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Changing Times
"With the presidential administration's new commitment to science,
Maryland is strongly positioned to influence fundamental scientific
advancement and the national science and technology agendas."
ONLY A FEW miles
from the nation's capital,
the University of
Maryland has always
been affected by new
presidential administrations.
This year the
influence has been
even more pronounced,
calling on
the university's
research strengths in
areas of critical
national priority, such
as energy, climate
change and national
security. With the new administration committed to promoting
science and technology and the stimulus package
providing a wellspring of funding, the university's research
efforts have been infused with new vigor.
In April the U.S. Department of Energy created an
Energy Frontier Research Center at the university.
Discovering the science and creating the technology needed
to build a 21st-century energy economy, our center focuses
on new electrical energy storage capacity. The center is funded
in part by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
and complements the administration's new $400 million
Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy.
Building on the University of Maryland's talented
teams of climate scientists, the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, selected the university
in May to lead a new climate research partnership
of 17 institutions. The nationwide consortium, the
Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites, or CICS,
will receive up to $93 million in funding over the next
five years from NOAA. With one of the nation's largest
clusters of federal and university scientists, the CICS will
focus on satellite observations and Earth system modeling
to develop tools that will make our climate change predictions
and assessments useful to policymakers and local
communities.
National security is another research area receiving
continued attention in Washington, D.C. This year the
Department of Defense has awarded the university a
record-breaking four primary program awards from the
highly competitive Multi-disciplinary University Research
Initiative, or MURI. The MURI program supports multidisciplinary
basic research in areas that have high potential
both for defense and commercial applications. Our topics
for this year include research into the electronic properties
of graphene at the nanoscale, new phases of matter for
quantum information/computing, quantum-optical circuits
of hybrid quantum memories and practical superconductors.
These MURIs complement a new Physics Frontier
Center, awarded in September 2008 to the Joint Quantum
Institute, a partnership between the University of
Maryland and the National Institute of Standards and
Technology. Focused on cutting-edge investigations of
quantum science, the center is funded by $12.5 million
over five years from the National Science Foundation, or
NSF, and is pursuing the physics of quantum information
and quantum computing. Discoveries are needed to create
computers that can undertake very large database searches
and create unbreakable data encryption that is not possible
with the best conventional computers.
University researchers have been ahead of the curve for
decades, creating innovative solutions to many challenges
that are now pressing on the national agenda. Since over
70 percent of the university's research funding comes from
federal sources such as the NSF, NASA, the Department of
Defense, the National Institutes of Health, the Food and
Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, the university has always been a leader in
connecting basic research to federal as well as practical
objectives. With the presidential administration's new
commitment to science, Maryland is strongly positioned
to influence fundamental scientific advancement and the
national science and technology agendas.
-Dan Mote, President
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