Sunday was devoted to committee meetings, of which more below.  Monday and Tuesday, sessions on quantum matter, living matter, soft matter, and energy research were led off by keynote speakers, followed by invited talks by leaders in their respective fields on frontier research topics, forum discussions and lively audience participation. The complete program, which concluded with a session on Public Engagement, may be found at http://icam-i2cam.org/index.php/events/detail/icam_annual_conference_2010/ .

SCIENTIFIC SESSIONS

The keynote lectures were as follows:

Grand Challenges in Quantum Matter

Ali Yazdani, Princeton University, “Visualizing Novel Quantum States of Matter with the Scanning Tunneling Microscope (at Cryogenic Temperatures)”

Grand Challenges in Living Matter

Roya Zandi, UC Riverside, “Emergent Phenomena in Viral Capsids.”

Grand Challenges in Soft Matter

Randall Kamien, University of Pennsylvania, “Smectics!”

Grand Challenges in Energy Research

Nate Lewis, Caltech, “Powering the Planet:  What We Need to Learn”
Each talk provided an excellent overview of promising new research directions for ICAM  and each was followed by lively discussion, and invited talks on frontier research topics by leaders in the field. Webcam recordings of the first three keynote lectures  are available at http://www.icam-i2cam.org/?page_id=570 .

Nate Lewis’s lecture on Powering the Planet had to be delivered via Skype from Pasadena, with his PowerPoint slides projected by Daniel Cox as he received them. This talk, of which a version is available upon request from Lewis, was so engrossing, the audience hardly noticed that the speaker was not physically present.   The forum at the end of the Energy Research section was particularly animated and filled with ideas for the role ICAM could play in raising public interest and promoting sustainable energy research.  Many existing programs at member institutions were mentioned, as was a network, Enernet, with its hub at Florida State.  Cox invited branches to organize a forum on ICAM’s role in studying sustainable energy materials, with participants required to bring two PowerPoint slides, in the same spirit as at ICAM’s founding meeting.

SESSION ON PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT

Outreach to potential scientists and non scientists has been a core concern with ICAM since its founding.  In this session on the final day of the Meeting, participants heard progress reports on two outreach programs that are now at the end of their pilot phases and ready for expansion, as well as on the Global Science, Education, and Engagement Partnership which ICAM initiated last year.  Then Anson Cheung of Trinity College, Cambridge, described some outreach programs sponsored by Cavendish Laboratory and Cambridge University that offer new ideas and a lively example to other ICAM member institutions.

Global Science, Education, and Engagement Partnership. In his opening remarks, David Pines underscored the extraordinary effort that will be needed to achieve a reasonably stable world for our heirs, and the importance of integrating, science, education, and engagement  in  this effort.  A nascent network devoted specifically to science education, the Global Science Engagement Partnership, allies ICAM with other institutions in making available teaching resources and materials either directly or by links.  Its goals are to

• Enhance public engagement of research scientists, which will require institutional incentives.
• Integrate existing educational materials and develop new ones for use in schools and science museums.
• Develop linked global libraries of educational materials.
• Help teachers and scientists worldwide to reach their full outreach potentials.

The members include a new emergence institute in Kyoto, being created by Kazuo Nishimura; the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Florida State University, where SuperNet (now EmergentLab) was developed; the Paris Scientific Consortium, in which Julian Bobroff has created an innovative science outreach program; Sabanci University, Istanbul, whose course called “Science of Nature” is required for all undergraduates; a UK Consortium; INTELBIOMAT; the University of Pennsylvania; the University of Colorado; and Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China.

EmergentLab.  Stratos Manousakis and Ivan Smalyukh spoke on the program initiated by Vlad Dobrosavljevic at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL) at Florida State University.  Originally called SuperNet, this program created an educational network connecting scientists and teachers.  Through teacher workshops and visits to the Magnet Lab, they have developed teaching modules for getting K-12 students interested in condensed matter physics . NHMFL has supported EmergentLab as part of its outreach program in Florida, as have NSF and ICAM.  It is now at the end of its pilot phase.

Meanwhile, similar efforts have been underway at other ICAM institutions.  One, led by Julien Bobroff and Henri Alloul of the Paris Consortium, brings condensed matter physics to French secondary schools.  Another is based at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where the local “Materials Science from CU” program is bringing science demonstration toolkits to the classroom.    The time seems right to connect these and other local efforts via a larger, global one.  ICAM is well suited to do this, both in terms of its scientific focus and its experience.  We can adapt the SuperNet model for a broader range of materials sciences.

Smalyukh and Manousakis proposed that a first step in this direction would be for ICAM branches each to establish an outreach committee, including faculty, postdocs, and professional outreach support people.  These could consider proposals for outreach fellowships, comparable to research and teaching assistantships, which would provide support to graduate students and postdocs who participated in outreach programs.  Outreach fellows would work with local teachers to develop toolkits and web-based teaching app-lets.  The Outreach committee would evaluate their activities.  Through these efforts ICAM could produce a wide variety of teaching modules and make them available to teachers worldwide via our web pages and via the newly formed Global Science Engagement Partnership, of which ICAM is a founding member.  In response to the above suggestions, ICAM is establishing a SEE (Science, Education, and Engagement) Working Group, which will be Co-chaired by Steve Berry and David Pines.

EmergentUniverse.org. On October 1, 2009, ICAM’s interactive online science center, emergentuniverse.org, was launched with 22 activities aimed at introducing young adults to emergence and illustrating how its principles underlie diverse problems.  (See article in the October 2009 ICAMNews, “EmergentUniverse.org Is Launched,” http://icam-i2cam.org/icamnews/?p=307.)  It includes a home page, an introduction entitled “Emergence is unlocking the universe,” and exhibits on “Renegade proteins and the fibril connection“ that deal with amyloids and Alzheimer’s disease.

Suzi Tucker, the Director and Chief Designer of the site, reviewed how it is doing in terms of site visits, feedback, and various benchmarks used by Google to determine the success of a website.  Since its launch it has had over 8000 visits, with an average time  on site of 7.30 minutes for December.  This compares with an average of less than a minute for comparably sized virtual museums and libraries ranked by Google.   It now receives about 44% of its visitors via Google searches on the following search terms:

• emergence
• interactive science museum
• educational manga
• Alzheimer’s dance
• online science museum
• Conway’s game of life

Other visitors either type in the address or are linked in from elsewhere.  The dance “Slip-Cadence,” choreographed to show the impact of Alzheimer’s on a father and daughter, was awarded Best Male Choreography at In Shadow International Dance Film Festival in Lisbon.

By all the measures Tucker reviewed, the site has done well.  However, she recommended additional marketing efforts to increase visitors and help it reach its intended audience.

The next exhibit, on Superconductivity, is targeted to appear in 2011.  A set of stories have been selected, including the development of BCS theory, the search for novel high-T_c and heavy-electron materials, how superconductivity is poised to help solve the energy crisis, and how it is already part of our lives.  Work, however, cannot proceed without additional funding.  [Editor’s note:  an agreement between ICAM and the University of California-Davis to partner in support of emergentuniverse.org, with ICAM to provide up to 50,000 in matching funds for UC-Davis expenditures, would allow this work to continue.]

At the end of Tucker’s presentation the question was raised what topic would be next up after Superconductivity.  While this is not yet decided, one promising possibility would be Sustainable Energy.

A Cambridge Perspective on Outreach.  Anson Cheung of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Cavendish Laboratory’s Condensed Matter Theory group described two of the outreach programs at the Cavendish Laboratory that might be of interest to other ICAM branches who share these objectives:

(a)   to attract students to physics, encouraging a next generation of scientists.

(b)  To send a message to exam boards and government policy makers about the intellectual needs of hard sciences such as physics.

(c)   to assist and increase the confidence of teachers who lack physics degrees, and

(d)  to educate the public about science and technology. especially advisors to government, who help determine medical and energy policy.

The Laboratory has an Educational Outreach Office http://www.phy.cam.ac.uk/outreach, which runs several programs.  One, called Physics at Work, is aimed at 14-16-year olds about to make their A-level choices.   About 700 students are brought in and split into small groups for three days of demonstrations and exhibits featuring applications in which physics plays a role, e.g., automobile design, printing, photography.  In showcasing some of the interesting work that physicists are involved in, the organizers hope to counter the attraction of Medicine, which in recent years has been luring away potential students.

Physics appreciation, however, is not the same as being able to do physics.

Math and problem-solving skills are also needed, and since these are not given prominence in many secondary schools, students often arrive at university ill prepared and even surprised to find that they need these skills.  Five years ago, Cambridge introduced a five-day summer school for sixth-formers, the Senior Physics Challenge, to address this problem.  The program, which was co-developed by Anson Cheung and Mark Warner, might be described as physics appreciation with the math put back in.   It enrolls about 60 students from all over the UK, no more than one or two from any given school, houses them in various Colleges, where they also eat together, and gives them an intensive schedule of classes, laboratory experiments, general physics lectures, and evening entertainment.  They meet in small groups and are first posed questions such as

What is 1.01⁷⁰⁰ (no calculators)?

What is the mass of the earth’s atmosphere?

How many babies are born worldwide per year?

How much land area would have to be devoted to solar panels to meet the

electricity needs of the UK?

The group approach makes tackling these questions less formidable, and students are usually surprised how far their knowledge can take them.

The only common syllabus element is mechanics.  Summer school faculty try to stretch students’ understanding with slightly more challenging problems (from Feynman) than they have encountered before.  Solving such problems gives the students both satisfaction and a deeper understanding of physics.  And doing it with like-minded peers helps them to realize they are not alone.   For an article with more information about this program, see http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/news/dp/2009070701.  A workbook of problems created for the program may be found at http://www-spc.phy.cam.ac.uk/spcworkbook/spcworkbook.php .

ICAM BOARD AND COMMITTEE MEETINGS

These typically take up the first day of the Annual Meeting, and a brief report on highlights of the meetings of the Board of Governors and Science Steering Committees follows.

BOARD OF GOVERNORS

Daniel Cox, the Co-Director and CEO of ICAM, welcomed those present and those participating via a telephone conference call—Henri  Alloul in Paris and Cristiane Morais-Smith in  Utrecht.  He then offered some highlights of recent ICAM-I2CAM news.

• NSF Support Expanded. NSF has approved ICAM’s grant application for a five-year continuation of its international materials  program, I2CAM,  and has combined in this grant its support for both the domestic and international programs of ICAM. The new five-year grant, which began on July 1, 2009, is for a total of  $5,240,000, with more funding available during its first and last years.
• Graphics processors facility. With the help of unused funds originally designated for webcast kits for each new branch, some of Cox’s students have created a cluster of graphics processors (GPU’s) to use in computer modeling.  This tool is available to any ICAM member for work requiring high-speed simulations (see article in the October 2009 issue of ICAMNews, “UC-Davis Grad Students Develop Cluster of ‘Playstations for Science’,” http://icam-i2cam.org/icamnews/?p=296.
• Thrust Committees. Three “thrust committees” of the Science Steering Committee have been created to seek out opportunities for workshops and  research networks and advise on speakers and topics for the Annual Meeting in their respective fields:  Biological Matter (Cecilia Clementi), Soft Matter (Ivan Smalyukh), and Quantum Matter (Piers Coleman).  As an incentive for their efforts, a yearly prize for “most valuable player” is to be offered to the committee head who accomplished most on behalf of ICAM :  support for one workshop of her (his) choosing.
• Mandatory Webcasting of ICAM Events. ICAM’s web presence is not equal to our actual participation.  Should it be mandatory to have all talks at our scientific meetings webcast?  The Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics (KITP) has made it mandatory for their workshops.  Speakers have qualms about new results appearing before publication.  However our site can be password protected.  Ivan Smalyukh asked whether we have the resources to process all the mandatory webcasts, to which Cox replied that there is presently something of a bottleneck at our tech support provider, but  the work could be done with student help at Davis.
• Support for Science Cooperation. Our present funding level allows us to support 7-9 workshops, 10 fellows, 10-20 exchange awards, plus multiple small travel awards.  In 2009 we welcomed 800 participants to our workshops and much good science has emerged from their participation.
• ICAM Branches. David Pines discussed the status of branch membership. Despite the present difficult times for universities and other research institutions, nearly all ICAM  branches have found a way to continue their membership. Two branches have resigned and three have requested to go on sabbatical for a year, with the understanding that during this period their students and faculty would not receive the benefits of ICAM membership. However, it appears likely that more than that number (5) will join during the coming year. He suggested that over time we should aim for as many branches in China (or maybe in Asia) as in Europe, which would mean a substantial  increase from the present number.
  Elisa Saitovich commented that the situation in Brazil is constrained by the infrastructure of its state universities. A consortium would work better there. Henri Alloul asked whether consortium members get an unfair amount of ICAM support, contributing less per institution, but receiving awards like single members.  To which Cox replied that we have limited the number of awards from one institution, but may need to become more rigorous.
• Outreach and Education. Cox asked David Pines to speak on ICAM’s education and outreach programs.  David reported that we have three:  the online interactive science center, http://emergentuniverse.org, the SuperNet program , which has evolved into EmergentLabs.org, and an ICAM-led startup, recently renamed  as  GSEE, the Global Science, Education, and Engagement Partnership, which is actually not a part of ICAM, but rather a cooperative venture in which we are playing a catalytic role. GSEE will become a global clearinghouse for ideas and their implementation—best practices— that integrate science, education, and engagement.
• Concerning the online science center, emergentuniverse.org, which ICAM initiated and has nurtured since it was proposed some three years ago, David suggested that it may now be timely to find an institution that could help ICAM take it to the next level, and to this end has been exploring with faculty and administrators at UC Davis the possibility that Davis might wish to do this.  He moved that ICAM continue to explore this possibility and that it make available matching ICAMICS funds up to $50,000 per year, so that ICAM would continue to have a say in the content and appearance of the site.   Like all motions, this one was voted on electronically after the meeting and was passed.
• To enhance our participation in the GSE partnership, Cox urged those present to look up Outreach and Education on the I2CAM website and enter any news of their own institutions’ outreach efforts.  Several of those present cited examples of programs at their universities.
• Budget. The subject then turned to how ICAM cost-share funds are spent.  Khandker Quader asked whether, with more branches, now would be the time to increase the number of Fellows we support.  Cox moved to support seven postdoctoral fellows at $25K each.   Peter Littlewood proposed an amendment—not to fund a specific number of fellowships, but to let the number be a function of the number of branches.  Then it could increase or decrease automatically without the need to vote on it every year. Cox said he would appoint a subcommittee to work up a formula. The amendment was not voted on, and a motion to fund seven fellows was subsequently passed.
• International Funding for Energy Workshops. When Ivan Smalyukh suggested having a summer school on sustainable energy—to be funded by DOE, Hong Ding, representing the Chinese Academy of Sciences, spoke up.  A Clean Energy Research Center has just been created by the US and China, funded by $150M.  We should connect with this.  Peter Littlewood suggested that a Thrust Committee or Energy Working Group should be tasked with developing a proposal before we are scooped by a special interest. [Editor’s Note:  An ICAM  Global Energy Working Group has now been established, with Peter and Alexandra Navrotsky as Co-Chairs. ]
• Fellowships for Branch Affiliates. The question was raised whether we should set aside one senior fellowship per year for branch affiliates.  The consensus was no.  We allow affiliates to apply, but the merits of the applications should determine who gets awards.
• More Administrative Help. Cox then announced he had decided to take out of the budget the money he had set aside for thrust committee chairs, since people were opposed to paying them.  That resulted in a small surplus, some of which he proposed to spend on 1/2 an administrative assistant ($20,000/year for 3 years).  Any further surplus could go into the contingency fund, depending on overall approval of the budget.  The Board voted its approval of both.
• Results of Subsequent Voting. The following were approved:
  (1)  Continued support for front office and education coordinator at current levels
  (2)  Support of a  ½ time  administration assistant at ~20K/yr.
  (3)   Up to 50K to be used as matching funds for UC-Davis support of emergentuniverse.org, with special interest in developing a superconductivity exhibit.
  (4)   Support of up to seven new postdoctoral fellows at up to 25K each and support for continuing fellows at current levels.
  (5)   70K/yr for the next three years into contingency funds.

SCIENCE STEERING COMMITTEE

Several members of this committee participated via teleconferencing, including  Co-Chairs Paul Chaikin and Jose Onuchic, and Nandini Trivedi, The main business before the SSC was to consider eight proposals for workshops in the coming year.  With some adjustments in amount of support and suggestions for the organizers, they approved funding for five.  See the Calendar at http://www.i2cam.org/icamnews/?page_id=137 for a list of forthcoming workshops.

Peter Littlewood raised a concern that requiring workshops to be innovative makes it difficult for ICAM to approve workshops on sustainable energy materials.  Nandini Trivedi added that it also discourages followup meetings in which selected topics have been allowed to “gather more moss.”  David Pines replied that one of ICAM’s roles is to create research networks, and some workshops serve this purpose.  We attempted to form a heavy-fermion research network, for example, though our efforts to obtain NSF funding for it were unsuccesful.  A novel-superconductor network would be desirable, too.  The thrust committees will be identifying other areas for network-building.  Without external funding, it appears that workshops must be our primary means of growing networks.

Cox added that a virtual community can provide continuity.  Our tech support people are working on a toolkit for creating virtual communities via the ICAM web pages.  It will be in place within the next three months.  Steve Berry reminded those present that fellowships are also a tool for building networks, being under-utilized now.  Nandini thought we should offer post-workshop travel grants to encourage followups.

Karie Friedman suggested adding to the categories Exploratory Workshop and Summer School a third type of meeting, the Network-Building Workshop, and identifying these workshops as such on the Calendar.

Repeated technical difficulties with the conference call led Laura Greene to suggest an alternative, EVO, a free program from Caltech.  She thought using this with a large-screen monitor would make virtual meetings much easier, and it could connect mamy more people.  Cox said he would look into this.

By Karie Friedman, ICAMNews April,  2010

West Lake Pagodas.

Hangzhou, China has been selected as the site for the next ICAM annual conference. Hangzhou is a city of about six million people, 112 miles south of Shanghai, at the southern edge of the Yangtze River Delta. It is the home of Zhejiang University, one of China’s oldest and most prestigious universities, which recently became an ICAM branch. The meeting is planned for April 7-10, 2011, with Professor Hong Ding, Institute of Physics, serving as Chair of the national organizing committee.

As ICAM has grown globally, so has the desirability of holding its annual meeting in different parts of the world. China, moreover, is under-represented in the ICAM community, based on the number of institutions there where emergent phenomena are being actively studied. ICAM’s Co-Directors, David Pines and Daniel Cox, hope that a meeting at a major university in China will encourage other Chinese universities and research institutions to join.

Hangzhou is one of the seven ancient capitals of China. It was admired by Marco Polo in the 13th century and has been known for its silk production for over 4000 years. Today it is the capital of Zhejiang Province. A Grand Canal winds through the city, as does the Qiangtang River. To the west, West Lake is a tourist attraction throughout the year for its historic temples, pavilions, and promenades, as well as its scenic vistas; the lake is especially popular in spring, when peach trees and osmanthus are in bloom. This part of China has a mild and humid subtropical climate, with heaviest rainfall in June and August. Average temperatures in April are around 20 C or 65-70 F.

Culinary specialties of the Zhejiang region include West Lake fish with vinegar sauce, vegetable dishes that include fresh bamboo shoots, “Beggar’s chicken,” dark red Dongpo ham, pork wrapped in lotus leaves, shrimp cooked in dragon-well tea, and Wujiapi yellow rice wine. The Zhejiang style of cuisine, one of the eight classical Chinese cuisines, is noted for its elegant presentation.

By Karie Friedman, ICAMNews January 2010

Over the course of three days this gathering of physicists, biologists and oncologists addressed the challenge of trying to move from the conventional view of evolution as a slow, basically random process that is essentially blind to the direction in which it moves to the more recent view of evolution dynamics as an emergent property of complex organisms, which can move very swiftly and in quite specific directions. While these ideas may sound heretical to conventional Darwinists, in reality there is no conflict, for Darwin evolved his own ideas in a time when little was known about the astonishing complexity of life as a physical system, which can be understood at a deep physical level. The converging worlds of biology and physics have moved past Darwin’s pioneering ideas and are beginning to put the subject of evolution on a firm mathematical and physical foundation, which will open new insights into the complexities of biology.

The program of this workshop and video recordings of all the talks are available at http://ias.ust.hk/evo/, thanks to the efforts of the HKUST Video Projection Department and Mr. Linus See of the Institute for Advanced Study. The workshop was organized by Robert Austin of Princeton University and Shirley Chan. It was funded jointly by I2CAM, the US National Science Foundation, HKUST, the University of Hong Kong, the US National Cancer Institute, and the Croucher Foundation.

By Robert Austin, ICAMNews January 2010

The School of Soft Matter Research combines experimental and theoretic research in an atmosphere that encourages interdisciplinary work. It maintains strong ties with the University’s Physics and Chemistry Departments, Centre for Materials Research, and Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK). At present there are five internal Senior Fellows holding three-year terms and six external Senior Fellows with terms ranging from one month to two years.
Four Junior Fellow positions with terms of at least three years are being supported, and at the time of writing, applications were open for one of these latter positions (http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/science/jobs/125117-Junior-Research-Fellowship). In addition, there are usually openings for postdocs to work with research fellows.

Hermann Grabert, Jan Korvink.

The School’s Co-Directors, Hermann Grabert and Jan Korvink, both lead research groups. Grabert, along with Junior Fellow Michael Thorwart, leads a group that focuses on quantum effects in complex systems, while Korvink, in collaboration with Pep Espanol (Madrid, Spain) and Sauro Succi (Rome, Italy), refines modeling and simulation of micro- and nano-systems.

Prof. Ulrich Steiner, Junior Fellow Dr, Sabine Ludwigs, postdoc Dr. Ed Crossland.

The current External Senior Fellows are Joseph Klafter (Tel Aviv, Israel), Ullrich Steiner (Cambridge, UK), Michael Krische (Austin, Texas), Andreas Manz (Saarbrücken, Germany) and Miko Elwenspoek (Twente, The Netherlands). Klafter is working on the manipulation of proteins on the single-molecule level. Steiner, along with Junior Fellows Sabine Ludwigs and Internal Senior Fellow Rolf Muelhaupt, synthesizes semiconducting conjugated polymers for use in organic solar cells. Krische and Internal Senior Fellow Bernhard Breit are exploring new concepts and methods in homogeneous catalysis and organic synthesis. The groups around Manz, Elwenspoek, and Internal Senior Fellow Gerald Urban work on micro- and nano-size systems for various applications, such as sensors and actuators. The field of molecular devices and machines is being addressed by the work of Junior Fellows Aurelio Mateo-Alonso and Stefan Schiller. For more information on the research projects listed above, see the Soft Matter Research site at http://www.frias.uni-freiburg.de/smr. And while you are there, check the slide show “FRIAS Impressons,” which features many evocative scenes and portraits, as well as glimpses of the fine collection of modern art housed at the School.

Participants at Black Forest Focus on Soft Matter, 2009.

The School of Soft Matter Research sponsors a series of forums and workshops, the Black Forest Focus Series on Soft Matter being one of them. Two BFF meetings that might be of interest to the ICAM community are

June 2-5, 2010 Frontiers in Dynamics—from Random to Quantum Walks
July 20-23 Soft Matter Micro- and Nanofabrication.

More information on these meetings can be found at www.frias.uni-freiburg.de/BFF.

FRIAS will be represented on the ICAM committees as follows:

Board of Governors Professor Hermann Grabert
Science Steering Committee Professor Jan Korvink
Fellows Selection Committee Dr. Michael Thorwart

By Karie Friedman, ICAMNews January 2010

The Senior award went to Hector Mireles of California Polytechnic, Pomona, who will work with Steven McCauley of Cal Poly and Ivan Smalyukh of the University of Colorado, Boulder, on a new optical method of manipulating colloidal particles.

The individual Junior Fellowship was awarded to Michael Murrell of the University of Chicago, who will work with Margaret Gardel at the University of Chicago and Cecile Sykes of the Institut Curie, Paris, on nonequilibrium mechanics of a bio-mimetic actin cortex.

The four mentor-driven awards, which go to collaborating mentors in partial support of a postdoctoral fellow, were to

(1)  Steven White of UC Irvine and Ronald Kaback of UCLA, who will work on dynamic control of the lactose permase membrane transporter, with a yet-to-be-named postdoc.

(2)  Natalia Perkins of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Cristian Batista of Los Alamos National Laboratory, who will work with a yet-to-be-named postdoc on exotic phases and phase transitions in quantum spin-orbital systems.

(3) Brian Maple of UC-San Diego and Carmen Almasan of Kent State University, who will work with a yet-to-be-named postdoc on electronic and magnetic phenomena in transition metal oxides.

(4) Edgar Kooijman of Kent State University and Christa Testerink of the University of Amsterdam, who will work with postdoc Carlos Galvan-Ampudia on elucidating the biophysical principles underlying the phospholipid regulation of protein targets.

Continuing ICAM Junior Fellows in the second year of their respective fellowships include Elad Harel, who is working with Greg Engel and Lucio Frydman; Tatiana Kuriabova, who is working with Meredith Betterton and Daniel Needleman; and Wen-Juan Li, who is working with Vidya Madhavan and Ward Plummer.

By Karie Friedman, ICAMNews, April 2010

Previous crystallographic studies had shown that in the presence of solvent molecules DNA adopts a double-helical secondary structure known as B-DNA, while in the absence of solvent molecules it adopts an elongated and deformed secondary structure known as A-DNA.  It had also been shown that placing single DNA molecules  in a solvent improved their conductance, while the absence of solvent reduced it (N. J. Tao, “Direct Conductance Measurement of Single DNA Molecules in Aqueous Solution,” Nano Letters 4, 1105-1108, 2004).

The question that arose was:  Is the enhancement in conductance in the presence of solvent due to conservation of the secondary structure of DNA? This issue has direct bearing on future applications of DNA as a component in bio-molecular electronic devices.  The aim of the study by Sairam was to identify the molecular orbital interactions in DNA that are affected by structural changes (A-DNA to B-DNA) and to correlate these to the observed conductance results.  During the course of the study it was found that the molecular orbitals directly involved in the governing the conductance properties of DNA were localized on the DNA bases (Adenine, Guanine, Thymine and Cytosine). This highlighted the importance of DNA sequence to conductivity, as orbitals from different bases contribute to different energy levels.  It was found that a mismatch in energy levels, for example, introducing Adenine (A) between Guanines (G) and creating the sequence GAG, led to reduced conductance.  Conversely, an alignment of energy levels, for example, the sequence GGG, enhanced conductance.

For their work Mallajosyula used molecular dynamics simulations to capture the dynamical fluctuations in the DNA, followed by density-functional theory to determine the electronic structure.  This approach had been used earlier by Cox and coworkers to study the optical conductivity of wet DNA (Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 178102, 2005).

The work carried out during this ICAM Junior Exchange was published as Mallajosyula, Lin, Cox, Pati, and Singh, “Sequence-Dependent Electron Transport in Wet DNA:  Ab-initio and Molecular Dynamics Studies,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 176805 (2008),  and was highlighted in both Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science and Technology (3, 2008) and Virtual Journal of Biological Physics Research (1, 2008).

Dr. Mallajosyula is currently a postdoc with Alexander Mackerell at the University of Maryland’s Computer Aided Drug Design Center.

By Karie Friedman, ICAMNews January 2010.

This year, among those elected was Zachary Fisk, Distinguished Professor of Physics at UC-Irvine, who was one of the founders of ICAM.  He joins fellow ICAM founders Hans Frauenfelder, David Pines, and Peter Wolynes—and Jerry Sabloff, the President of one of ICAM’s newest branches, the Santa Fe Institute.   His fellow inductees include eminent scientists, a judge, a classicist, a historian, the filmmaker Woody Allen, the cartoonist Roz Chast, the composer Paul Moravec, and the Director of the Museum of Modern Art, Glenn Lowry.

Author of 830 papers, of which 47 have received more than 100 citations, Zachary Fisk is a leader in the discovery, synthesis, and exploration of new states of matter within new materials.  He was the first to call attention to the existence of Kondo insulators with charge gaps, discovered the first rare-earth cuprate superconductors, and established the saturation of the high-temperature resistivity of superconductors.  His discovery of superconductivity in UBe13, UPt3, CeCoIn5, and CeRhIn5 established the existence of a new class of heavy-electron materials in which a magnetic electronic interaction gives rise to superconductivity with an unconventional order parameter.  His seminal study of the transition from isolated Kondo ion behavior to full Kondo lattice behavior in (LaCe)CoIn5 led to his discovery that in the Kondo lattice the transformation of local moments to itinerant heavy electrons obeys a simple scaling law characterized by a new temperature scale arising from local moment interaction.

In addition to his scientific accomplishments, Fisk is a dedicated amateur archeologist who has done some of the most complete mapping of the Anasazi Gallina phase sites of Northertn New Mexico.

In 1996, when Fisk was based at Loa Alamos, he and David Pines first discussed the idea of improving communication among the many groups and divisions there that were studying emergent behavior in matter.   They proposed to Don Parkin, the then Director of LANL’s Center for Materials Science, the creation of an institute to promote the study of what they termed “complex adaptive matter.”    Invitations were sent out to a broad range of scientists, a founding workshop was convened, and the rest is history (see “Birth of ICAM; The First Eight Years” in the January 2008 issue of ICAMNews, http://icam-i2cam.org/icamnews/?p=113.  Since its founding, Fisk has chaired ICAM’s Board of Governors.

By Karie Friedman, ICAMNews, April 2010

Although her long illness prevented her from attending more than one ICAM board meeting, she will long be remembered by all those who met her then for her formidable intellect, wicked wit, broad sensibility, and deep sense of caring.

By David Pines, ICAMNews April 2010

A year later, MacKay has been appointed Chief Scientific Advisor to the British Department of Energy and Climate Change. The British Secretary of State, Ed Miliband, who appointed him, said, “David MacKay is known for making science accessible and helping to explain clearly the urgency and the challenge of moving to a low-carbon economy.”  His book is available at http://withouthotair.com in hard-cover, soft-cover, and two downloadable (free) electronic formats.  As he states on the website, “I didn’t write this book to make money.  I wrote it because sustainable energy is important.”  If after reading the book you would like to make a donation, the author suggests buying an extra paper copy and donating it to a library or school.  Most of the book’s graphics are available for educational use, with the exception of cartoons and photos whose authors gave permission only to include them and not to share them.

A Professor of Physics at the University of Cambridge, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and a research fellow at Darwin College, MacKay earned his Ph.D. at Caltech. He did his early work in machine learning, information theory, and communications systems, including the invention of Dasher, a software interface that enables the user to communicate in any language without using any muscle.  Since 2005 he has devoted much of his time to public teaching about energy.

Although Sustainable Energy—without the hot air is available free,  it has already been pirated with an attempt to sell it on Amazon.  MacKay has created a web page about the pirated version at  http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/sustainable/blog/pirate.html.  The co-authors of Freakonomics, Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt, listed the book as one of their favorites in the October 23, 2009 issue of The Week.

By Karie Friedman, ICAMNews January 2010

Karie Friedman, Editor, ICAMNews
David Pines and Daniel Cox, Co-Directors, ICAM-I2CAM