NSF RENEWS 9 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CENTERS

May 9, 1995 -- The National Science Foundation has renewed funding for nine
Science and Technology Centers (STCs), a program created in 1989 to
support long-term collaborative research across disciplines and at the
forefront of scientific frontiers. The centers refunded this year are
located in California, Illinois, Oklahoma, New Jersey, New York, Texas,
Virginia, and Washington.

The experimental program has actually changed how participating scientists
and engineers approach research, education, and societal needs. A total of
25 STCs, while covering diverse disciplines from astrophysics to
biotechnology to optics, share a new approach to solving complex problems,
many of which are important to economic progress. They have created
interdisciplinary networks of researchers from the academic world,
national laboratories, and industry, and have stimulated the transfer of
basic research knowledge beyond the laboratory. The centers' educational
programs also bring students to industry and industrial researchers to
universities, spurring the development of new technologies. A sampling of
research and education accomplishments by the refunded centers:

-University of California at Berkeley Center for Particle Astrophysics
 $11,414,760 over five years

A fundamental problem in astrophysics and cosmology is that at least 90
percent of the mass in the universe -- called dark matter -- exists in a
form yet to be discovered. In collaboration with other institutions, the
Berkeley STC has probed the dark-matter halo around our own galaxy,
monitoring the brightness of over 10 million stars each night, and
detecting possible evidence of massive compact astronomical objects
(MACHOs). For such studies of the origin of the world, the center has
brought together pure and applied science, developing advanced sensor
technologies in the process that have potential applications in other
scientific fields, medicine, and industry. These include cryogenic sensors
working at very low temperatures, low-noise receivers, and large format
charge-coupled devices.

-University of California at Santa Barbara
 Center for Quantized -Electronic Structures
 $13,032,600 over five years

Scientists at this center work to make extremely small structures,
following an unconventional approach: using the natural properties of the
materials to let electron boxes assemble themselves. Studies are exploring
how these boxes can be used in optical and other innovative devices. Under
the educational outreach program, center scientists have created
"QUESTboards," colorful hands-on modules for elementary and secondary
students to explore circuits, electron flow, and transistors.

-University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana Center for Superconductivity
 $22,020,600 over five years

A consortium of the University of Illinois at Champaign Urbana, the
University of Chicago, and Northwestern, this STC is the leading
university-based research effort on hightemperature superconductivity and
interacts with every major company in the field. The center has
established U.S. preeminence in several critical areas of fundamental
research, including metal-organicchemical-vapor-deposition growth (a
technique for "growing" highquality, high-temperature superconductivity
films), materials synthesis, and structural and physical measurements.

-University of Oklahoma Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms
 $7,635,952 over five years

Since thunderstorms develop rapidly, predictions -- to be useful -- must be
broadcast 50 to 100 times faster than the weather evolves. The Oklahoma
STC is improving the collection of weather data and developing faster
mathematical models to assess weather in three dimensions, on much finer
scales than before-with the goal of predicting severe weather up to four
hours in advance. The center is testing new techniques with the National
Weather Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's
Storm Prediction Center, and commercial airlines.

-Rice University Center for Research on Parallel Computation
 $22,155,420 over five years

Researchers at Rice University, the California Institute of Technology,
Syracuse University, the University of Tennessee, and Argonne and Los
Alamos National Laboratories have joined to make parallel computer systems
easier to use. By developing innovative programming, software, and
algorithms for highperformance computing, the center is helping to
maintain American competitiveness in this key area. The center also serves
as a resource for teachers at a model elementary school which stresses
dual language study technology, accelerated programs, and collaborative
learning.

-University of Rochester Center for Photoinduced Charge Transfer
 $10,336,200 over five years

The University of Rochester STC, in collaboration with the Eastman Kodak
Company and Xerox Corporation, study charge transfer -- a process central
to chemical-imaging technologies such as photography and xerography, and
also a step in photosynthesis. The links fostered by the center between
students, university researchers, and industrial scientists encourage
research in new basic science relevant to industry. Joint
university-industry patents have been secured, for example, for promising
conducting materials with potential for use in devices.

-Rutgers University
 Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science
 $10,356,440 over five years

The center at Rutgers, in cooperation with Princeton University, AT&T Bell
Laboratories, and Bellcore, pursues research and outreach in areas that
underlie much recent progress in digital computing and communications. The
industrial partners play a key role in directing this center. One research
project that combines basic mathematical research with advanced computing
offers practical results for routing delivery trucks, for example, or
building robotic machines. Another special program targets problems in
molecular biology such as genome sequencing, database methods, protein
folding, and drug discovery. The center's programs are also preparing a
new generation of mathematicians/computer scientists for future leadership
in industry.

-Virginia Polytechnic Institute
 Center for High Performance Adhesives and Composites
 $8,988,000 over five years

Understanding and controlling how long adhesives and composites last is a
major focus of this center. In particular, researchers seek to understand
what happens near the surface when a polymeric resin contacts a metal,
fiber, or other substrate, and how this area of intersection -- the
interphase zone -affects the resulting material's durability, damage
tolerance, and safety. The worldwide printed circuit board industry, worth
$22 billion, has been one target for the center's work in thermoplastic
toughening agents for thermosetting matrix resins. Materials created by
combining the tougheners with cyanate ester monomers show up to
three-foldbetter fracture toughness without compromising some other
important properties. A major electronics firm has picked up the results,
hiring one of the students who worked on the research and recently
introducing a new circuit board that uses cyanate- ester materials.

-University of Washington Center for Molecular Biotechnology
 $16,158,909 over five years

This STC seeks to develop technology for rapid and accurate analysis of
proteins and DNA. The center developed, for example, the first automated
gene sequencer; now, a secondgeneration device has the potential to make
this process five times faster. The center collaborates with industrial
affiliates in DNA diagnostics and sequencing, computational biology,
applications of thermally stable enzymes, mass spectrometry, and more.
Results are commercialized through a collaborative network, the transfer
of new instrumentation, and new biotechnology companies. The center's
extensive educational outreach begins with kindergarten and reaches to
adult public education. Teachers trained by the center have taught
biotechnology labs to more than 15,000 high school students in Los
Angeles.
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