ICAM Co-Directors Daniel Cox and David Pines learned in late May that the US National Science Foundation would renew funding for ICAM, including its International ICAM (I2CAM) International Materials Institute award, for the next five years with a substantial increase in funding.

“This funding increase is very exciting in terms of taking ICAM to the next level,” said Cox. ”It enables us to expand our highly subscribed junior scientist and exchange programs to  more scientists and to continue our annual support for the Cargèse summer school, while supporting each year additional schools on quantum matter, biological matter, and soft matter  at several new sites—the J. Nehru Center for Advanced Scientific Research in Bangalore, FAPERJ in Rio de Janeiro, and an International College for Advanced Materials in Photonics, that will rotate between China, Eastern Europe, and Boulder, and will be held this July in two locations in China.  In addition we will seek to develop a school on materials in Africa., with USC’s Clifford Johnson as its Director.”

Cox also said that the new funding will allow ICAM to continue its program of junior scientist travel within the US and the exploratory workshops in emergent properties of matter both within and outside the US.   “In addition, we will develop new functionality on the ICAM web pages for workshop organizers or ICAM scientists to create virtual communities on exciting areas of science, and develop a prototype “Graphics Processor Unit (GPU)”-based cluster open to the ICAM science community for Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics programs. Importantly, the NSF award will help fund the completion of the first phase of ICAM’s online interactive science exhibits, emergentuniverse.org.  We are so grateful to the NSF for recognizing the accomplishments and potential of ICAM with this award.”

With the new award comes the creation of three new oversight  committees to help foster the very best science within ICAM – a committee on quantum matter chaired by Piers Coleman from Rutgers, a committee on soft matter chaired by Ivan Smalyukh from University of Colorado, Boulder, and a committee on biological matter chaired by Cecilia Clementi from Rice University.  Each committee will  include a co-chair from the Science Steering Committee, respectively, Peter Littlewood from Cambridge, Paul Chaikin from NYU, and Jose Onuchic from UCSD. These committees will meet online on an as-needed basis to cultivate proposals on workshops in the most exciting developing areas of ICAM science, suggest areas of science ripe for impact through the use of junior scientist travel and exchange awards, and generally assess how ICAM is doing in each of these major areas of the  science of emergent matter.

At their first on-line meeting on June 10, the oversight committee chairs  agreed to designate correspondents in quantum, soft, and biological matter at each branch.  These correspondents would  work with the chairs on communication, developing branch web sites containing listings of ICAM-active faculty, updated by reports of  new research results, honors, special publications, and “best practices” in  education and outreach.  The new structure will greatly facilitate community-building and community input into every aspect of ICAM activities.

Co-Director David Pines commented: “This five-year renewal of our initial award constitutes a most welcome endorsement by NSF of our progress in turning into a reality our vision of ICAM as a new kind of global institution.  In these difficult economic times, it provides the funding we need to continue building our emerging international community—one in which workshops, summer schools, and exchange awards offer ways for scientists of every age to interact and collaborate on cutting-edge research topics across disciplinary, institutional, and geographical lines.“

By Daniel Cox, Karie Friedman, and David Pines, ICAMNews, April/June, 2009