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Policy and funding

Policy and funding

Grand challenges for the US

01 May 2001

Every decade or so the physics and astronomy communities in the United States carry out surveys of their subject areas. The astronomy surveys - the most recent of which was published last year (see Physics World June 2000 p11, print version) - play a key role in determining what new telescopes will be built and which new space missions will be launched. While a survey of modern astronomy must cover a vast panorama of topics, conducting a similar exercise for all of physics is an order of magnitude more difficult. Indeed, the latest physics survey by the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Research Council (NRC) started in 1992 and has only just been completed.

Along the way six “area volumes” have been published on the major subfields of physics – atomic, molecular and optical physics; plasma science; elementary particle physics; nuclear physics; condensed-matter and materials physics; and gravitational physics – along with four shorter volumes. These reports all make recommendations that are relevant to these specific areas. In the final report in the series, Physics in a New Era: An Overview, a panel chaired by Thomas Appelquist of Yale University addresses the bigger picture.

The report identifies six “grand challenges” in physics (see below) and makes nine recommendations on the level of government support for physics in the US, education, the role of information technology in physics, planning and organization, and national security. Surprisingly, the report does not comment on the fact that the US’s share of world physics papers declined from 32% in the early 1980s to 26% in the late 1990s. However, it does present a highly readable summary of the latest developments within and between the major subfields of physics. It is particularly strong on the links between physics and the biomedical sciences, and on the physics research that has laid the foundations for the information age, although the chapter on the environment is less convincing.

The panel also presents a pressing case for the need to reform physics education at all levels in the US. In particular, it advises physics departments to revise their curricula to ensure that they appeal to a wide range of students and that they make connections with other areas of science and technology.

The six grand challenges in the report were identified on the basis of “their intrinsic scientific importance, their potential for broad impact and application, and their promise for major progress during the next decade”. The panel recommends that these six challenges – developing quantum technologies; understanding complex systems; applying physics to biology; creating new materials; exploring the universe; and unifying the forces of nature – should be supported strongly by universities, industry, the federal government and others in the years ahead.

The other recommendations stress the need to support small groups and single investigators at universities, to re-establish long-term basic research related to national security, and to encourage partnerships between government, universities and industry. The panel also calls on the US government to “develop effective mechanisms for US participation and leadership in international scientific projects, including clear criteria for entrance and exit”.

On funding, the report recommends that federal investment in basic physics research should be restored to the levels of the early 1980s, relative to GDP, thereby reversing a fall of 20% in real terms since then. Unfortunately, this particular recommendation has come too late for President George W Bush, whose budget request for 2002 includes no increases for physics (see page 8, print version). However, the US budget must be approved by Congress, which seems to know more about the importance of the physical sciences than the President, and Physics in a New Era will be a useful weapon in the battle to restore some degree of parity between the physical and biomedical sciences.

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