FY 2011 Budget Request Mathematical and Physical Sciences

1. FY 2011 Budget RequestMathematical and Physical Sciences Edward Seidel Acting Assistant Director, MPS February 1, 2010

2. MPS FY 2011 Budget Request Highlights MPS request: $1.41B + 4.3% (+ $58.07M) MPS Budget Request Reflects NSF Priorities: • Support innovation in healthy core programs • Advance a strong scientific and technical workforce (CAREER, Postdoc, GRF, REU) • Invest in research addressing national priorities • Support center activity • Invest in facilities

3. MPS FY 2011 Budget Request Discovery +6.7% Average annualized increase 5%

4. MPS FY 2009 ARRA $490M total investment in MPS R&RA + $146M MREFC • Research and Education grants - $402M • Close to 400 new PIs • 85 CAREER awards • Major investments in GRF, REU, post-doc programs • Over 70 energy and over 25 climate awards • Facilities and Instrumentation support - $88M • 10 MPS-supported user facilities received funding, for operations, maintenance, safety upgrades, saving jobs • Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST) • $146M in MREFC construction • Tremendous boost for solar astronomy

5. MPS Core Programs • Support researchers to investigate • Structure/evolution of the universe, fundamental particles, processes of matter • Behavior and control of molecules at nanoscale, complexity of their chemical interactions in materials and life processes • New mathematical structures and theories, connections to computation, experiment, observation • Fundamental for advances in all science, medicine, industry, technology

6. Fundamental Science! What is the origin of life? Artificial Cells: Jack Szostak (2009 Nobel Prize) is developing a simple protocell composed of a self-replicating genetic polymer and a self-replicating membrane compartment. Understanding surfaces: Recent breakthroughs in Ricci flow, used to understand surfaces, have applications from the Poincaré conjecture to shape matching algorithms.

7. Science and Engineering Beyond Moore’s Law (SEBML)Fundamental Research for Economic Competitiveness Goal: Position U.S. at the forefront of communications and computation capability beyond the physical and conceptual limitations of current technologies SEBML request $32M: + 72% (+$13.5M) Quantum Information Science. Quantum information is fragile and susceptible to loss. Recent progress in electron spin quantum memory improved robustness by controlling interactions with nuclear spins in diamond. • Materials for ultra-fast computing: Graphene materials could lead to microchips that operate at much higher speeds than is possible with today's standard silicon chips.

8. Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability (SEES) MPS is partnering with other NSF Directorates to invest in climate and energy research • Energy • Energy Storage • New battery materials could “charge in seconds” • SOLAR program • Novel earth-abundant materials for solar energy harvesting, creating efficient solar cells • Efficient materials for direct conversion of photons into hydrogen via water electrolysis • Climate • New algorithms improve atmospheric and ocean simulations with parameterized uncertainties in physical processes, which typically hamper climate change predictions SEES request: $110.50 M

9. CAREER request: + 5.8% (+$2.76M) CAREER and GRF GRF request: + 61% (+$2.51M) Investing in the next generation of the S&T workforce is an NSF priority MPS invests heavily in CAREER (25% of all NSF CAREER funds). CAREER awardees • Address important science issues: optical studies of quantum dots, materials for next generation electronic devices, gamma-ray bursts, algorithms for photochemical processes in DNA • Impact in outreach and education. Innovative university curricula, outreach efforts to schools and MSIs MPS has requested a large increase for Graduate Research Fellowships (GRF)

10. MPS Funding for CentersTwo center programs expanded MRSEC request $63M: + 11% (+$6.3M) CCI request $28M: + 17% (+$4M) Centers for Chemical Innovation (CCI) Conversion of methane gas, for example to liquid methanol, would make it useful as a fuel. Enabling such processes has been a grand challenge problem for decades. Center for Enabling New Technologies Through Catalysis (CENTC) Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSEC) Batteries that charge in seconds! CMSE brings together experts in theory, simulation, materials synthesis, and process engineering. “High rate” materials will be valuable in everything from rapidly charging cell phones to hybrid vehicles. MIT Center for Materials Science and Engineering

11. MPS Funding for Facilities Coalescing Black Holes! LIGO

12. Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) • Will be the world’s most advanced radio telescope: unprecedented sensitivity, angular resolution • Premier tool to study the first galaxies (~500 Myr after the Big Bang) in the universe, whose light has been stretched to sub-millimeter wavelength • Three telescopes already operating; 16 by 2011; over 5 dozen when complete by late 2012

13. $1.41B budget requested for FY 2011 for MPS • Sustaining research in fundamental science • AST, CHE, DMR, DMS, PHY • Supporting young researchers • REU to CAREER • Investing in national priorities • SEBML, SEES

14. Thank You

15. Backup Slides

16. MPS FY 2011 Budget Request Discovery +6.7%

17. Backup Slides Annualized average increase: 5%

18. MPS contributions to Presidential Initiatives and NSF Investments

19. MPS Funding for Centers

20. MPS Funding for Facilities