Summer 2001 -- Vol. 18, No. 2

Consortium, Graduate Students Address Many-Body Problems

A carbon-60 molecule can fit inside a carbon nanotube along with other such moleules and form a structure similar to a peapod that researchers have been able to synthesize in large quantities.

A program designed to train graduate students in science and engineering in a more broad-based, career-specific manner has been created at Penn State as the result of a $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

With support from the NSF’s Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) program, the University has created the Penn State Consortium for Education in Many-Body Applications.

“This program gives Penn State scientists and engineers the opportunity to cross traditional boundaries separating their disciplines and to collaborate in graduate education and research,” said James Anderson, Evan Pugh Professor of Chemistry and director of the consortium. “We all face many-body problems, those involving collections of interacting particles, and we have much to learn from each other.”

Participants from three colleges and eight departments comprise the consortium, which features a five-year plan that incorporates courses, research projects, summer internships, seminars, and tutorials to train graduate students for leadership roles in advanced computational methods for many-body problems.

Along with Anderson, faculty members involved with the consortium include: Jayanth Banavar, professor and head of the Department of Physics; Wenwu Cao, associate professor of mathematics and materials science; Kristen Fichthorn, professor of chemical engineering and physics; Jainendra Jain, Erwin W. Mueller Professor of Physics; Sanat Kumar, professor of materials science and engineering; Lyle Long, professor of aerospace engineering; Kenneth Merz Jr., professor of chemistry; and Paul Plassmann, assistant professor of computer science.

“Some of these many-body problems are extremely complex, difficult to understand, and difficult to solve,” said Anderson. “Attempts to solve them often lead to misery, and misery loves company. So, we will share some of the misery, but we will also share the pleasure of some important successes.”

Such an outlook typifies the basis of the IGERT program, which is designed to establish innovative, research-based graduate programs that train the next generation of scientists and engineers to take advantage of changing career options and utilize interdisciplinary approaches.

“Scientists and engineers are serving a more diverse range of needs, for a more diverse public than ever before. These are changes that the scientific community needs to embrace,” said Rita Colwell, NSF director. “IGERT is planting the seeds of change—in culture, institutional structure, and in a new generation of multi-faceted scientists and engineers. It is part of a continuum of efforts at NSF to improve science, mathematics, engineering, and technology at all levels.”

Penn State’s consortium plan includes the construction of a large parallel computer and a computer center. With goals for minority participation and retention, and a partnership with the College of Education to review the effectiveness of the program, investigators believe it offers a positive, proactive approach to educating graduate students.

In an effort to serve as many graduate students as possible, the consortium plans to fully fund students for three years with support for their fourth year coming from other sources.

As a result, the consortium plans to serve 35 students during its initial five-year period. Those students will study topics such as molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo methods.

The IGERT grant represents the second such award for Penn State in the three-year history of the program. In 1999, a contingent led by Susan Brantley, professor of geosciences, Katherine Freeman, associate professor of geosciences, and Jean Brenchley, professor of microbiology and biotechnology, received a grant and created the Penn State Biogeochemical Research Initiative for Education.

-- By Steve Sampsell

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