Broadening Participation in the
Mathematical and Physical
Sciences (MPS)
W. Lance Haworth
Executive Officer
Division of Materials Research
lhaworth@nsf.gov
AGEP Workshop, San Juan, PR – 27 January 2006
Directorate for
Mathematical and Physical
Sciences
Assistant Director for Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Division of
Astronomical
Sciences
Division of
Chemistry
Division of
Materials
Research
Division of
Mathematical
Sciences
Office of Multidisciplinary Activities
Division of
Physics
Broadening Participation
A Huge Challenge for MPS Science
The Face of American Science
Is Not the Face of America
U.S. population of 20–24-year-olds, by race/ethnicity:
Selected years, 1985–2020
SOURCE: National Science Board, Science and Engineering Indicators-2004
Broadening Participation in MPS Science
Strategy
•
Robust MPS presence in NSF-wide activities
•
Research based and embedded throughout MPS
•
Build capacity through partnerships
LA-STEM
PREM
LIGO
Hampton
• Every MPS program director can have an impact!
NSF invests in the best ideas from the most
capable people, determined by competitive
merit review
Merit Review Criteria
• What is the intellectual merit of the proposed
activity?
– how good is this stuff?
Reviewer Selection!!!
• What are the broader impacts of the
proposed activity?
– so what?
Office of Multidisciplinary Activities
(OMA)
• Catalyze & Support Emerging, Cross-Cutting Areas
• Champion Broadened Participation in MPS
• Enable and Facilitate through
– Partnerships
– Innovative models for education
– Broadly enabling infrastructure
– New research modalities
– Integration of research and education
** OMA does not accept or review proposals **
Broadening Participation
in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences
A FEW EXAMPLES
Activities range from pre-college students
and teachers to university faculty
Research Experiences for Teachers
Research Experience for Undergraduates
Discovery-based learning experiences
Wayne State Physics
•More than 300 MPS REU
(or similar) sites
•>50% female, ~20%
minorities
•REU and RET coupled for
synergy
•30 RET sites, 225
teachers
•Program has reached
>600,000 K12 students
Partner with Cornell University projects
in nuclear and high energy physics
Faculty Recruiting
ACS Academic Employment Initiative
Objectives
More inclusive hiring
More efficient hiring
Symposia on the academic hiring process
Poster session for prospective faculty members
Building Strong Academic Chemistry
Departments through Gender Equity
K. Houk, UCLA and C. Friend, Harvard
http://www.chem.harvard.edu/groups/friend/
GenderEquityWorkshop/index.html
January 29-31, 2006 Arlington, VA
Alliance for the Production of African American
Ph.D.s in the Mathematical Sciences
The Alliance consists of mathematics departments at four
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
together with departments in the mathematical sciences at
the three Iowa Regents universities
Less than 2% of all Ph.D. in mathematics awarded at
US universities each year are awarded to African
Americans, a percentage that has remained static over
the last 25 years. The goal of this project is to ease the
transition to graduate programs in mathematics for
students attending HBCUs, with the aim of improving
these numbers.
2006 Conference
15-19 February
San Jose, CA
http://nsbp.org/
Computational Science Workshop
for Underrepresented Groups
P. Vashishta, R. Kalia, A. Nakano DMR-0427188
W. Goddard, T. Cagin, P. Meulbroek, M. Ortiz,
A. van Duin DMR-0427177 and A. Grama DMR-0427540
Supported under an ITR award at USC : De Novo
Hierarchical Simulations of Stress Corrosion Cracking in
Materials
• Participants: 25 undergraduate students and
10 faculty mentors, primarily from Historically
Black Colleges and Universities and Minority
Serving Institutions.
•Hands on experience in parallel computing,
Grid computing and visualization.
• Participants built a parallel computer and then
used it to perform a number of parallel
computing exercises.
Partnerships for Research and Education in
Materials (PREM)
www.mrsec.org/prem
….broaden participation in materials research and education by
stimulating the development of long-term, collaborative
partnerships between minority institutions and DMR-supported
groups, centers and facilities
• Awards to minority institutions
• Up to $750K/year for 5 years
• First 4 awards in FY04
–
–
–
–
CSULA (Cal Tech MRSEC)
FAMU (Carnegie-Mellon MRSEC)
UPR Humacao (Penn MRSEC)
UPR Mayaguez (Wisconsin MRSEC
and NIRT)
• FY06 competition currently underway
Summer 05 - UPR Mayaguez PREM
Broadening Participation – The Challenge
FY05
ALL PIs
FEMALE
PI
MINORITY
PI
NSF #
6243
1211
310
% of AWARDS
100%
19%
5%
MPS #
1591
218
80
% of AWARDS
100%
14%
5%
DMR #
266
43
22
% of AWARDS
100%
16%
8%
COMPETITIVE
RESEARCH
AWARDS
Thank You!