Dorothy Pak - US grants

This renewal project will focus on integrated analyses of 32 piston cores that provide a very high resolution paleoceanographic and paleoclimatological record of the period from ~150 ka to ~700 ka in the Santa Barbara Basin. The piston cores present an unprecedented opportunity to constrain orbital- and millennial-scale changes before 160 ka, and researchers will combine biostratigraphic, paleoceanographic, and sequence stratigraphic methods to analyze the cores and refine the stratigraphic correlation among the cores and interpretations of basin deposition patterns. A specific goal is to determine whether certain proxy measurements (e.g., Mg/Ca) that have been successfully applied to younger core material can be used to reliably interpret older cores in this area. The most important broader impact is the capacity of this research to extend the high resolution climate record back to ~700 ka. The project will also support undergraduate and graduate student researchers.

The goal of the Partnership for Education and Research in Materials (PREM) between Jackson State University (JSU) and the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) is to establish a permanent and collaborative research environment and educational structure in the area of materials science. A well-defined target is to increase recruitment, retention and degree attainment of JSU students-especially in doctoral degree programs. This PREM proposal will build upon an existing and growing relationship between JSU and the UCSB. One of the most exciting and outstanding features of the PREM is the development of a truly synergistic relationship between Jackson State and UCSB. As a result, the impact of the PREM on the MRL at UCSB and the greater UCSB campus will be as great as the PREM's impact on the developing area of materials research at JSU. The PREM will allow JSU to become a leader in materials research, while at the same time establishing strong educational ties between JSU and UCSB. In terms of human resources, the PREM program will provide an opportunity for the Materials Research Laboratory at UCSB to engage with some of the best minority students in the country and through exposure to the research and teaching environment at UCSB, inspire the students to doctoral degrees in Materials with the majority of them selecting UCSB for their studies. The materials research objective will focus on the development and application of new materials. Specifically, they will focus on three research subprojects that are characterized by cutting-edge world-class research and a highly collaborative research environment between JSU and UCSB. The mission of this proposal is to develop 1) organic semiconductors based on small molecules or conjugated polymers which are extremely promising materials for many types of applications, ranging from electronic circuitry to flexible displays, and from solar cells to biological and chemical sensors, 2) optical nanosystem using LIF technique at the nano-bio interface to detect DNA damage, RNA interaction and modification of nucleic acid bases. The proposed research is of fundamental scientific interest as well as a crucial component in the development of state-of-the-art devices and sensors.

Critical to the success of this PREM will be the establishment of infrastructure for the education, training and mentoring of minority students and postdoctoral fellows through formal course, workshops and laboratory rotations. The spectrum of activities planned in this collaborative proposal include development of a Two-year Masters program at JSU which a strong focus in Materials that effortlessly bridges to the established collaborations to UCSB doctoral programs in Materials. Establishment of a collaborative undergraduate Materials Science Interns program as well as active and hands-on undergraduate and graduate courses to prepare minority students for future generation scientist will also be a major focus. This PREM proposal will also play an important role in the larger framework of the JSU College of Science, Engineering, and Technology by attracting students from School of Engineering and other departments and by promoting inter-departmental collaboration between faculty members.

The Research Experience for Undergraduates Site at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) has a unique international emphasis. This program leverages the facilities and resources of the International Center for Materials Research (ICMR) and Materials Research Laboratory (MRL) at UCSB and partner institutions in Australia, Chile, China, Germany, Netherlands, South Korea, and UK to offer international research experience to undergraduate students. The program's unique feature is the student exchange between research laboratories in the US and other countries. The student interns will engage in research projects in the areas of nano/bio-materials physics, chemistry, and engineering for 10 weeks every summer and interact with faculty mentors, post doctoral scholars, and graduate students in different research groups. This research program is designed to inspire students to continue graduate study abroad and prepare them for globally engaged science and engineering careers.

Intellectual Merit: This resaerch seeks to carry out a high-resolution multiproxy study of climate change over the last 2,000 year in Southern California in the Santa Barbara Basin. The research will improve the ability to predict the environmental response to global warming in Southern California and will help to understand how regional precipitation, extreme weather events and ocean circulation responded to past Holocene climate change in the area. High resolution paleoclimate data will be collected on sediment cores that span the Little Ice Age interval, Medieval Climate Anomaly, and the rapid warming in the 20th and 21st Centuries. Project objectives will be reconstruction of sea surface temperature shifts for the targeted intervals at ~10 year resolution. Reconstruction of the biogenic and lithologic sedimentary input into the basin with a 1-2 year resolution via scanning XRF will also be used to identify extreme weather events. Data from this time series will be compared with terrestrial paleoclimate records in terms of tree rings, pollen profiles, and archeological dates. Multiple box and Kasten cores will be sampled and analyzed for radiocarbon and varves to constrain ages. Multi-species planktonic foram Mg/Ca ratios and oxygen isotope analyses will illuminate sea surface temperatures. Census counts of forams, radiolarians, and diatoms will provide information on seasonal shifts in water column structure and bioproductivity. Results will allow ecosystem reconstructions and will inform us about the climate conditions and land/ocean responses in the last 2,000 years. Data will be also analyzed to try and find any periodicities associated with Pacific Decadal Oscillations (PDO) and El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO).

Broader Impacts: The regional effect of climate change on human resources is of significant societal importance under the present conditions of climate warming. This project will support two female PIs and advance the professional training of several graduate and undergraduate students. Efforts will be made to recruit students from groups under-represented in the sciences using established minority outreach engines. Results of the work will be broadly disseminated to the public over the Internet through the EarthGuide website, which will include related curriculum at the high school level.

This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) award supports a program at the University of California, Santa Barbara, entitled Conversion of Energy Through Molecular Platforms. In this program, an interdisciplinary approach to graduate education is aimed at providing a new generation of chemical scientists and engineers with the technical skills, environmental awareness, business expertise, and teamwork approaches that will be required to address fundamental and applied issues in the generation and conversion of energy in efficient and environmentally-sustainable ways. The program is founded on the recognition that graduate students of Materials Chemistry and Engineering are conventionally trained to prepare and employ specific classes of functional materials to address particular technological needs. For a problem as broad and as urgent as global energy needs, these traditional modes of training do not suffice. In our new interdisciplinary model of education, the focus is on the better husbanding of fossil fuel resources, and on the inexpensive and large-scale conversion of solar energy to electricity. Graduate students with diverse backgrounds, drawn from a broad pool from across the country, are directed to address issues in energy conversion without being confined to any single material or technology, while learning to appreciate the economic and environmental issues that impact the implementation of technology. A mark of the program is a solid foundation in the entrepreneurial and communication skills needed to influence fundamental research directions, industrial advances, and national priorities in a significant and lasting manner. IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries.

This award continues the funding for the International Materials Institute at the University of California at Santa Barbara, called the International Center for Materials Research (ICMR), which was founded in 2004. During the next five years, ICMR will continue to promote international research collaborations and education in materials science and engineering with the goals to (1) enable ground-breaking discoveries by facilitating multidisciplinary, international collaborations, (2) provide opportunities for junior researchers to develop the skill needed to excel in a global research environment and (3) integrate materials research experiences with an awareness of environmental and developing world issues into undergraduate curricula. The IMI covers thematic research programs in a broad range of experimental and theoretical materials science topics, such as, multifunctional materials and complex oxides, strongly correlated materials, materials theory for experimental problems, multiscale modeling of electrochemical systems for energy applications. Each research program begins with an international workshop to define pressing issues in the field, followed by a school to train graduate students and junior researchers, and extended international exchange visits by students and faculty. Finally a wrap-up conference on each research program allows progress to be summarized, future directions to be defined, and facilitates initial evaluation of program effectiveness. This IMI serves as an umbrella for existing and new world-wide networks of collaborations at the individual researcher and institutional levels. International research collaborations encompass many countries in Asia, Europe, and Latin America while workshops and schools include participants from across the globe. Furthermore, the IMI offers international research fellowships, travel grants to pursue research in foreign laboratories, undergraduate exchange program, student-led engineering design projects and travel fellowships focused on materials research related issues in emerging regions of the world, as well as student science reporter apprentice opportunities. The IMI management team consists of UCSB faculty members, administrative coordinators, and a local steering committee. A U.S.-wide advisory board helps solicit and select ideas for new programs and an international advisory board provides general guidance for IMI activities.

The goal of the Partnership for Education and Research in Materials (PREM) between Jackson State University (JSU) and the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) is to establish a permanent and collaborative research environment and educational structure in the area of biomaterials science. A well-defined target is to increase recruitment, retention and degree attainment of JSU students-especially in doctoral degree programs. This PREM project will build upon an existing and growing relationship between JSU and the UCSB. One of the most exciting and outstanding features of the PREM is the development of a truly synergistic relationship between Jackson State and UCSB. As a result, the impact of the PREM on the MRL at UCSB and the greater UCSB campus will be as great as the PREM's impact on the developing area of materials research at JSU. The PREM will allow JSU to become a leader in materials research, while at the same time establishing strong educational ties between JSU and UCSB. In terms of human resources, the PREM program will provide an opportunity for the Materials Research Laboratory at UCSB to engage with some of the best minority students in the country and through exposure to the research and teaching environment at UCSB, inspire the students to doctoral degrees in Materials. The materials research objective will focus on the development and application of new materials. Specifically, they will focus on three research subprojects that are characterized by cutting-edge world-class research and a highly collaborative research environment between JSU and UCSB. The mission of this project is to develop: 1) Magnetically/Mechanically-Active Hybrid Biomolecular Gels, 2) Multifunctional Nanostructured Materials, and 3) Theoretical and Experimental Understanding of Biophysicochemical Interactions at the Nanobio Interface. The research is of fundamental scientific interest as well as a crucial component in the development of state-of-the-art devices and sensors.

Critical to the success of this PREM will be the establishment of infrastructure for the education, training and mentoring of minority students and postdoctoral fellows through formal courses, workshops and laboratory rotations. The spectrum of activities planned in this collaboration include the development of a Two-year Masters program at JSU which a strong focus in Materials coupled to a Bridges to the Doctorate at UCSB program. Establishment of a collaborative undergraduate Materials Science Interns program as well as active and hands-on undergraduate and graduate courses to prepare minority students for future generation scientist will also be a major focus. This PREM will also play an important role in the larger framework of the JSU College of Science, Engineering, and Technology by attracting students from School of Engineering and other departments and by promoting inter-departmental collaboration between faculty members. The PREM will continue its community outreach program, Nanodays, at both the Mississippi Museum of Natural Sciences and the Memphis Zoo.

UTEP-UCSB PREM: Fundamental Molecular and Interfacial Design for Next Generation Photovoltaic Systems

Abstract

A synergistic interdisciplinary research approach to the advancement of the basic understanding of the molecular and interfacial structures essential for efficient solar energy conversion will be conducted. In this project, an innovative, student-centered, inter-campus program called "UTEP-UCSB PREM" will be created to manage the scholarly activities of the participating students. Prof. L. Echegoyen from UTEP and Prof. C. Hawker from UCSB lead this institutional partnership in which eight UTEP and eight UCSB scientists and engineers (chemistry, materials, physics, and electrical and mechanical engineering) and one from Sandia National Laboratories form collaborative research teams that focus on the following key fundamental aspects of solar energy photovoltaic research: (1) theoretical calculations to predict mechanisms and guide the design of new active compounds, (2) development of high-yield novel systems with tunable properties for next-generation solar cells, (3) crystal engineering to establish structure-function relationships for improved cell efficiencies, (4) semiconductor nanocrystal growth simulations to predict function, and (5) development of new interfacial transparent materials with well-characterized composition and structure, to establish structure-function relationships and guide the design of next-generation interfaces for solar cells. The world-class instrument facilities at the UCSB MRL will enable and catalyze the exploration of the basic science of solar cells and provide unique opportunities for cross-fertilization of ideas, mentoring, and multidisciplinary training. The collaborative teams will hold research-focus group meetings via real-time video teleconferencing and hold an annual symposium hosted by each institution, revolving yearly. This will foster a high-level of research intensity and a well-orchestrated student-centered organizational environment. Ultimately, this research partnership will increase our understanding of the fundamental mechanism of solar cells and pave the way for the next generation of decentralized energy production in the world.

The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a major research university located in the Southwest region of the United States and has a student body composed of 78% Hispanic-Americans and 55% women out of which a large portion are low-income first-generation college students. The proposed UTEP-UCSB PREM partnership will promote and enhance the participation and advanced degree attainment of over 20 Ph.D. and over 30 B.S. students, most of whom will be from underrepresented minority groups. Students will develop expertise in the broad areas of green energy and sustainability while acquiring a strong set of multi-disciplinary skills in fundamental research. The participating students will carry out this research at both academic institutions and will be mentored by faculty from several disciplines. Mentoring of junior and mid-career faculty will also be fostered. This PREM program will allow UTEP to significantly accelerate its emergence as a focal center for materials research and develop a long-lasting collaborative partnership with UCSB's MRL. The research results under the UTEP-UCSB PREM partnership will be disseminated in peer-reviewed journals and conferences, and to the public at large via a dedicated web portal and frequent presentations at local K-12 schools.

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: The University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) Materials Research Laboratory (MRL), an NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC), provides a nurturing research experience in interdisciplinary materials science to a diverse group of undergraduate students from colleges and universities across the country where undergraduate research opportunities are limited. Eight undergraduates per year will complete 10-week summer internships at the UCSB MRL, where they will join additional students funded by the MRSEC program. All of these students will conduct research in the laboratories of UCSB faculty and participate in a series of workshops and colloquia intended to build scientific awareness and preparedness for graduate training and a career in materials science and engineering. An international component of the program will send an additional two students each summer to Gothenburg, Sweden for 10-week summer research internships at the Chalmers Institute of Technology.

TECHNICAL SUMMARY: Available research projects for REU participants in the laboratories of UCSB faculty cover a wide range of materials science topics including magnetodielectric materials with potential for use in capacitive detection of magnetic response, hierarchically-ordered metal and metal oxide thin films with applications in electronics and catalysis, organic semiconductors for thermoelectrics, design of photochromic responsive materials with potential applications in energy storage and chemical sensing, ultrasonic detection of failure in superalloy jet engine turbine blades, functionalization of fullerenes for organic photoelectrics, imaging of spins with nanoscale resolution with potential applications in molecular imaging, and conductive polymers for thermoelectrics. Participants at Chalmers will have opportunities to participate in research on measurement of cellular adhesion forces along a nanoparticle density gradient and development of soft materials for energy applications.

Paleoceanographic records provide a unique opportunity to understand how ecosystems have responded to rapid environmental change in the past, a topic of significant societal and scientific interest. This project will document ecological changes in nearshore environments over the past several thousand years in Southern California, including investigation of impacts of both past and modern climate change. This work is of particular importance because these coastal ecosystems play critical roles in carbon sequestration, marine fisheries, coastal economies, and cycling of nutrients. As part of an integrated effort, the California Academy of Sciences (CAS) will catalog, digitize and identify fossil samples collected along the California margin. These materials will be combined with samples from available sediment cores to develop a public online digital database through which the research community may access project data and results. Two graduate students per year from the University of California Davis (UCD) will work closely with CAS staff to receive training in core curation and database development. In addition, this project supports the training of two Ph.D. students, and undergraduate research interns at UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara. The project also supports intensive field and laboratory based coursework and mentored research at Bodega Marine Laboratory for two undergraduates per year who are pursuing careers in K-12 STEM teaching. A research blog will be generated to develop scientific communication and writing skills in undergraduate, graduate students and technicians involved in this project.

To complete this research, the research team will use sediment records from along the California margin to address two key questions: 1) How did the development of the modern oxygen minimum zone during the Holocene influence marine ecosystems, including multiple stages of perturbation and recovery? 2) Can we identify the marine ecological impacts of the Anthropocene, against a background of decadal-centennial scale variability? The team will utilize recent marine sediments to reconstruct marine microfossil response to both natural and anthropogenic environmental perturbation. This research will utilize a suite of available sedimentary archives (over 20 piston, box and multi cores), with moderately high sedimentation rates and available geochemical records, to identify and interpret metazoan and protistan assemblages. Microfossil assemblages will provide a framework to understand past, modern and future climate and oceanographic processes along the California margin. These results can be directly compared to modern instrumental records, and utilized to better predict future impacts of environmental change in this region.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

IRES: Cooperative for Advanced Materials in Energy-Related Applications (CAMERA)
The overarching goal of this project is to involve and train undergraduate and graduate student researchers from UCSB and other institutions in different scientific, academic, and international venues to develop a highly skilled, diverse and globally engaged workforce who can address energy challenges of today and the future. Three undergraduate students and four graduate students will travel to Chalmers University of Technology (Gothenburg, Sweden) each year for 8-10 week long research experiences. UCSB graduate students taking part in the research experiences at Chalmers will be recruited based on collaborative research topics, working broadly in the area of materials chemistry for energy conversion and storage. Undergraduate students will be recruited from US colleges and universities to participate in the summer undergraduate IRES program, with particular focus on recruiting participation by women and underrepresented minorities. The international component of the research and program will provide students with cultural perspectives and the opportunity to develop a global network in science.
The scientific challenge of this IRES project is to design, create, and understand novel materials and materials systems that can capture, convert, and store energy. This will be accomplished through synergistic and complementary coupling of resources and expertise in state-of-the-art synthesis, simulation, characterization, and testing at UCSB, Chalmers University of Technology, and multi-user x-ray and neutron facilities in Sweden. IRES students will participate in collaborative research between UCSB and Chalmers University through international research visits focused on battery materials; magnetocalorics, thermoelectrics, and dynamic polymers for energy capture; and carbon and oxide-based materials for electrocatalysis and electrochemical energy storage.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.