Magnet Lab Mirrors National Science & Engineering Report

May 1, 2002

Contact:
Janet Patten
(850) 644-9651

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Tallahassee, Florida-Seventy to eighty percent of the graduate students and postdoctoral fellows at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory are non-U.S. born scientists, illustrating a major National Science Foundation study released on April 30. These aspiring students have been attracted to the laboratory because it is the preeminent facility of its kind in the world and is staffed by prominent researchers led by NHMFL Chief Scientist and Nobel Laureate J. Robert Schrieffer. Following training, however, this next generation of scientific leaders may be inclined to take their new knowledge back to their home countries, as international investment in R&D appears to be on the rise.

According to Science and Engineering Indicators 2002, the United States currently finances 44 percent of the total worldwide investment in R&D. These investments, largely from industry, have fueled the strong economic growth of the last decade and contributed to the U.S. standing as a global economic powerhouse. Other nations are responding to this competitive challenge by increasing R&D investments, particularly in the areas of the physical sciences and engineering, which are major areas of interest at the NHMFL. Japan, for example, opened a new high magnetic field laboratory in 1995, the University of Nijmegen in The Netherlands has a new laboratory under construction, and Germany is proposing a significant investment in high magnetic field-related research comparable to that which led to the development of the NHMFL.

NHMFL Director Jack Crow sees a bright side to the report's conclusions. "Competition is important and healthy for science, the U.S. economy, and technological advancement around the world. One of the charges to the laboratory is to work with the private sector to enhance U.S. competitiveness and to open new frontiers in science that would enhance quality of life for all. We are doing that through collaborations with the other magnet laboratories and institutions, as well as through partnerships with dozens of private sector companies." Crow, a physicist himself, is heartened by the renewed international support for the physical and materials sciences, which he believes have driven most of the technical innovation during the last century, from MRI and high speed trains to semiconductors and circuits for use in computers. He is hopeful that international competition will re-balance federal research expenditures, which have increased for the life sciences from 41 to 47 percent of the federal total in the lat decade but declined from 37 to 29 for the physical sciences and engineering.

As for the shortage of U.S.-born young scientists, Dr. Crow expresses mixed feelings. “The laboratory actively promotes science education for all people of all ages. We have programs not just for K-12, but for ‘K-99’, and we welcome and encourage the best young scientists from around the world to come and study with us and to use the laboratory’s world-class facilities. Science and technology education is an integral part of our mission and we all have a stake in it.” To address the need for enhanced science education in the United States, however, Dr. Crow quickly points to the lab’s active educational outreach efforts, which include summer, in-residence, internship programs for undergraduates and K-12 teachers; tours and classroom-setting learning experiences for thousands of students in the Big Bend and South Georgia region; and development of novel curriculum materials for use in K-12 schools across the United States.

The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (www.magnet.fsu.edu) develops and operates state-of-the-art high-magnetic-field facilities that faculty and visiting scientists and engineers use for research in physics, biology, bioengineering, chemistry, geochemistry, biochemistry, and materials science. Sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the state of Florida, the lab is operated by Florida State University, and its 330,000-square-foot main facility is located in Tallahassee’s Innovation Park. The magnet lab also has facilities at the University of Florida and at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.