This is a proposal from the Physics bylaw unit and the physics graduate group. We propose an additional research theme to augment the 2009 Strategic Vision. Our theme is "Next Generation Materials – Active Multifunctional Matter (AMM)". This is a multi-disciplinary theme which is scientifically driven by physics, but would be inclusive of materials science and engineering, chemistry, applied mathematics, bioengineering and biology. The design and development of reponsive and active meta matter is one of the leading research areas.
1. Our refinements to the 2009 Strategic Academic Vision: We propose a new theme to supplement the existing strategic vision for the campus: Next Generation Materials – Active Multifunctional Matter (AMM). This theme will focus on responsive and reconfigurable materials that will combine the functionalities of its constituents in a synergistic manner. Broadly, these multifunctional materials will fall into two categories:
(a) Hybrid Quantum Metamaterials (HQM) – assembled from nanoscale artificial atoms, HQMs will be responsive “superlattices” with functionalities beyond naturally occurring materials. Their properties will be tunable by application of external controls, such as electric fields, mechanical stress and optical stimuli.
(b) Biological and biomimetic materials (BBM) – assembled from soft materials (such as polymers) to mimic complex biological systems, BBMs will offer the versatility and adaptability of nature but be controllably variable to perform desired functions.
Both these sub-topics our proposed theme of AMMs are inherently multi-disciplinary as they combine research techniques and fundamental knowledge of Physics, Chemistry, Systems and Molecular Biology, Materials Science and Engineering, Bioengineering and Applied Mathematics.
2. Important research problems in our themes, and contribution of our field: The design, fabrication and characterization of new materials built from the “bottom-up” or “top-down” have long been a part of the innovation of Condensed Matter and Material Physics. With rapid progress and improvement in fabrication and characterization techniques, such as ultrafast optics, electron microscopy, nano-lithography, electron and x-ray scattering, etc. the research community has been able to push the boundaries of capabilities of existing materials. Engineering novel active multifunctional matter (AMM) (materials that can combine many functions – such as magnetic semiconductors capable of both information storage and processing, and can be responsive to external control) is the next step in this progression. As any research topic conceived in the 21st century, design of AMM is very multidisciplinary. However, at the very heart of this research are fundamental questions that are the purview of Quantum and Condensed Matter Physics. These are:
(a) HQM specific research problems:
1. Identification, basic design and predictive theory: What are the most compelling multifunctional capabilities that will revolutionize material physics? How do we experimentally design and theoretically model the required functionalities to create a robust platform for macro-scale bottom-up assembly of specific nanoscale constituents? How do we improve on nature?
2. Material compatibility at the interface of hard and soft matter: How do we select and/or synthesize compatible nanoparticles and host matrices to achieve seamless integration and uniform functional properties?
3. Making ‘active’ metamatter: How do we optimize external control to tune material response?
Example of our contribution: One very good example of an HQM is a cloaking device being developed at UC Merced by some Physics faculty (or the ‘invisibility cloak’, as it is popularly labeled by physicists, who have all read Harry Potter). A typical cloak consists of hundreds of micron-scale split-ring resonators that result in altering the path of light incident on it. This robust design, however, is static, extremely fabrication intensive and incompatible with anything on a realistic length scale. Here, we are addressing this status quo by designing amorphous cloaks, where gold nanoparticles are dispersed in electro-optically liquid crystalline material. Not only is our fluid-based HQM amenable to scaling up, it is actively switchable by temperature and electric field.
The success of this project is incumbent on the integration of hard and soft condensed matter, quantum scale atomic and molecular physics and optics, which are exactly how we are strategizing the future of our Physics group. And this is an example of how we are in a strong position at UC Merced to leverage our unique Physics program to advance cutting edge research.
However, we note that as explained above, the nature of this research is such that while the primary design and execution are being handled by faculty in Physics, the nanoparticle synthesis involves Chemistry faculty and the theoretical modeling is being led by Applied Math faculty. This multidisciplinary research is a great strength of UC Merced’s research programs
(b) BBM specific research problems:
Biomaterials have evolved to operate under extreme conditions with high fidelity and enviable tunability and self-assembly. Synthetic approaches to mimic their functional properties are a promising avenue to realize multifunctional active matter. This research will have a big impact on the healthcare industry as we face an ageing population and increasing healthcare costs. In this topic, the important fundamental questions that require addressing are:
1. What specific physical properties of biomolecules are responsible for particular functions?
2. How do we mimic these properties based on an understanding of the underlying physics?
3. How do we modify these biomimetic materials to operate on varied length scales for different applications (ex. nanorobotics, cellular transport, microfluidics) both in vitro and finally, in vivo?
Our contributions: As in the case of HQMs, we have a unique blend of expertise that allows us to make invaluable contributions to these questions. Our soft condensed matter and biophysics faculty collaborate extensively with molecular and quantitative systems biology researchers to model, simulate and characterize biological systems on different scales. Examples include collaborations between faculty in QSB, BEST, CCB and also with biology and bioengineering departments at other institutions including Stanford, Kent State, UCSC, UIUC to name a few. The research touches on a wide variety of topics ranging from studying model lipid membranes and vesicles, to biopolymer aggregates to molecular motor functioning and intracellular transport to highly specific gating mechanisms. A specific example of this type of research would be computational and polymer physics modeling of the poorly understood gating mechanism of the nuclear pore complex in collaboration with members of QSB and CCB. This led to a fundamental understanding of polymer properties necessary for gating that could be realized in appropriately designed synthetic polymer gates and is currently being worked on in collaboration with a lab in MIT. Thus not only does this research contribute to answering basic questions of biological and medical relevance but understanding the basic underlying physics and materials science in these systems is a necessary prerequisite for building a new generation of bio-inspired multi-functional materials.
The Physics program at UC Merced is focused to grow in three areas (more on this in Section 4):
1. Condensed Matter and Material Physics (CMM)
2. Soft Matter and Biological Physics (SMB)
3. Atomic, Optical and Molecular Physics (AMO)
The research themes described above have natural overlap with our expertise. HQMs require strong collaborations between Condensed Matter and Soft Matter faculty, while BMMs will involve Soft Matter, Biophysics and AMO faculty.
3. Resources realistically needed to address these important research themes.
3.1 Personnel:
Between now and 2020, we would like to grow by 2 additional faculty each year, increasing our size by 14. These faculty will be divided between theory and experimental hires in each of our major thrust areas:
Condensed Matter – 3 experimental + 1 theory faculty
Soft Matter and Biophysics – 4 experimental + 2 theory faculty
AMO – 3 experimental + 1 theory faculty
3.2 Space:
- Experimental faculty will require labs, each about 1000 sq. ft. This will be inclusive of space for their graduate students
- Theory faculty will each need 400 sq. ft. of office space for their graduate students
- All faculty will need offices
- A shared “materials synthesis laboratory” which has fume hoods, microscopes, lithography tools, absorption spectroscope, … A materials synthesis laboratory would be efficient by reducing the need for fume hoods in a large number of individual labs (est. 1000 sq. ft.)
- A shared “electronics laboratory” with test and measurement equipment . The electronics laboratory should feature lockable cabinets with windows so that currently unused but shareable instruments owned by a particular group can be displayed. This enables sharing of equipment and creates useful space within the research laboratory. (est. 1000 sq. ft.)
- Server room space for computation needs of theory faculty (est. 200 sq. ft)
Total space: 13000 sq. ft. of research space and offices for 14 faculty. Additional office space will be needed for post doctoral researchers.
4. The programs to which we aspire to be like by 2020, and our unique approach.
Our program is unique in the way we have grown since its inception. Instead of a broad research program that includes all topics of a standard physics department (which include particle physics, string theory, etc.), we have a selection of research foci - Condensed Matter and Material Physics (CMM), Soft Matter and Biological Physics (SMB) and Atomic, Optical and Molecular Physics (AMO). While this sets us apart from traditional programs, we intend to retain this make-up of our program in the near future, as it has many advantages:
- Our chosen set of sub-disciplines form the basis of emerging research themes in the Physics comunity. Focusing on these have allowed us to use our resources efficiently and establish ourselves at the frontiers of current, high impact science with 5 CAREER awards, several other Young Investigator grants and 1 NSF Major Research Instrumentation grant. We have a coherent group of core faculty with common interests, which has enhanced collegiality and brought us closer to attaining critical mass in specialized areas so we can start planning applications for research center funding.
- These sub-disciplines are also the parts of Physics that are technologically most relevant. As a result, the Physics faculty also do highly applied and multi-disciplinary research on renewable energy, biophotonics and metamaterials.
- This has also allowed us to do focused recruitment of graduate students. Our graduate program currently has 38 PhD students.
- Our chosen areas are also the ones where most of the external research funding has historically been available and continues to be so.
Projecting through 2020, these are two well-established Physics programs we would like to grow to emulate:
1. UC Santa Cruz (total faculty: 27; total graduate students: 56; percent female students: 32%; percent of students on GSR: 32%)
2. Georgia Technology of Institute (total faculty: 29; total graduate students: 121; total female students: 15%; percent of students on GSR: 41%)
Both these programs have ~ 30 faculty, which is close to our target size for 2020. Bold lettering indicate the particular metrics we aspire to achieve.
5. Meeting campus metrics (see Attachment Impact Metrics Worksheet):
Research productivity:
The keys to reaching the next level in research excellence at UC Merced are: (a) adding faculty in order to facilitate competitive research collaborations and (b) supporting more graduate students. New faculty hires are included in our growth plan.
Campus enrollment (undergraduate):
Our goals associated with building upon our excellence at the undergraduate level are (a) appealing to a larger number of majors and (b) providing them with compelling research opportunities. We wish to double the number of Physics majors.
To provide continued and enriching research opportunities to our undergraduates, we aim to create two additional upper division laboratory courses. Currently we offer one upper division laboratory course (Modern Physics Laboratory). We aim to add laboratory components to the Modern Optics and Condensed Matter courses. These goals will necessitate finding space (one additional 1000 sq foot instructional laboratory) and acquiring equipment for an additional upper division laboratory courses. The additional instructional laboratory will be needed in any event if we hope to add more physics majors since the current Modern Physics laboratory is fully utilized for a lower division course in the fall and an upper division course in the spring.
Campus enrollment (graduate):
As shown in Section 4 we would like to increase our graduate enrollment to somewhere in the range 60 – 80. As campus enrollment of undergrads increases towards 10,000, the large service courses Physics faculty teach will offer additional TA positions. These will allow increased graduate financial admissions offers we can make, helping us meet our goal. With a total of 25 faculty, we will have a ratio of 1:2 faculty: graduate student for theoretical groups and 1:4 for experimental groups, both fairly standard in Physics departments.
