Science Research Groups

Within Chemical and Biological Sciences, three research divisions existEnvironmental Sciences, Fundamental Interactions and Molecular Processes. Environmental Sciences researchers study the chemical and physical aspects of chemical carcinogenesis by advanced laser techniques. They are also working to develop new approaches and to improve on existing technologies relevant to gene mapping and to DNA sequencing. The Fundamental Interactions division consists of Chemical Physics, in which research on the fundamental reactions in combustion and the nature of heterogeneous catalysis is performed, and Photochemical and Radiation Sciences, in which group members perform research on the fundamental processes in biological solar energy conversion. The Molecular Processes division consists of Chemical Energy, which is focused on catalysis, and Chemical Separations and Analysis, which is focused on analytical applications. Current projects in the Chemical Energy area include chemical kinetics and reactivity of transition metal complexes, new synthetic routes to inorganic catalytic materials using organometallic precursors and molecular "stepping stones", spectroscopic and kinetic characterization of metal oxide catalysts, spectroscopic and phenomenological studies of catalysts and advanced materials, and organometallic complexes in homogeneous catalysis. Chemical Separations and Analysis projects are in the areas of analytical separations, analytical spectroscopy, lasers in analytical chemistry, chemical analysis at liquid-solid interfaces, and metal hydride batteries.

Our program has a single overarching goal: to synthesize and to understand the basic principles governing properties and behavior of novel materials and structures. Our program is committed to world-class research currently focusing on two classes of solid-state materials1) Metal-rich inorganic solid-state phases including quasicrystalline materials; and (2) Macromolecular systems. In both classes, development of heretofore-unknown materials is emphasized. A synergistic combination of experiment and theory involving multi-disciplinary approaches is a hallmark of the program. Within the first class, metal-rich solid-state phases, topics of investigation are electronic stabilization; atomic structure; surface structure and properties; solute effects; and macroscopic growth. a particular strength is our work on quasicrystalline materials, which constitute a subset of metal-rich solid-state phases. Within the second class, macromolecular systems, the emphasis is on the development of novel polymeric and polymer-inorganic bioinspired materials that exhibit self-assembly at multiple length scales. An important aspect is the development of nuclear magnetic resonance techniques for characterization of these bioinspired materials.

The Office of Nuclear Physics supports a community of scientists who seek to understand the fundamental forces and particles of nature as manifested in nuclear matter.

SLAC is one of the world s leading research laboratories. Established in 1962, it is located at Stanford University in Menlo Park, CA. Our mission is to design, construct and operate state-of-the-art electron accelerators and related experimental facilities for use in high-energy physics and synchrotron radiation research.

The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, providing more than 40 percent of total funding for this vital area of national importance. It oversees and is the principal federal funding agency of the Nations research programs in high-energy physics, nuclear physics, and fusion energy sciences. The Office of Science manages fundamental research programs in basic energy sciences, biological and environmental sciences, and computational science. In addition, the Office of Science is the Federal Governments largest single funder of materials and chemical sciences, and it supports unique and vital parts of U.S. research in climate change, geophysics, genomics, life sciences, and science education. The Office of Science manages this research portfolio through five interdisciplinary program offices: Advanced Scientific Computing Research, Basic Energy Sciences, Biological and Environmental Research, Fusion Energy Sciences, and High Energy Physics and Nuclear Physics. In addition, the Office of Science sponsors a range of science education initiatives through its Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists program. The Office of Science also manages 10 world-class laboratories, which often are called the crown jewels of our national research infrastructure. The national laboratory system, created over a half-century ago, is the most comprehensive research system of its kind in the world. Five are multi-program facilities: Argonne National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

The Smithsonian's Global Volcanism Program seeks better understanding of all volcanoes through documenting their eruptions small as well as large during the past 10,000 years. Search our database to find volcanoes from around the world.

The Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) is a joint program of the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAFGI), and the State of Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys (ADGGS). AVO was formed in 1988, and uses federal, state, and university resources to monitor and study Alaska's hazardous volcanoes, to predict and record eruptive activity, and to mitigate volcanic hazards to life and property.

Home of the Hubble Space Telescope, a NASA Origins mission that seeks answers to fundamental questions about the universe and our place in it. Nearly 400 years after Galileo first observed the heavens through a telescope, we continue to seek answers to age-old questions about the universe. And while the technology has evolved over the centuries, the inquiry remains essentially the same: Whats out there, where did it come from, and what does it mean? At the Space Telescope Science Institute, were working hard to study and explain the once-unimaginable celestial phenomena now made visible using Hubbles cutting-edge technology. In the course of this exploration we will continue to share with you the grace and beauty of the universe because the discoveries belong to all of us. Probe deeper! Explore the site to learn more about who we are and what we do. HubbleSite is produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI). STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA), for NASA, under contract with the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).

The University of Texas at Austin Institute for Geophysics (UTIG) is a leading academic research group in geology and geophysics. Founded in 1972 by geophysicist/oceanographer, Maurice Ewing, it conducts geophysical investigations of the history, structure, and dynamics of the earth's crust and of earthquake phenomena. UTIG is a research component of the Jackson School of Geosciences, which conducts basic and applied geophysical research and graduate student training for The University of Texas at Austin.

The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research is dedicated to ensuring the development of a cure for Parkinson's disease within this decade through an aggressively funded research agenda. Enormous progress toward finding a cure has been made on many neurological fronts, and scientists' understanding of the brain and how disease affects it has increased dramatically. The Foundation seeks to hasten progress further by awarding grants that help guarantee that new and innovative research avenues are thoroughly funded and explored. Actor Michael J. Fox established the Foundation in May 2000 shortly after announcing his retirement from the ABC television show Spin City. In 1998 he publicly disclosed that he had been diagnosed with young-onset Parkinson's disease seven years earlier.

Johns Hopkins Medicine has provided international leadership in the education of physicians and medical scientists, in biomedical research, and in the application of medical knowledge to sustain health since the opening of The Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1889. Today, Hopkins Medicine brings together the faculty physicians and scientists of The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine with the organizations, community physicians, nurses and other professionals of The Johns Hopkins Health System to continue that mission.

The National Center for Health Statistics' Web site is a rich source of information about Americas health. As the Nations principal health statistics agency, we compile statistical information to guide actions and policies to improve the health of our people. We are a unique public resource for health information-a critical element of public health and health policy. Working with partners throughout the health community, we use a variety of approaches to efficiently obtain information from the sources most able to provide information. We collect data from birth and death records, medical records, interview surveys, and through direct physical exams and laboratory testing. NCHS is a key element of our national public health infrastructure, providing important surveillance information that helps identify and address critical health problems. Here at NCHS, information is at the core of our mission and our Web site is a vital part of our effort to make this information work for you. Our site is designed to provide you with quick and easy access to the wide range of information and data available from us. We include an overview of our major data collection activities, present our data findings, and provide information about special activities and initiatives to improve access to--and the quality of--health statistics information. Our Web site has links to additional sources of health information and provides a way for you to query us electronically to obtain answers to your specific questions.

The IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center is the headquarters for the IBM Research Division -- the largest industrial research organization in the world with 8 labs worldwide. Established in 1961, the Watson Research Center is located in Westchester County, New York and Cambridge, Massachusetts and spans 3 sites and 4 buildings -- the main laboratory in Yorktown Heights, 2 buildings in Hawthorne, and 1 building in Cambridge. An approximate 1,790 people are employed between these 4 facilities. The research focuses primarily on physical and computer sciences, semiconductors, systems technology, mathematics and information services, applications & solutions.

NOAA's research laboratories, Office of Global Programs, and research partners conduct a wide range of research into complex climate systems and how they work. These scientists want to improve their ability to predict climate variation in both the shorter term , like cold spells or periods of drought, and over longer terms like centuries and beyond. NOAA researchers will continue their consistent and uninterrupted monitoring of the Earth's atmosphere that can give us clues about long-term changes in the global climate. The data collected worldwide by NOAA researchers aids our understanding of, and ability to forecast changes in, complex climatic systems. Using ever more powerful and sophisticated computer systems, NOAA researchers are working on numeric modeling of climate systems that will help improve the accuracy of climate forecasts.

Located on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley, just above the Lawrence Hall of Science and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories, the Silver Space Sciences Laboratory was built by NASA in 1966 to conduct basic space research in a variety of fields. SPRG conducts experimental research in space plasma physics on a variety of different spacecraft covering the earth's magnetosphere, auroral zone, tail region, the interplanetary solar wind, and in the near-space environments of other planets. Our emphasis is generally on the detailed, high time and spatial resolution measurements of the microphysics that governs the behavior of the larger scale processes occurring in these planetary, interplanetary, and presumably most other astrophysical plasmas. To accomplish this aim we conceive, design, and build state-of-the-art plasma particle detectors and electric field sensors to make in situ measurements of fields and particle distributions in various space plasmas. From these measurements we can study particle acceleration, plasma waves, wave-particle interactions, currents, various types of shocks and boundaries between different plasma environments, and other phenomena of interest to both basic plasma physics and general space physics. Instruments are flown on small NASA sounding rockets to study particle acceleration and wave-particle interactions in the Earth's northern auroral zone, while a multitude of satellite missions currently underway or in construction carry our instruments to more distant space plasmas surrounding the earth or in other regions of the solar system.

The Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences is a national and international visitor research institute. It runs research programmes on selected themes in mathematics and the mathematical sciences with applications in a very wide range of science and technology. It attracts leading mathematical scientists from the UK and from overseas to interact in research over an extended period.

The Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) exists to further mathematical research through broadly based programs in the mathematical sciences and closely related activities. From its beginnning in 1982 the Institute has been primarily funded by the NSF with additional support from other government agencies, private foundations, and academic and corporate Sponsors. Now more than 1700 mathematical scientists visit MSRI each year, many for substantial periods.

Since the mid-1970s, the Chaos Group at Maryland has done extensive research in various areas of chaotic dynamics ranging from the theory of dimensions, fractal basin boundaries, chaotic scattering, controlling chaos, etc. It is hoped that the knowledge we have gained is of use to others, and it is the objective of this web site to disseminate those fruits of labor. It is found that the ideas of chaos have been very fruitful in such diverse disciplines as biology, economics, chemistry, engineering, fluid mechanics, physics, just to name a few. Chaos is a multidisciplinary science, and this is reflected in the fact that the members of the group are affiliated with diverse departments and institutes. The Maryland Chaos Group has been ranked #1 (tied with the University of Texas, Austin) in the country by U.S. News!

The Acoustic Monitoring Project of the VENTS Program has performed continuous monitoring of ocean noise since August, 1991 using the U.S. Navy SOund SUrveillance System (SOSUS) network and autonomous underwater hydrophones. Areas of study include: Ocean seismicity - Hydroacoustic monitoring allows the detection and precise location of small submarine earthquakes and volcanic activity. Bioacoustics - Underwater acoustic methods are being used to study the distribution of large whales in the open oceans. Environmental noise - Studies of the effect of noise, both man-made and natural, on marine life are being planned with NOAA Fisheries researchers.

Arlindo is an acronym for Arus Lintas Indonesia, meaning 'Indonesian throughflow' in Bahasa Indonesia. The Arlindo program is a joint oceanographic research endeavor of Indonesia and the United States, designed to study the circulation and mixing of waters within the Indonesian seas. Arlindo Goal: to resolve the circulation and water mass stratification within the Indonesian Seas in order to formulate a thorough description of the source, spreading patterns, inter-ocean transport and dominant mixing processes within the Indonesian Seas. Such products are used for the development of regional and global ocean circulation models; large scale coupled ocean/atmosphere models sufficient for prediction of climate and global change; understanding of the environmental conditions within the Indonesian Seas and improved understanding of the factors that affect primary productivity within Indonesian waters.