Controlling the Quantum World The Science of Atoms, Molecules, and Photons (2007) / Chapter Skim
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8 Realizing the Future
8 Realizing the Future
Pages 170-192
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From page 170... ...
the future for this field is enormously promising, both as an engine of fundamental discovery and as a generator of essential technologies that foster progress in other disciplines and in industry. indeed, in the 12 years that have elapsed since the last decadal survey of AMo science,1 15 Nobel prizes have been awarded to researchers in this field.2 AMo science and technology is in a period of remarkable productivity and importance.
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From page 171... ...
this judgment on the importance of S&t to our overall national security (broadly defined) has been asserted many times over the years in a number of major reports,5 3the committee prepared a questionnaire for the federal agencies that support AMo research in order to collect information on the current trends in AMo science, personnel, training, and funding.
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From page 172... ...
4. Other parts of DOE and NSF support AMO science also.
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From page 173... ...
realiZing future the knowledge-intensive jobs and the innovative enterprises that lead to discovery and new technology, our economy will suffer and our people will face a lower standard of living. Economic studies conducted before the information-technology revolu tion have shown that even then as much as 85 percent of measured growth in U.S.
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From page 174... ...
Agency budgets are simply not rising fast enough to keep up. While federal spending for AMo science has seen some real growth (see table 8-1 and Appendix B)
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MAINTAINING U.S. LEADERSHIP IN A CRITICAL AREA OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY countries around the world recognize the enormous value of AMo science and technology.
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From page 176... ...
AMo science has benefited greatly from the influx of talented foreign-born students. Now that there are excellent opportunities for these talented people in their home countries, they are either staying there to start with or training in the United States and then returning home.
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From page 177... ...
realiZing future the 25,000 20,000 Total NS&E*
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From page 178... ...
How will our country maintain its scientific leadership in AMo science and technologies and in other S&t areas, too, in the face of these budgetary and personnel pressures? clearly it is a matter of strategic national importance.
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From page 179... ...
the committee prepared a questionnaire for the federal agencies that support AMo research in order to collect information on the current trends in AMo science, personnel, training, and funding.13 in addition to those agencies the committee polled, there are other federal agencies that support research in AMo science. For example, at NiH AMo science plays a substantial interdisciplinary role in programs within the National institute for General Medical Sciences and the National institute for Biomedical imaging and Bioengineering, but there is no grants program specific to AMo efforts.
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From page 180... ...
. the AMo research profiles of federal agencies have shifted to newer areas such as intense field and ultrafast x-ray science, cooperative phenomena, ultracold atoms and molecules, precision measurements, nanoscale science, and quantum optics.
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From page 181... ...
in any discipline where the frontiers are traversed so rapidly, theoretical research is essential -- not only to understand what has been observed but also to predict what might be seen next and thereby guide future work. this is especially true in AMo science, where researchers are developing and pursuing dramatic new areas such as ultra-high-field physics, the physics of "sparse" condensed matter systems, the study of the fundamentals of quantum mechanics, and the frontiers of quantum information.
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From page 182... ...
NSF also supports critically important work at the institute for theoretical Atomic, Molecu lar and optical Physics (itAMP) , although this funding level has also not increased over the last decade.
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From page 183... ...
owing also to the high degree of multidisciplinary work supported, it is difficult to estimate accurately the funding available each year to AMo science from the DoD agencies, especially at DARPA. From the data gathered for this study, an estimate is $45 million per year -- but with a significant uncertainty on this number.
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From page 184... ...
today there is significant interest in the industrial sector in laser physics across an enormous range of activity, but this interest is focused almost entirely on commercial R&D development and hardly at all on fundamen tal physics. A possible exception is in quantum information science and quantum computing, where companies like iBM and Microsoft have very active research programs in laser physics, condensed matter physics, and other areas germane to those topics.
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From page 185... ...
indicate that over the last decade the United States produced about 1,200 Ph.D.s in physics and astronomy each year, of whom about 200 were in AMo science. this number is exceeded only by the condensed matter physics community.
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From page 186... ...
. these include several synchrotron light sources operated by Doe/BeS -- the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne, the Advanced Light Source at Berkeley, the National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven, and the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory -- as well as several others at universities.
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From page 187... ...
or that are essentially the equal of U.S. facilities (such as the synchrotron light sources, laser facilities, and free-electron lasers)
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From page 188... ...
Following the model of the Max-Planck Institutes in Germany, and in particular the Max-Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching (an equally outstanding institute) , the institute's goal is to secure a leading role for Austrian science in the fields of quantum optics and quantum information.
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From page 189... ...
This trend holds true across all of the subfields of physics, including AMO science. SOURCE: American Physical Society, Publications Office.
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From page 190... ...
• In view of its tremendous importance to the national well-being broadly defined -- that is, to our nation's economic strength, health care, defense, education, and domestic security -- an enhanced investment program in research and education in physical science is critical, and such a pro gram will improve the country's ability to capture the benefits of AMO science. • Historically, support for basic research has been a vital component of the nation's defense strategy, making the recent decline in funding for basic research at the defense-related agencies particularly troubling.
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From page 191... ...
NSF plays a critical and leading role in this area, but its support of AMO theoretical physics is insufficient. • AMO science is an enabling component of astrophysics and plasma phys ics but is not adequately supported by the funding agencies charged with responsibility for those areas.
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