Applied Physical Sciences
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A NEW SCIENCE DEPARTMENT AT UNC
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is launching a
new science department—Applied Physical Sciences. APS is
the first new science department in more than five decades.
The goal of the new department is to build a community of
researchers focused on translating basic science discoveries
into solutions of the most important problems of our time.
As a separate academic unit transcending traditional scientific boundaries, the new department is intended to compensate for the silo effect of academic departmentalization and
to maximize collaborative opportunities among researchers
working in interdisciplinary fields, where many of the greatest advances are being made.
CLUSTER HIRES
The new department seeks to hire faculty with experience in
applying their scientific discoveries to real-world problems,
either through start-up companies or partnerships with government and industry. The initial research emphasis will be
on Soft Matter and Energy and the founding cluster hires will
be expected to build upon existing strengths at Carolina, but
outstanding candidates from any field will be considered.
To launch the initial clusters, Applied Physical Sciences will
target six (6) hires in 2016 with emphasis on both outstanding junior and established senior faculty who are conducting
research at the interface between the physical and life sciences, and in energy storage and membrane technologies.
Interested faculty candidates should exhibit potential for
multidisciplinary collaborations in an established institution.
Ultimately APS will have 20 new hires by 2020, including
new clusters.
APPLICATION INFORMATION
Applicants’ cover letters must succinctly state their relevance to the Soft Matter or Energy clusters. Review of completed applications will begin 01/01/2016, and will continue
until the initial clusters are completed.
Applications will only be accepted online:
http://unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/88874
Questions should be directed to:
Professor E. T. Samulski,
Chair, Department of Applied Physical Sciences,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3287,
Email: et@unc.edu.
Applied Physical Sciences
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The UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA
Opening its doors in 1795, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill became the nation’s first state university. Today, UNC is the
flagship campus of the seventeen-institution University of North Carolina system and one of the leading public universities in the United
States. The University’s mission is to serve as a center for scholarship and creative endeavor in an environment of research, free inquiry,
and personal responsibility; to expand the body of knowledge; and to improve the condition of human life through service and publication.
UNC is one of the three educational anchors of the renowned Research Triangle Park, along with Duke University in Durham and North
Carolina State University (NCSU) in Raleigh. Without a school of engineering, interdisciplinary collaboration is a unique strength of UNC,
characterizing both the culture within the university and its partnerships with other institutions
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a Top-Ten public research university, ranking 6th nationally in R&D expenditures. Many of
UNC’s 3,584 faculty members have earned election to the most prestigious academies and organizations. Thirty-five faculty are members
of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; twenty-two are members of the Institute of Medicine; twelve are members of the National
Academy of Sciences and five are members of the National Academy of Engineering. The 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was shared with
Aziz Sancar, a faculty member at UNC.
The student body of 29,137 includes 18,430 undergraduates, 8,190 graduate students, and 2,517 professional students. The university
provides instruction in more than a hundred fields and offers seventy-seven bachelors, 109 masters, and sixty-six doctoral degree programs as well as professional degrees in many fields. Carolina has produced more Rhodes Scholars than any other national public university.
CHEMISTRY AND MATERIALS SCIENCE AT UNC
Ranked by the National Research Council and reported in Chemical
and Engineering News, UNC is among the top ten chemistry programs based on the National Research Council evaluation, and the
department and its areas of subspecialty are consistently ranked
among the top chemistry programs in U.S. News and World Report.
UNC Chemistry is the only top-ten program in the country that has a
polymer division. Created in the early 1990s, the polymer program
is now ranked among the top programs in the world. As a result,
UNC is uniquely suited to produce the kind of advanced materials
chemistry that makes a difference in the real world.
In addition to outstanding research programs in traditional areas of
modern Chemistry, the department has generated numerous and
pioneering interdisciplinary research efforts, both on- and off-campus, bringing together public and private funding. It has a uniquely
synergistic relationship with the Department of Chemical Engineering at North Carolina State University that even includes a joint
professorship.
The culmination of interdisciplinary materials chemistry is UNC’s
newly launched department of Applied Physical Sciences, the first
new science department in the last five decades.
Applied Physical Sciences
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The PHYSICAL SCIENCE QUAD
UNC is near completion of the most ambitious capital construction campaign of its 217-year history. This remarkable
physical transformation was made possible by public and
private financing totaling more than $2.3 billion, including
a $3.1 billion state bond referendum for higher education.
More than 100 major capital projects have been completed on campus, including new facilities and renovations that
greatly increased the university’s capacity for research.
The Carolina Physical Science Complex was completed in
2010 to provide state-of-the-art laboratory space to all of
the physical sciences and the interdisciplinary sciences. The
five buildings that comprise the Complex house the departments of chemistry, computer science, marine sciences,
mathematics, and physics and astronomy in the College of
Arts and Sciences, as well as the Institute for Advanced Materials, Nanoscience and Technology. The $205 million complex is the largest construction project in the University’s
history.
With approximately 120,000 square feet, Caudill Labs provides substantial research laboratory and office space for
the Department of Chemistry. Chapman Hall hosts modern
research space for Physics and Astronomy and currently
houses most of the department’s condensed matter, materials science, biophysics and biomedical imaging activities. It
includes low-vibration, low-E&M-interference laboratories in
the basement, a remote observing room for the SOAR telescope and 14 laboratory modules on the 3rd and 4th floors
as well as office space. The adjacent Phillips Hall houses a
suite of nuclear-physics laboratories, including an electronics
laboratory, a data acquisition laboratory, and a remote operations center & data visualization laboratory. Three clean
room facilities are available for working on detectors and
instrumentation. Venable and Murray Halls added another
160,000 square feet of research laboratory, office, teaching,
and library space. All these buildings are connected, forming
an epicenter where scientists from across campus and disciplines come together to innovate and collaborate.
By bringing faculty and students together in high-tech laboratories and classrooms, the complex is designed for functionality and to enhance UNC’s long-time strengths in collaboration and interdisciplinary inquiry by pushing units well
beyond their traditional “silos.”
Applied Physical Sciences
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BeAM MAKERSPACE
New Science Initiative Targets Physical, Not Virtual Reality
Scientists Ed Samulski and Rich Superfine share a mission. Together, they are laying a foundation not just for a new department, but
a new way of thinking about – and doing – science that can impact
the world.
Samulski’s first hire to the chemistry department’s polymer group
was Joe DeSimone; fifteen years later, together, they cofounded
Liquidia Technologies, a Research Triangle startup company that
produces nanoparticles for drug delivery.
Samulski, the Cary Boshamer Professor of Chemistry, dropped
plans for retirement after he was named chair of the fledgling new
department of Applied Physical Sciences in January 2015.
In 2013, Samulski partnered with DeSimone and Alex Ermoshkin,
a former postdoctoral researcher in the polymer division, to launch
the Silicon Valley startup Carbon3D.
Superfine, the Taylor-Williams Distinguished Professor of Physics
and Astronomy, is establishing BeAM, a makerspace hub in Murray
Hall, under the aegis of APS, where students can get hands-on experience in translating ideas into tangible products.
Their 3-D printing technology enables objects to rise from a liquid
“soup” quickly and continuously. The innovation opens opportunities not only in health care and medicine but in the automotive and
aviation industries as well.
Recognized as a conjunction of disciplines within the National Academy of Sciences, applied physical sciences combines cutting-edge
knowledge with an engineering mindset to address real-world problems. “An entire generation of students has been trained and educated on virtual issues and with virtual instrumentation,” Samulski
said. “This generation has had minimal exposure to real-world mechanics. Applied Physical Sciences and BeAM (Be A Maker) will fill
that void.”
Superfine said Samulski’s record as a scientific innovator makes him
the ideal choice to lead APS. “Ed has consistently built world-class
research efforts here at UNC for the past 25 years and was on the
ground floor of efforts to plan this particular department,” Superfine
said. “For him to step in now to lead it is a fantastic way to guarantee its success.”
The new APS department resulted from a strategic plan for a science program to help Carolina become a global leader in innovation. Samulski led the interdisciplinary task force formed in 2011 to
develop that plan. “I took this job as departmental chair because
I wanted to make sure that this giant effort that has been underway for several years now continues to build momentum,” Samulski
said.
Chancellor Carol L. Folt said the next capital campaign will focus on
the needs of APS. One goal is to hire 20 faculty members over the
next decade who will collaborate with existing science departments
as well as the professional schools. Folt said the department serves
the broader vision of making Carolina a leading global public research university for the 21st century. “The greatest challenges facing the world today cannot be solved without multiple approaches
from many scientific disciplines,” Folt said. “Besides building bridges
between traditional disciplines and departments, this new initiative
can enhance the intellectual climate of the campus by modeling
science that is collaborative and problem-based.”
That’s the kind of science Samulski and Superfine have pursued
during their long and successful careers at Carolina.
Samulski, who earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from Princeton more
than 40 years ago, wrote the first dissertation in the field of polymer liquid crystals. After joining Carolina’s chemistry department
in 1988, Samulski created one of the highest-ranked polymer programs in the country by recruiting scientists who were already internationally recognized in the field. As chair of the chemistry department, Samulski also spearheaded the launch of the Science
Complex and the bond legislation that rejuvenated the campus infrastructure. That effort anticipated the need for a new interdisciplinary initiative in Applied Physical Sciences.
For his part, Superfine is a physicist who has advanced the understanding of biology by creating artificial lung cilia that allow
scientists to test and observe how cilia function to clear potential
infections from the lung. What they learn helps them improve treatments for cystic fibrosis and other diseases, and serves as a platform technology for blood diagnostics within Rheomics, the startup
company he co-founded. He joined the Carolina faculty in 1992.
Samulski said Superfine’s BeAM makerspace hub in Murray Hall,
which will be fitted with power tools, 3-D printers and electronics,
holds the potential to reshape the undergraduate experience for
all students at Carolina while better preparing those interested in
pursuing science careers. “I played with an Erector Set when I was
growing up,” Samulski said. “Most students of today had toys that
were flashing images on a computer screen.” The only building toys
they had could be snapped together without bolts or screws. While
those toys may be safer, Samulski said, they left a gap in their education not fully appreciated until they enter a science lab.
“The mechanical intuition is missing,” Samulski said. “The BeAM
makerspace for experimentation that Rich is developing will be a
place where students can develop that expertise and have fun in
the process.”
Superfine said this generation should “open up the box and look
inside” if they want to make a difference.
“Once they demystify existing technology, they can begin to understand how to reconfigure it,” Superfine said. “Then, they will be able
to see that the solution for making something better is already at
their fingertips.”