Central Research and Astrophysics, President, and Development, University of Pennsylvania, San Diego State University, E. I. DuPont DeNemours & Co., Philadelphia, PA San Diego, CA Wilmington, DE

JAMES J. DUDERSTADT, Member Ex Officio President, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI WALTER E. MASSEY (Chairman, Executive Committee), Director, National Science Foundation, Washington, DC

LINDA G. SUNDRO, THOMAS UBOIS, Inspector General, Executive Officer, National Science Foundation, National Science Board, Washington, DC National Science Foundation, Washington, DC

51 Appendix B

Patents a^u Fiscal Yean 991

Patents and Inventions Resulting from NSF Support:

During fiscal year 1991, the Foundation received 218 invention disclosures. Allocations of rights to 124 of those inventions were made by September 30,1991. These resulted in dedication to the public through publication in 29 cases, retention of principal patent rights by the grantee or inven­ tor in 90 instances, and transfer to other Govemment agencies in 5 cases. Licenses were received by the Foundation in 42 patent applications filed by grantees and contractors who retained principal rights in their inventions.

Financial Tables:

(DOLLARS IN MILLIONS) m Number of c 0) Molecular and Cellular Biosciences 891 $ 76.74 o Integrative Biology and Neuroscience 998 72.36 Environmental Biology 678 68.33 Biological Instrumentation and Resources 217 37.72

Total 2,784 $255.15

SOURCE: Fiscal Year 1993Justification of Estimates of Appropriation to the Congress. (DOLLARS IN MILLIONS)

Number of Awards Amount

Computer and Computation Research 348 $ 31.32 Information, Robotics and Intelligent Systems 335 23.59 Microelectronic Information Processing Systems 206 18.53 Advanced Scientific Computing 69 66.51 Networking and Communications 189 29.80 Research and Infrastructure Cross-Disciplinary Activities 132 19.76

Total 1,279 $189.51

(DOLLARS IN MILLIONS)

Number of Awards

Biological and Critical Systems 471 $ 36.02 Chemical and Thermal Systems 484 32.98 Electrical and Communications Systems 481 31.85 Mechanical and Structural Systems 397 23.43 Design and Manufacturing Systems 302 20.54 Engineering Education and Centers 248 70.06 Industrial Innovation Interface 253 22.78

Total 2,636 $237.66 (0 c m

53 (DOLLARS IN MILLIONS)

Number of Awards Amount

Atmospheric Sciences 679 $117.35 (0 Earth Sciences 745 70.84 0 o Ocean Sciences 931 164.63 c Arctic Research Program 143 14.89 0) o Total 2,498 $367.71 (0 o ft))))

(DOLLARS IN MILLIONS)

Number of Awards Amount

C Mathematical Sciences 1,424 $73.15 (0 Astronomical Sciences 358 99.60 m Physics 668 130.05 Chemistry 1,240 104.71 Co 0 Materials Research 998 134.14 Major Research Equipment 3 22.50 E o 0 c CD Subtotal 4,691 $564.15 "cS o E CO Green Bank W. Va. Telescope 1 69.58

0) 'cn Total 4,692 $633.73

54 (DOLLARS IN MILLIONS)

Number of Awards Amount

Social and Economic Science 590 $ 35.94 Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences 399 20.66 Intemational Cooperative Scientific Activities 563 12.76 Science Resources Studies 140 9.86

Totiil 1,692 $79.22

*New directorate created late 1991

(DOLLARS IN MILLIONS)

Number of Awards Amount

Systemic Reform 12 $ 16.41 Elementary and Secondary Education 787 149.04 Undergraduate Education 832 52.36 Graduate Education and Research Development 244 43.99 Human Resource Development 67 34.56 Research, Evaluation and Dissemination 106 25.60

Total 2,048 $321.96

NOTE: This table displays NSF's proposed new organizational structure for the Education and Human Resources directorate, as reported in the FY 1993 Budget Justifications to the Congress.

55 (DOLLARS IN MILLIONS) OT

S E Number of OT g Awards Amount si U.S. Antarctic Research Activities 249 $100.12 U.S. Antarctic Logistics Support 6 74.95

00 o Total 255 $175.07 m

S ^

(0

(5 OS (DOLLARS IN MILLIONS) Number of ^ i O 3 Research Facilities Modemization 78 $ 39.02

Total 78 $ 39.02 •D.11= ^ -n

56 (DOLLARS IN MILLIONS)

Number of Awards Amount

Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) 45 $ 9.95

Total 45 $ 9.95

NOTE: FY 1991 and FY 1992: EPSCoR funded from the Research and Related Activities appropriation. In FY 1993 EPSCoR will be funded through the Education and Human Resources activity. The Antarctic Journal of the United States, established in 1966, is published quarterly (IVIarch, June, September, and December) with a fifth annua! review issue by the Divi­ sion of Polar Programs of the National Science Foundation. The Journal reports on U.S. activities in Antarctica and related activities elsewhere, and on trends in the U.S. Antarctic Research Program. For a cur­ rent review of U.S. antarctic activities, use the form on this card.

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