Solid State Chemistry Education:
Success Story or Crisis?
Our Chance to Shake-up the System !
Hanno zur Loye, Maggie Geselbracht
George Lisensky, Paul Maggard
Mike O'Keeffe, Angus Wilkinson
Mike Lufaso
Connections:
Between whom and to where?
High School
B.S.
College
University
Industry
Are there feedback loops?
Are they working?
And are we responding?
Ph.D.
Postdoc
Education For the Future
• Are we educating the solid state/ materials chemist of the
past or of the future?
• Who is this person?
• How many of them are there?
• What is the ideal skill set for them?
• Is there a shift in the skills needed today vs. yesterday to be
successful?
• How, where and when are these skills acquired?
• Degree needs: B.S., M.A., Ph.D., Postdoc ?
 What is a good degree these days?
Past vs. Future
• This is now, this was then - what has/should change?
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Basic chemistry background
Materials chemistry background
Analytical skills
Synthetic skills
Writing skills
Teaching skills
Research opportunities - local/remote
Presentation/public speaking skills
Instrumental competency
• How, where and when are these skills acquired?
• Who teaches them?
Solid State Materials
Chemist of the Future
• Who is this person?
 What does this person want to do?
 Degree? Job?
 What do we want this person to do?
 Degree? Job?
• Where does this person come from?
 Small schools? Large schools?
• Is this person male? female? minority?
US born?
 Is this person representative of the US population?
• Who will hire this person?
If not a Chemist, then what?
• What and who is the competition?
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Other sciences?
Medical school?
Business school?
Law school?
• Where are the jobs?
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Industry?
Academia?
Elsewhere?
Outsourced?
Simply not there anymore?
Knowledge Transfer/Feedback Loop
Keeping the degree "up to date"
How does industry fit
into the loop? Does
it? And how can it?
Faculty
Faculty teaches
undergraduates
Under
graduate
Graduate
BS undergraduates go
to graduate school
Ph.D. graduates go to
work as faculty
Industry
?
Faculty teaches
undergraduates
Graduate vs. Undergraduate Education:
More of the same or different?
Undergraduate
• Basic knowledge in all areas of
chemistry
• Intro to problem solving and
analytical thinking
• Intro research experience
• Exposure to modern
instrumentation and theory
• Exposure to interdisciplinary teams
• Exposure to industry via internship
• Become excited and stay excited
about science
Graduate
• Advanced, general and
specialized knowledge
• Pushing science via
instrumentation
• Work in interdisciplinary teams
• Collaborate with industry
• Access and experience with
national facilities
• Preparedness for jobs
 What is industry looking for?
 What is academia looking for?
What about Postdocs ???
Materials Chemistry and Education
• Mike O'Keeffe
Where are undergraduate students going?
Insights from a survey
• In 2005/2006 a survey of past participants in the
“NSF Summer Program in Solid State
Chemistry…” was undertaken
 80% of the 57 former students who responded
indicated that they primarily applied to the program to
get a research experience.
 Only 10% indicated that they primarily applied
because of an interest in solid state chemistry
 However, over 50% of respondents ended up in
graduate school studying materials chemistry
 Suggests that exposure to materials concepts before going to
graduate school can influence choice of graduate school topic
Where are undergraduate students going?
Insights from a survey
• The survey does not provide a strong indication
of employment choices for 1998-2004
participants
• Getting contact info for people who have left
school and gone into employment is difficult
 Of the 10 respondents who indicated employment
outside of academia, only 2 had jobs that were
identifiably materials related.
Solid State Courses
• Is there a tendency to include too much?
• Are there more and more exciting topics to
be covered each year, leading to a dilution
effect?
(I am assuming that no additional time is
available in today's already crowded
curriculum)
Solid State Courses
Shake up the System
• Should any of the ‘traditional’ topics be eliminated
and replaced with ‘modern’ topics?
• Should instrumentation/data analysis be
emphasized?
• Should non-chemistry skills (writing, analytical, logic,
problem solving, public speaking) be integrated into
the curriculum?
• How may interdisciplinary topics be included?
• Time limitation: broad overview or selected aspects
in more detail?
Solid State Courses
• What should be the ‘core’ topics of a
course?
 Symmetry, structure, bonding, physical
properties, can often cover too much.
 Are the current graduate textbooks really
suitable for undergraduates?
Undergraduate Solid State Materials
Courses
• Are undergraduates receiving sufficient laboratory
exposure to solid-state chemistry? (feedback loop
missing?)
 There are many published undergraduate experiments on, for
example, zeolites, semiconductors, fuel cells /electrochemistry,
superconductors, thermoelectrics, etc.
 However, the prevalence of solid-state and materials chemistry
laboratories remains relatively small among public universities.
 Thus, how do we better facilitate the integration of these laboratory
experiences into undergraduate education? (Cost effectiveness?
Establish precedence?)
Integrating The Excitement of Research
Into Education?
• (NRC reports) To attract talented students, course
goals should include:
 Excitement of applying chemistry fundamentals to new research
problems, issues, or related fields.
 Understanding the currently evolving processes of scientific inquiry at the
forefront of research.
• How can education keep pace with the rapid and
exciting advances in research?
 Many broadly-appealing research articles are presented in Science,
Nature and other journals.
 However, cutting-edge research is often difficult to locate in easy-to-read
articles and that provide a suitable introduction for students.
Critical Role of Undergraduate
Research
• How many of us got “hooked” by research?
• Long history of support and success in SSCM
 NSF Summer Research Program: 20 years!
 This program works!
• Increasing numbers of options in REU programs
• Mentoring undergrads in your labs during the year
• Plug for SSCM faculty at PUI’s doing research
 Requires our support as a community
 Lobby for your students with start-up funds (diffractometers, etc.)
 Stewardship on grant-writing and reviewing
Integrating Solid State Chemistry
in the Undergraduate Curriculum
• Teaching General Chemistry: A Materials Science Companion
 A great start (1993) but what now?
• Separate courses may not be the answer
 Issues of packed major curriculum
 Limited to solid state chemist on faculty
• Integrate topics in Inorganic and P-Chem lectures and
labs
 Need to share teaching resources!
 Labs in particular
 One-week hands-on “boot camp” in solid state chemistry
 Summer program tutorial
Key Topics to Integrate for Undergrads Do
we need more? Less? New topics?
• Crystal Structures
 Common structure types, Bravais lattices and basic space group
symmetry, group theory, Miller planes, phase relations
• Bonding in Metals and Semiconductors
 From molecular orbitals to band theory, doping
• Synthesis and Characterization
 Synthesis and reactivity (chimie douce) of extended solids, X-ray
powder diffraction, other techniques if possible?
• Properties in Extended Solids
 Structure property relationships, electrical (and ionic) conductivity
including superconductivity, magnetic ordering, optical properties,
dielectrics
• Laboratory, Applications, Special Topics
Needs of a Postdoc
• Why should a graduate student become a postdoc?
Required for research academia?
 What opportunities are available? How can one find out more
information?
 What additional skills should be developed?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of a
academic, government, or industrial postdoc?
 Research independence, interaction/contacts, $$$?
• How to obtain non-research knowledge?
 e.g. interviewing, grant/proposal writing, personnel management,
finances, service …
 Opportunities to obtain teaching experience?
• George Lisensky
Other Stuff
• Anybody? Anybody?