BEYOND THE MOLECULAR FRONTIER
CHALLENGES FOR CHEMISTRY AND CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C.
www.nap.edu
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
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NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
Support for this study was provided by the National Research Council, the U.S. Department of Energy (DE-AT-01-EE41424, BES DE-FG-02-00ER15040, and DE-AT01-03ER15386), the National Science Foundation (CTS-9908440), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DOD MDA972-01-M-0001), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (R82823301), the American Chemical Society, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Camille and henry Dryfus Foundation (SG00-093), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NA1341-01-2-1070 and 43NANB010995), the National Institutes of Health (NCI-N01-OD-4-2139 and NIGMS-N01-OD-4-2139), and the chemical industry.
All opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for this project.
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Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering, and Medicine
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COMMITTEE ON CHALLENGES FOR THE CHEMICAL SCIENCES IN THE 21ST CENTURY
RONALD BRESLOW,
Columbia University,
Co-Chair
MATTHEW V. TIRRELL,
University of California, Santa Barbara,
Co-Chair
JACQUELINE K. BARTON,
California Institute of Technology
MARK A. BARTEAU,
University of Delaware
CAROLYN R. BERTOZZI,
University of California, Berkeley
ROBERT A. BROWN,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
ALICE P. GAST,1
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
IGNACIO E. GROSSMANN,
Carnegie Mellon University
JAMES M. MEYER,2
E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co.
ROYCE W. MURRAY,
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
PAUL J. REIDER,
Amgen, Inc.
WILLIAM R. ROUSH,
University of Michigan
MICHAEL L. SHULER,
Cornell University
JEFFREY J. SIIROLA,
Eastman Chemical Company
GEORGE M. WHITESIDES,
Harvard University
PETER G. WOLYNES,
University of California, San Diego
RICHARD N. ZARE,
Stanford University
Staff
JENNIFER J. JACKIW, Program Officer
CHRISTOPHER K. MURPHY, Program Officer
RUTH MCDIARMID, Program Officer
SYBIL A. PAIGE, Administrative Associate
DOUGLAS J. RABER, Senior Scholar
DAVID C. RASMUSSEN, Program Assistant
DOROTHY ZOLANDZ, Director,
BCST
BOARD ON CHEMICAL SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY
ALICE P. GAST,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Co-Chair
WILLIAM KLEMPERER,
Harvard University,
Co-Chair
ARTHUR I. BIENENSTOCK,
Stanford University
A. WELFORD CASTLEMAN, JR.,
The Pennsylvania State University
ANDREA W. CHOW,
Caliper Technologies Corp.
THOMAS M. CONNELLY, JR.,
E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co.
JEAN DE GRAEVE,
Institut de Pathologie, Liège, Belgium
JOSEPH M. DESIMONE,
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and North Carolina State University
CATHERINE FENSELAU,
University of Maryland
JON FRANKLIN,
University of Maryland
MARY L. GOOD,
University of Arkansas, Little Rock
RICHARD M. GROSS,
Dow Chemical Company
NANCY B. JACKSON,
Sandia National Laboratories
SANGTAE KIM,
Eli Lilly and Company
THOMAS J. MEYER,
Los Alamos National Laboratory
PAUL J. REIDER,
Amgen, Inc.
ARNOLD F. STANCELL,
Georgia Institute of Technology
ROBERT M. SUSSMAN,
Latham & Watkins
JOHN C. TULLY,
Yale University
CHI-HUEY WONG,
Scripps Research Institute
Staff
JENNIFER J. JACKIW, Program Officer
CHRISTOPHER K. MURPHY, Program Officer
RUTH MCDIARMID, Program Officer
SYBIL A. PAIGE, Administrative Associate
DOUGLAS J. RABER, Senior Scholar
DAVID C. RASMUSSEN, Program Assistant
DOROTHY ZOLANDZ, Director
Preface
At the start of this project, the Committee solicited input from the chemical sciences community. The request for input was sent via e-mail to a large number of scientists and engineers, and a general request for information appeared in Chemical & Engineering News.1 The committee received many valuable ideas in response to these requests. Additional input from the broader community was obtained as the committee wrote this report, when individual members of the committee consulted with their colleagues to obtain specific and detailed technical input. The committee is pleased to acknowledge all these contributors; a listing of their names and affiliations is presented in Appendix C.
This study was conducted under the auspices of the National Research Council’s Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology with assistance provided by its staff. The committee also acknowledges this support.
Ronald Breslow and Matthew V. Tirrell Co-Chairs
Committee on Challenges for the Chemical Sciences in the 21st Century
Acknowledgment of Reviewers
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the NRC’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report:
Richard C. Alkire, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
John L. Anderson, Carnegie Mellon University
John A. Armstrong, IBM
Edwin A. Chandross, Bell Laboratories
Pablo G. Debenedetti, Princeton University
Louis C. Glasgow, DuPont Company
Louis L. Hegedus, ATOFINA Chemicals, Incorporated
Nancy B. Jackson, Sandia National Laboratories
William Klemperer, Harvard University
Tobin J. Marks, Northwestern University
Kathlyn A. Parker, SUNY, Stony Brook
Michael P. Ramage, Exxon-Mobil (retired)
Martin Saunders, Yale University
Randy Schekman, University of California, Berkeley
Gabor A. Somorjai, University of California, Berkeley
Karl K. Turekian, Yale University
Paul S. Weiss, The Pennsylvania State University
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Pierre C. Hohenberg, Yale University, and R. Stephen Berry, University of Chicago. Appointed by the National Research Council, they were responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.