These are tough times for any programs that are funded by the U.S. government. Last summer I was contacted by NSF for some clarifications on my proposal, which I provided and resulted in the program manager's approval. In my experience, official notification to our university about an award comes no more than a few weeks after this first contact. In this case, we heard nothing for months.
While on an NSF panel in the fall semester, I visited with the program manager to inquire about the disposition of my proposal. He told me that the paperwork had been signed and that the documents "were on the Directors desk" awaiting final signatures. However, congressional battles on funding to NSF put proposals on hold until a resolution was in sight.
I was getting concerned that this proposal would never be funded. However, a couple weeks ago I was contacted by an accountant with questions about a budget issue. It took only a few emails to resolve the issue, so again, I waited. While I have not received official word in the form of a binding award letter, the NSF website now shows my proposal as "awarded." The reviews are also posted.
Excerpts from the panel summary follow.
Objective: The objective of this program is to invent new approaches for manipulating quantum systems in a way that enhances their nonlinear-optical response.
Intellectual Merit:
The intellectual merit of this proposal is very high and may lead to discovery of universal properties that will enable optimization of materials for a given task, such as nonlinear optical response. The PI's approach is to use sum rules in conjunction with numerical optimization and Monte Carlo studies to broadly understand those issues that are most important in making an optimized material. This will include development of fundamental quantum mechanical concepts that build an understanding of the performance limit of optical materials and practical methods for attaining the limit. The knowledge will guide chemists and nanotechnologists in designing new materials and nanostrucutures. The PI is very well qualified to carry out the proposed research. If successful, the proposed effort will lead to transformative paradigms enabling physicists and materials scientists to synthesize novel functional materials and to generate novel photonic devices.
Broader Impacts:
This proposal has the potential to make transformative advancements in the development of novel materials for photonic applications. The fundamental knowledge will serve as a guide in optimizing a material for a given task, such as nonlinear optical response. The work applies to any system based on the interaction between light and matter including molecules, inorganic materials, nanoparticles, smart materials, nanowires, etc. Education and outreach efforts are very strong and will broaden participation of Native American and under-represented groups and undergraduate students in the research program. The PI also plans to promote undergraduate participation and interaction with high school students through online interactive resources. Numerical codes that will be developed as part of the program work will be distributed over the web so that students can participate in research.
Summary:
The panel considers this is an excellent proposal with strong technical and education components. If successful the research will have a transformative impact on development of fundamental quantum mechanical concepts to synthesize novel functional materials.
Reviewer Ratings: E, E, V,
Panel Recommendation:
The proposal was placed in the Highly Recommended [HR]] category by the panel. The Program Directors concur with the panel opinion as expressed in the panel summary with respect to both the Intellectual Merit and the Broader Impacts criteria.
Showing posts with label first continental congress. Show all posts
Showing posts with label first continental congress. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Tavel and Context
The flip side of getting research funding is the requirement to attend yearly meetings to update the funding agencies on progress made in meeting milestones. I am sitting in my hotel room in Washington DC this morning getting ready for my presentation. I arrived last night at about midnight and I head back to the airport after I give my talk in the early afternoon.
I am reminded of the many quick work trips that I take to all kinds of neat places. But usually, all that I see is my hotel room, the conference room, and the road between the hotel and the airport. Each geographic location offers unique vistas and local culture (or lack thereof). But, in addressing the deepest questions, to me, sightseeing and travel provide only the most shallow returns.
An itinerary that highlights places that spawned ideas that changed civilization would be much more interesting to me. It would be awe-inspiring to see the simple objects used by Cavendish to do his famous experiments or to view Galileo's crude telescope in the natural setting of the Italian countryside, where his observations yielded insights into the true nature of the universe, overturning centuries of dogma and ignorance.
I would like to revisit the meeting room of the first continental congress, where the new paradigm of self governance took root and changed the world. Having recently read the biographies on James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams, a visit to the birthplace of their great ideas would now be more meaningful to me.
While the site of the ruins in Rome were deeply moving based on the human ingenuity and appreciation for beauty that they exemplify, I found that the experience would have been more fulfilling had there been a broader intellectual context. Similarly, the Vatican and Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris are magnificent, and the fact that all those people labored for so many years to express their faith may be admirable, but I found the structures to be akin to beautiful facades harboring emptiness.
Events and places are meaningful to me only when there is an intellectual context. Contrast the zombie feeding coins into a slot machine for hours on end with the experience of understanding a deep idea for the first time. When I first took Quantum Field Theory, I recall the thrill of seeing the connection between fields and particles and how so many laws of physics arise from a variational approach (i.e. nature acts in a way that minimizes or optimizes a quantity). When struggling with my attempts to understand the fundamental limits of the nonlinear susceptibility, I recall the final stretch of my frenzied derivations with fondness: a beautifully-simple equation crystallized into its final elegant from out of a huge mess of mathematics. In that moment, I understood something new to the world for the first time.
Learning is characterized by long periods of drudgery, punctuated with the occasional elation of understanding. Similarly, humanity evolves through long cycles of stasis that are interrupted with abrupt paradigm shifts, which change the course of civilization. If I am forced to travel, my preference is to visit those places that produced singular moments that led to revolutions in thought.
I am reminded of the many quick work trips that I take to all kinds of neat places. But usually, all that I see is my hotel room, the conference room, and the road between the hotel and the airport. Each geographic location offers unique vistas and local culture (or lack thereof). But, in addressing the deepest questions, to me, sightseeing and travel provide only the most shallow returns.
An itinerary that highlights places that spawned ideas that changed civilization would be much more interesting to me. It would be awe-inspiring to see the simple objects used by Cavendish to do his famous experiments or to view Galileo's crude telescope in the natural setting of the Italian countryside, where his observations yielded insights into the true nature of the universe, overturning centuries of dogma and ignorance.
I would like to revisit the meeting room of the first continental congress, where the new paradigm of self governance took root and changed the world. Having recently read the biographies on James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams, a visit to the birthplace of their great ideas would now be more meaningful to me.
While the site of the ruins in Rome were deeply moving based on the human ingenuity and appreciation for beauty that they exemplify, I found that the experience would have been more fulfilling had there been a broader intellectual context. Similarly, the Vatican and Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris are magnificent, and the fact that all those people labored for so many years to express their faith may be admirable, but I found the structures to be akin to beautiful facades harboring emptiness.
Events and places are meaningful to me only when there is an intellectual context. Contrast the zombie feeding coins into a slot machine for hours on end with the experience of understanding a deep idea for the first time. When I first took Quantum Field Theory, I recall the thrill of seeing the connection between fields and particles and how so many laws of physics arise from a variational approach (i.e. nature acts in a way that minimizes or optimizes a quantity). When struggling with my attempts to understand the fundamental limits of the nonlinear susceptibility, I recall the final stretch of my frenzied derivations with fondness: a beautifully-simple equation crystallized into its final elegant from out of a huge mess of mathematics. In that moment, I understood something new to the world for the first time.
Learning is characterized by long periods of drudgery, punctuated with the occasional elation of understanding. Similarly, humanity evolves through long cycles of stasis that are interrupted with abrupt paradigm shifts, which change the course of civilization. If I am forced to travel, my preference is to visit those places that produced singular moments that led to revolutions in thought.
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