Office of the Chancellor > Speeches, Columns and Letters > Second CU-NIST Research Symposium

Second CU-NIST Research Symposium
March 22, 2007

Welcome and thank you for being part of this second CU-NIST Research Symposium.

I want to offer a special thanks to Dr. Tom O'Brian, director, Boulder NIST laboratories; Drs. Tim Quinn and Kent Rochford from NIST, who have diligently served on the organizing committee for this event; Dr. Stein Sture, chair of the organizing committee; and Professors Kristi Anseth from Chemical and Biological Engineering, Martin Dunn from Mechanical Engineering and Joe McLennan from Physics, who have served on the organizing committee.

AS many of you know, faculty from the University of Colorado at Boulder and scientists from NIST have been collaborating for more than 50 years in a variety of fields such as physics, chemistry, biochemistry, and all areas of engineering.

The relationship first started in 1954, shortly after NIST - or what was then called the U.S. Bureau of Standards — was created.

Informal connections were immediately established through adjoint or courtesy appointments for NIST scientists at CU. Likewise, several CU faculty and students worked at NIST during the summers primarily in Physics and Electrical Engineering.

Ten years later, in 1964 JILA was formed and established similar connections with the Physics Department and faculty in Chemistry and Biochemistry.

Early research focused on time and frequency, low-temperature science, radio frequency technology, optoelectronics, materials, and magnetic technology.

Over the past 20 years, these have been expanded to include areas such as quantum physics, chemical physics, nanoscience, optical science and precision measurement techniques.

In the 1970's, faculty from Chemical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering joined in, establishing close connections with NIST.

CU and NIST researchers have co-sponsored and organized numerous scientific and engineering conferences over the years, both nationally and internationally.

It is estimated that since the initial collaboration, more than 270 faculty and 480 graduate students have been involved in joint NIST-CU research activities, including JILA, which currently employs 160 scientists, including approximately 25 fellows and 45 administrative staff, with most of the NIST scientists holding adjoint faculty status in the departments of Physics, Chemistry or Biochemistry.

Clearly the principal benefits of this long standing relationship have been the impact it has had on the quality of work underway at both institutions. Three JILA fellows, Carl Wieman, Eric Cornell and John Hall, have received Nobel Prizes. Two individuals, Margaret Murnane and Deborah Jin, have been selected as MacArthur Fellows, and many others have received other national or international awards and honors.

Other benefits include the many PhD students that have benefited from the interactions with the researchers at both CU and NIST, but more importantly from the combined interactions and the synergies that have resulted from those collaborations - providing them with invaluable training and exposure to the many joint research activities underway at these two fine institutions.

In the years leading up to the NIST Boulder laboratories 50th anniversary celebration in 2004, CU faculty were asked by the administration to organize joint lecture series and research visits.

As part of the NIST celebration, which also featured many members of the CU faculty and joint research projects, the two institutions agreed to form a closer relationship through an extended Memorandum of Understanding.

The purpose of this MOU was to broaden the research collaboration outside the JILA agreement.

As part of that agreement, it was determined that there should be an annual research symposium to foster further collaboration between NIST scientists and CU faculty, researchers, and graduate students.

An important part of this symposium included a seed-grant competition to fund collaborative research, NIST and CU, through its Technology Transfer Office each contributed approximately $250,000 to this seed-grant competition, resulting in 10 grants of approximately $50,000.

The first symposium was held in November 2005, with approximately 250 participants, and included numerous poster presentations from both CU and NIST personnel. This meeting enhanced the communications between the researchers and the fostered additional collaborative efforts.

I have been told that the initial symposium has played a key role in the near doubling of the research collaborations between CU and NIST in recent years.

It is our hope that today's event, the second annual CU-NIST research symposium will serve as a vehicle to further enhance the collaborative research that is underway and open doors for new collaborations.

As a researcher myself, it is wonderful to see the level of coordination and collaboration that exists here between CU and NIST and I am committed to doing everything possible to foster and enhance these types of collaborations.

I hope that the day has been both informative and exciting for you and that this symposium will allow you to explore new ideas and develop closer collaborations with your colleagues.

G.P. "Bud" Peterson, Chancellor
University of Colorado at Boulder