<div class="gmail_quote">Dear LA-SiGMA Investigators,<div>No doubt you have all seen the email announcement from Ed Seidel about the NSF Materials Genome Initiative. This is part of a much larger initiative, which if the budget situation in DC allows, will involve most of the funding agencies. The impetus for this initiative came from Tom Kalil who works in the President's Office of Science Policy. Tom was responsible for the National Nanoscale Initiative when he worked in the Clinton White house. Thomas Sterling and I participated in the original workshop in August 2009 called to help focus this initiative. At that time, the initiative was called the National Computational Sciences Initiative and you may still find these words in some reports. The focus was on Materials by Design for energy storage, transmission, generation, and conversion and their impact on the environment. The report from this workshop is linked <a href="http://www.phys.lsu.edu/~jarrell/LA-SiGMA/SGCDBES_rpt.pdf">here</a>. However, this initiative has grown in scope since then, as reflected in <a href="http://www.phys.lsu.edu/~jarrell/LA-SiGMA/materials_genome_initiative-final.pdf">this report</a> from the Office of Science Policy. </div>
<div><br></div><div>Last week, at a DOE workshop, we learned that BES has $40M in the President's FY12 budget for the National Materials Genome or Materials by Design Initiative. This is indicated in the included two pages from a <a href="http://www.phys.lsu.edu/~jarrell/LA-SiGMA/Davenport2pages.pdf">talk</a> by Jim Davenport presented at this workshop.</div>
<div><br></div><div>If the budget situation is settled without significant cuts to these programs, there will be a significant opportunity for LA-SiGMA investigators. On possibility, which we are presently discussing, is an energy hub. But there are many other possibilities that could be seeded by LA-SiGMA and our regional and national partners, and supported by this new initiative, including a center of excellence which is the central goal of LA-SiGMA.</div>
<div><br></div><div>best regards,</div><div>Mark<br clear="all"><font color="#888888"><div><br></div>-- <br>*****************************************************************<br>* Mark Jarrell, Professor | <a href="http://www.phys.lsu.edu/~jarrell" target="_blank">www.phys.lsu.edu/~jarrell</a> *<br>
* Dept. of Physics & Astron. | e-mail: <a href="mailto:jarrellphysics@gmail.com" target="_blank">jarrellphysics@gmail.com</a> *<br>* Louisiana State University | Physics phone: <a href="tel:%28225%29%20578-7528" value="+12255787528" target="_blank">(225) 578-7528</a> *<br>
* Baton Rouge, LA 70803 | CCT phone: <a href="tel:%28225%29%20578-8271" value="+12255788271" target="_blank">(225) 578-8271</a> *<br>
*****************************************************************<br><br>
</font></div>
</div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br>*****************************************************************<br>* Mark Jarrell, Professor | <a href="http://www.phys.lsu.edu/~jarrell">www.phys.lsu.edu/~jarrell</a> *<br>
* Dept. of Physics & Astron. | e-mail: <a href="mailto:jarrellphysics@gmail.com">jarrellphysics@gmail.com</a> *<br>* Louisiana State University | Physics phone: (225) 578-7528 *<br>* Baton Rouge, LA 70803 | CCT phone: (225) 578-8271 *<br>
*****************************************************************<br><br>