BPA NEWS Board on Physics and Astronomy • National Research Council • Washington, DC • 202-334-3520 • www.nas.edu/bpa • December 1998 als: How Science Improves our Lives, is industries. The years ahead promise Condensed-Matter and based on a workshop that the Committee equally dramatic advances, making this Materials Physics held in July, 1996. Copies are available an era of great scientific excitement for from the BPA office ([email protected]) and research in the field. Communicating by Venkatesh Narayanamurti, the report can be found on the web at this excitement and ensuring further Chair, Committee on Condensed- www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/ progress are the main goals of the Matter and Materials Physics physics/. CMMP report. The full report of the Committee Over the decade since the last major chair the Committee on Condensed- contains recommendations aimed at assessment of the field, important I Matter and Materials Physics continuing progress in the field. To be results and discoveries have come (CCMMP), which was commissioned by published early next year, the report will rapidly and often in unexpected ways. the Board on Physics and Astronomy to be the centerpiece of the Solid State These advances range from develop- prepare a volume on this field for the Sciences Committee Forum that will be ment of new experimental tools for survey Physics in a New Era. Our Com- held on February 16-17 in Washington atomic-scale manipulation and visual- mittee recently completed its report, and DC. [See the following article.] ization, to creation of new synthetic this article is based on its executive sum- Condensed matter and materials materials (such as bucky balls and high- mary. physics (CMMP) plays a central role in temperature superconductors), to In addition to myself, membership of many of the scientific and technological discovery of new physical phenomena the Committee included James B. advances that have changed our lives so such as giant magnetoresistance and Roberto, Gabriel Aeppli, Arthur dramatically in the last fifty years. the fractional quantum Hall effect. Bienenstock (who left the Committee to CMMP gave birth to the transistor, the An enormous increase in computing take up the position of Associate Director integrated circuit, the laser, and low- power has yielded qualitative changes in for Science at the Office of Science and loss optical fibers so important to the visualization and simulation of complex Technology Policy), J. Murray Gibson, modern computer and communication See “Condensed-Matter Physics” on Page 2 Steven Girvin, Mark Ketchen, Edward Kramer, James S. Langer, Cherry A. Murray, V. Adrian Parsegian, Paul S. Solid State Sciences Committee Plans Forum Peercy, Julia M. Phillips, Robert C. SSSC Forum to Feature Condensed-Matter and Materials Richardson, Frans Spaepen, and Katepalli Report at February, 1999 Gathering R. Sreenivasan. The CCMMP has already published a VERY few years the Solid State Sci- Materials Physics. CCMMP Chair pamphlet that describes some of the Eences Committee holds a forum in Venkatesh Narayanamurti will give an forefront areas of the field in language Washington for discussion and informa- overview of the report and its conclusions accessible to a broad audience. The tion exchange among researchers and and recommendations in the second pamphlet, entitled The Physics of Materi- policy makers. Forum participants in- session. Also included in this session will clude leaders from academia, industry, be perspectives of industry, universities, government laboratories, federal agen- and government laboratories. In this issue: cies, and the Congress. The 1999 Forum, The third session will address materi- to be held February 16–17 at the National als education and infrastructure as well as • Condensed-Matter and Academy of Sciences in Washington, will the challenge of providing facilities at all Materials Physics. Page 1 be entitled Materials in a New Era. scales. A member of Congress has been The final session will provide a vision • SSSC Forum. See article on invited to present the keynote address in of the scientific frontier, including an Page 1, Agenda on Page 4, and the opening session. In the first session, outlook for fullerene research presented tear-out Registration Form on agency leaders such as Martha Krebs, by Nobelist Richard Smalley of Rice Director of the newly-renamed DOE University. Page 5. Office of Science, will discuss the R&D For more details, see page 4. If you • Novel Quantum Phenomena. outlook from the point of view of the would like to attend, please return the Page 3 federal agencies. registration form on pages 5-6 of this The main focus of the forum will be newsletter as soon as possible. For the • Nuclear Physics. Page 9 the recently-completed report of the latest on plans for the forum, see the SSSC Committee on Condensed-Matter and web page, http://www.nas.edu/bpa/sssc.n 2 BPA News • December 1998 Condensed-Matter Physics (cont.) larly at the boundaries of disciplines, and to prepare flexible and adaptable physi- Board on Physics and Astronomy phenomena in large-scale many-atom cists for the future. systems. Progress in synthesis, visual- •Developing new modes of coopera- Robert C. Dynes, Chair ization, manipulation, and computation tion among universities, colleges, gov- University of California, San Diego will continue to impact many areas of ernment laboratories and industry to Robert C. Richardson, Vice Chair research spanning ensure the connectivity of the field with Cornell University different length scales needs of society and to preserve the fertile Steven Chu from atomic to macro- Research Themes in innovative climate of Stanford University scopic. Strong impact CMMP may also be expected in major industrial labora- Val Fitch · The quantum mechanics tories which have played Princeton University “soft” condensed- matter physics, particu- of large, interacting a dominant role in Ivar Giaever larly at the interfaces systems. CMMP research. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with biology and chem- · The structure and proper- The different modes Richard D. Hazeltine istry. ties of materials at re- of research—benchtop experiments, larger University of Texas at Austin The priorities of duced dimensionality. society are shifting from · collaborations, and so John Huchra Materials with increasing on—are evolving Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics military security to levels of compositional, economic well-being steadily. The work that John C. Mather structural, and functional and health. Changing is carried on in these NASA Goddard Space Flight Center complexity. varied venues is com- societal priorities, in · R. G. Hamish Robertson turn, create shifting Nonequilibrium processes plex and diverse, and University of Washington demands on CMMP. and the relationship the Committee has paid special attention to Joseph H. Taylor, Jr. Among these growing between molecular and Princeton University demands are improving mesoscopic properties. describing the fore- public understanding of · Soft condensed matter fronts of research in Kathleen C. Taylor terms of a small number General Motors R&D Center science, better educa- and the physics of large of research themes. tion of scientists and molecules, including J. Anthony Tyson engineers for today’s These themes, listed in Lucent Technologies biological structures. employment market- the box at the left, are · Controlling electrons and George M. Whitesides place, and making new discussed in some detail Harvard University contributions to the photons in solids on the in the Overview and nation’s industrial atomic scale. reappear in each of the NRC Staff · competitiveness. Understanding magne- chapters of the report. Dr. Donald C. Shapero, Director The key challenges tism and superconductiv- One of the themes Dr. Robert L. Riemer, Associate Director facing condensed- that has captured the Dr. Kevin Aylesworth, Program Officer ity. matter and materials · Properties of materials imagination of theorists Dr. Joel Parriott, Program Associate and experimenters alike Grace Wang, Project Associate physics are: under extreme conditions. •Nurturing the · is the structure and Materials synthesis, properties of materials intellectual vitality of processing, and the field—particularly at reduced dimensional- nanofabrication. ity—for example, in the facilitation of the · The Board on Physics and Astronomy is a research of individual Moving from empiricism planar structures. continuing interdisciplinary body with expertise investigators and small toward predictability in Large-scale integrated spanning the various subfields of physics, teams in areas that cross the simulation of materi- circuits depend on astronomy, and astrophysics. It serves as a focal disciplinary boundaries. als properties and pro- understanding the point in the National Research Council for issues behavior of semicon- connected with these fields. The activities of the •Providing the facili- cesses. Board are supported by funds from the National ties infrastructure for ductors in such configu- Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the research—for example, creation of rations, so the potential Department of Defense, the National Aeronautics laboratory-scale microcharacterization for impact is apparent. and Space Administration, the National Institute of facilities at universities and large-scale A number of actions are required to Standards and Technology, and private and other maintain and enhance the productivity of sources. facilities at