Contact: Steve Sandoval, steves@lanl.gov, (505) 665-9206 (00-045)

University institute at Los Alamos studies materials at the cutting edge

Recent News Los Alamos scientist named Asian American Engineer of the Year Los Alamos scientist featured in NASA science update Los Alamos muon detector could thwart nuclear smugglers Wojciech H. Zurek named Phi Beta Kappa visiting scholar Four Los Alamos physicists honored by American Physical Society Los Alamos National Laboratory organizations earn seven out of 13 NNSA Pollution Prevention awards Carter Hydrick returns to the Bradbury Science Museum Feb. 15 Laboratory supports summer science program New NASA IBEX mission to carry Los Alamos instrument Beason takes top threat reduction post at Los Alamos

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., March 30, 2000 -- In the policy world, think tanks are a dime a dozen. In the scientific world, "institutes" are equally common, focusing on solving problems in major disciplines such as physics or biology.

But an institute based at the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory is different, because it promotes collaboration in cutting-edge materials science among researchers at many research universities, national laboratories and other institutions.

The Institute for Complex Adaptive Matter isn't confined within bricks and mortar, but seeks to gather together scientists who see materials science across the traditional disciplines as an exciting frontier where they can develop shared intellectual concepts and experimental research.

The Institute for Complex Adaptive Matter is located at Los Alamos but is a unit of the University of California, reporting to the UC Office of the President.

Created formally in spring 1999, the Institute for Complex Adaptive Matter's national and experiment-based scientific agenda is the study of complex adaptive matter -- the search for the organizing principles that govern emergent behavior in matter, be it animate or inanimate.

"ICAM seeks to identify, stimulate and conduct collaborative research and scientific training that draws from the biological, chemical and physical viewpoints on complex adaptive materials," said Don Parkin, co-director of ICAM with David Pines of Los Alamos' Theoretical Division.

The institute doesn't have its own research facilities, said Parkin. Rather, activities initiated by ICAM include multidisciplinary workshops devoted to promising research themes, communicating workshop results to the broader scientific community and catalyzing the formation of polydisciplinary, experiment-based research teams at leading research universities.

The study of complex adaptive matter, part of the general study of complexity, attempts to understand what happens when scientists put enough things together they don't know or for which they can't make predictions. It also is referred to as emergent or nonlinear behavior. It also covers a broad range of topics, from understanding how proteins fold to unraveling the mysteries of high-temperature superconductivity.

In August 1998, Parkin, Pines and others bounced the ICAM idea off visiting scientists. "We wanted to expose our ideas to the outside world and see what they thought," said Parkin. "The general reaction was 'It's an interesting idea,' " said Parkin, who with Pines and others then organized a December 1998 workshop at Los Alamos where visitors enthusiastically endorsed the idea of ICAM.

The University of California's name, Parkin noted, lends a strong educational component to ICAM, while strengthening the Laboratory's relationship with UC. The UC umbrella also allows ICAM to pursue National Science Foundation and private foundation support funds. "UC is the only entity in the mix that can do that since the UC Office of the President can receive private foundation funds," said Parkin.

The initial workshops conducted at Los Alamos in 1998 and 1999 received enthusiastic response. The University of California has committed more than $200,000 in start-up funds for ICAM, Parkin said. The institute also has received $150,000 in Laboratory Institutional Program Development funds. Additionally, the institute recently received its first two foundation grants: $25,000 from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation in support of its workshop program; and $45,000 from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to fund the rapid formation of nascent research groups.

ICAM's 28-member board of trustees include Laboratory scientists and researchers from Rutgers, the University of Chicago, the Salk Institute, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Stanford, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Florida State and six UC campuses. Fourteen of the trustees are members of the National Academy of Sciences.

At last summer's workshop, about 20 attendees discussed adaptive atoms and fundamental problems in chemistry, physics and biology, in which adaptive atoms play a significant role.

A workshop last fall was devoted to identifying the origins and role played by mesoscopic organization -- organization which falls between microscopic and macroscopic levels -- in soft, hard and biological matter. Among the topics discussed were how one might establish the structure-energy landscape-dynamics function connections in biology that will make possible the predictive design and synthesis of biomolecules.

Pines added that the initial workshops have resulted in 16 proposals for the funding of nascent multi-institutional research groups, on topics ranging from pattern formation in films to understanding the behavior of heme proteins, which are proteins containing a heme molecule.

Parkin said ICAM is an ideal venue for biologists. "ICAM says complexity is the common thread. Biologists have been working with complexity all along. We can learn from biologists. Conceivably, scientists could come here for months to use ICAM to infuse state-of-the-art thinking and develop new interactions and perspectives," Parkin continued. "When we talk about chemistry, physics and biology, we talk about them as equal partners in the development and pursuit of complex adaptive matter.

"That's why we think it's so right at Los Alamos," said Parkin. "Everyone of these things are part of Los Alamos' future."

More news releases from the Materials Science and Technology (MST) Division

More news releases about Materials Science