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Committee on Smaller Facilities
The NRC’s Committee on Smaller Facilities (COSF) will carry out a study with task as described below.
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Statement of Task
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The study will review the state of small and mid-sized multi-user facilities within the materials research complex in the United States and will consider methods for optimizing the use of existing resources, including the consideration of structural strategies and actions to provide services more efficiently through the implementation of revenue-neutral solutions. These facilities are recognized as a key feature of materials research, yet there is concern that they are not being optimally developed or utilized and that new opportunities for scientific development are not being properly pursued. Although the study will confine its recommendations to university and national laboratory facilities, it will also examine the operations of materials facilities in the commercial sector and in the international arena.
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Specifically, the study’s task will incorporate the following elements:
- Providing a definition of small and mid-sized multi-user facilities and their role in the materials research complex.
- Collecting data on the usage, costs and structure of smaller facilities and compiling an inventory of small equipment clusters.
- Examining the current models of facility operation and assessing their cost/effectiveness, considering the appropriate metrics for facility success, and assessing criteria for minimal size.
- Exploring alternate methods of instrumentation utilization such as:
- Increasing user groups at small facilities to 10-20 independent investigators.
- Establishing regional centers by identifying equipment appropriate for consolidation into multi-user shared facilities.
- Examining opportunities for instrumentation research in the context of facilities; including the impact of these on science and industry and the determination of the optimal location of instrumentation development activities.
- Assessing the educational role played by small facilities.
- Exploring the need for long-range support models for these facilities.
- Assessing the effect, if any, of the policies and structure of the federal research agencies that support smaller facilities.
- Analyzing the issues from an international perspective.
Committee Membership
The following persons have been appointed (and have accepted) as members of the committee.
- Robert Sinclair, Chair, Stanford University
- Ani Aprahamian, University of Notre Dame
- Arthur I. Bienenstock, Stanford University
- John P. Bradley, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
- David R. Clarke, University of California at Santa Barbara
- James W. Davenport, Brookhaven National Laboratory
- Franics J. DiSalvo, Cornell University
- Charles (Drew) A. Evans, Jr., Consultant
- Walter P. Lowe, Howard University
- Frances M. Ross, IBM T.J. Watson Research Labs
- David J. Smith, Arizona State University
- John M. Soures, University of Rochester
- Leonard Spicer, Duke University
- Don M. Tennant, Lucent Technologies
You may also visit the Current Projects System for more information and brief biographies.
NRC Staff:
Donald C. Shapero, Director, BPA
Timothy I. Meyer, Study Director, tmeyer@nas.edu
Meetings
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Location
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Comments
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May 12-13, 2003
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Keck Center of the National Academies
500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001
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Agenda
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October 11-12, 2003
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McCullough Building
Stanford University
Stanford, CA
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Preliminary Agenda
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March 24, 2004
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American Physical Society Meeting, Montreal Canada
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Town Meeting
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April 15, 2004
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Materials Research Society Meeting, San Francisco, CA
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Town Meeting
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May 22-23, 2004
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Keck Center of the National Academies
500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001
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Agenda
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For details on each meeting and access to public presentations, please visit the Meetings page.
The committee is pleased to acknowledge support from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy.
Final Report
Midsize Facilities: The Infrastructure for Materials Research has been published by the National Academies Press! This is the final report of COSF. If you would like a printed copy of the report please direct your inquiry to bpa@nas.edu.
Dissemination and Outreach
Community Input
COSF will solicit community input for consideration. This will be done through an e-mail call for community input as well as the organization of town meetings at national professional society conferences in the Spring of 2004. Please direct feedback to smallerfac@nas.edu.
Interim Report
COSF released its interim report on March 25, 2004 at the American Physical Society’s March Meeting in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The full interim report is available online for reading. If you would like to comment or send feedback to the committee about its interim report, please direct your remarks to smallerfac@nas.edu.
Questionnaires
Dear Colleague,
The Committee on Smaller Facilities (COSF) was established by the National Research Council (NRC) with the support of both the National Science Foundation and Department of Energy to make recommendations about the challenges and opportunities that small and medium-sized multi-user facilities face in materials research.
A questionnaire for facility managers is available here and a questionnaire for facility users is available here for your response that is designed to gather data on existing smaller facilities. The data will only be used in aggregate or in ways that do not reveal the identity of the responding institutions or individuals. We only ask for identification in case the committee wishes to follow up for clarification.
Please send your responses to the NRC via one of the following methods
E-mail: smallerfac@nas.edu
Fax: 202-334-3575
Mail: Committee on Smaller Facilities
Board on Physics and Astronomy
Keck 922W
500 5th St., NW
Washington, DC 20001
Finally, if you are aware of colleagues who would be interested in accessing this request for input, please have them contact the NRC at smallerfac@nas.edu.
We would appreciate receiving your responses by May 1, 2004.
Thank you for your assistance in this endeavor. We recognize the demands on your time and appreciate the information you and your staff are able to provide.
Sincerely,
Robert Sinclair, Chair
Committee on Smaller Facilities
More Information
For more information on this activity, e-mail bpa@nas.edu or visit the Current Projects System.
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