PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS

Performance Highlights For Administration and Management (Click Here)

GOAL: Enabling the U.S. to uphold a position of world leadership in all aspects of science, mathematics, and engineering.

Research Project Support: NSF investments in fundamental research activities provide support for the cutting edge research that characterizes world leadership in many fields. They help to maintain the nation's capacity to perform in science and engineering, particularly in the U.S. academic research enterprise.

• Parallel Computing Systems. Since the 1960s, NSF has supported research on various aspects of parallel computing. During the past 10 years the overall investment, which has supported a broad range of related activities with impact well beyond parallel systems, has totaled approximately $285 million. As a result of this investment and the investments of other agencies, there has been a paradigm shift from sequential systems with a single processor to parallel systems consisting of from a few, to thousands of processors capable of executing instructions simultaneously. In addition to being the only form of computing capable of addressing the high performance needs of the science and engineering research community, parallel computing is also becoming increasingly pervasive in workstations and other less powerful systems as a cost-effective alternative to sequential computing.

• Polymers. NSF invests about $45 million annually on basic research on polymers through about 300 individual investigator grants and several centers. Past NSF support of basic research has contributed substantially to the $300 billion per year U.S. polymer industry. It is important to find cheaper and more benign solvents to replace toxic volatile organic solvents for polymer synthesis. In research supported jointly by NSF and EPA, an environmentally benign method of polymer synthesis was discovered using liquid carbon dioxide. This research received one of Discover magazine's 1995 Awards for Technological Innovation, and several chemical companies are supporting its development for commercial use. Other exciting work in polymers focuses on finding ways to use plastics in place of silicon as the base material of microcircuits. NSF grantee Alan Heeger recently received the international Balzan Prize for his work in the area of Science of New Materials, where Heeger and collaborator Fred Wudl synthesized all-plastic light emitting diodes.

• Genetic Code. Two of the major challenges in biology are to determine the genetic blueprint of organisms, as encoded in their DNA, and to decipher how this linear blueprint leads to the complicated structure of biological molecules. The Science and Technology Center for Molecular Biotechnology, with $24 million from NSF over the past seven years, has developed integrated tools and instruments to meet these challenges. A distinguishing feature of the Center's research is that it focuses the most powerful methods from chemistry, computer science, engineering, mathematics and physics on biological problems. Researchers at the Center were involved in the development of the first automated DNA sequencer, and their current research is leading to new analytical instrumentation with greater sensitivity and productivity than existing instruments. Recently, the University of Washington has capitalized on the Center's success by creating a new Department of Molecular Biotechnology that will provide a multidisciplinary educational program of biology, genomics, protein chemistry, instrumentation and engineering.

Facilities: NSF support of large multi-user facilities provides physical and institutional capabilities necessary for scientists and engineers to carry out research which enables the United States to uphold world leadership across a broad spectrum of scientific and engineering fields.

• The Academic Research Fleet includes ships, submersibles and large shipboard equipment necessary to support NSF-funded research and the training of oceanographers. The twenty-seven ships in the U.S. academic fleet provide the resources necessary for the research community to explore new areas of science. For example, researchers aboard the research vessel Melville accomplished the first major demonstration of the Iron Hypothesis, that "fertilizing" the oceans with iron could influence the levels of C02 in the atmosphere. The hypothesis is based on the theory that plant growth in large areas of the ocean is limited by the availability of dissolved iron. Scientists from Moss Landing Marine Laboratories and 12 other institutions in the U.S., England and Mexico fertilized an 8x8 km patch of ocean west of the Galapagos Islands with 220 kg of iron and tracked it for 20 days as it drifted a distance of over 1100 km. The rapid growth of plankton began to reduce the concentration of carbon dioxide in the surface waters and after 10 days the concentration of C02 had dropped 20 percent below the initial values. The IronEx II research cruise confirmed an oceanatmosphere linkage that may drive large scale climate change.

• Recent Results from Radio Astronomy. The powerful Arecibo Observatory discovered, through telltale radio signals, planets (roughly the mass of the earth) around a nearby neutron star. These are the first known planets outside of the solar system. The radiotelescopes of the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) can study signals which have been traveling across the universe from quasars and radiogalaxies. The unparalleled angular resolution of the VLBA, 100 times finer than the Hubble Space Telescope, has shown that the extraordinary luminosity of these radiogalaxies is due to gaseous material falling into massive black holes. Recent technical advances at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) have made it possible to observe carbon monoxide (CO) and molecular oxygen (02) in the gas clouds making up the youngest galaxies. These first galaxies are seen to be large amorphous structures that are not yet dynamically stable. These observations will contribute to understanding exactly how and when heavy elements such as carbon and oxygen formed in the early universe.

• In its first five and one-half years, the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL) has become a truly unique facility. With a first-rate scientific and technical staff, including Robert Schriefer, Nobel Laureate, the NHMFL has already set world records for magnetic field strengths obtained in resistive magnets. The NHMFL collaborates with the High Field Magnet Laboratory in Grenoble, France, the National Research Institute for Metals in Tsukuba, Japan and the European Community 100 Tesla Program. At home, the NHMFL has established active collaborations with industries such as Dow Chemical, DuPont, Intermagnetics General, American Superconductors and others. In addition, the NHMFL has established a masters degree program in magnet technology at Florida A&M University/Florida State University College of Engineering, undergraduate programs for women and minorities, and K-12 cooperative education programs involving regional schools. The NHMFL is well on its way to ensuring the scientific and technological competitiveness of the United States in high magnetic field research.

• Polar Facilities provide the infrastructure for research in Antarctica -- a remote, hostile environment at the end of a long logistical supply chain. NSF funds the operation of three research stations; two research ships and about 30 field camps; a fleet of aircraft operated for NSF by DOD; and an icebreaker operated by the US Coast Guard. The Antarctic infrastructure sustains the pursuit of unique scientific opportunities. For example, since the 1985 discovery of the "ozone hole" above Antarctica, NSF has supported research to understand the causes and dynamics of stratospheric ozone depletion in polar regions. Recent observations of ozone depletion in the Arctic and the excursions of the Antarctic ozone hole over Argentina have heightened the interest in ozone depletion research in high latitude regions, particularly in populated areas. Building on the ozone research, data from the NSF Polar Ultraviolet Radiation Monitoring Network have now provided the first direct measurements of potentially harmful ultraviolet radiation occurring in a region affected by the Antarctic ozone hole. Such ongoing research has a direct impact on issues in human health as well as on understanding atmospheric structure and climate.

Education and Training: NSF seeks to ensure an adequate, well-trained workforce that can maintain leadership in science and technology.

• Graduate Research Fellowships. The Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRF) identifies and encourages young American science, mathematics, and engineering students to develop their potential and prepares them for leadership in the nation. The GRF program, initiated in 1952, is designed to ensure the vitality of the human resource base of science and engineering in the United States and to strengthen its diversity. Since its inception, GRF has invested approximately $700 million in fellowships to over 31,000 outstanding graduate students in the sciences, mathematics and engineering. Many of these individuals have had distinguished careers in research, academia, and industry. In 1995, Dr. Eric F. Wieschaus became the 13th Awardee to receive the Nobel Prize. Dr. Wieschaus won an NSF Graduate Fellowship in 1969 to study genetics. He earned his Ph. D. at Yale, and has been teaching and conducting research at Princeton University since 1987. His Nobel Prize in Medicine recognizes his discovery of how genes control the early structural development of the body.

GOAL: Promoting the discovery, integration, dissemination, and employment of new knowledge in service to society.

Research Project Support: The discoveries produced by NSF-funded research projects provide a foundation for broad and useful applications of knowledge and the development of new technologies. Researchers in the academic, government, and private sectors build upon the results of NSF-funded work.

• Advanced Storage Systems. Advanced storage systems are vital to the U.S. computer industry's ability to maintain its competitive edge in world markets and continue its world leadership of the information super-highway. One crucial technology involves improving recording heads as they access data at very small distances from rapidly spinning storage discs. Researchers at the Data Storage Systems Engineering Research Center combined the effects of air bearing design, gas dynamics, dynamical mechanical forces between heads and discs, and surface roughness and wear to develop state-of-the-art head/disk interface simulation programs. Companies such as IBM, Hewlett Packard, and Seagate Technology have received licenses from the ERC to use this technology in the design of the next generation of storage devices. NSF has provided about $9.6 million to this ERC over the past six years.

• Geographic Data Display. With NSF support of $9.4 million over the past eight years, researchers at the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA) have developed powerful methods for manipulating, correlating, analyzing, and displaying geographic data. Geographic information systems are a major tool in both the public and private sectors for land use, transportation planning, and environmental management. NCGIA has developed automated support systems for spatial decision making and for processing satellite and other remote sensing data. These developments provide the key framework for a multi-million dollar industry that develops geographic information systems.

• Energy Dissipation in Structural Systems. Over the last five years, NSF has invested approximately $5 million in the area of passive energy dissipation. As one part of this broader field, research on energy dissipation and large deformations of thin-walled cylinder cluster structural systems has provided extremely useful results. Innovative energy absorption hardware has been used to develop new transportation safety technologies, such as the crash cushions located at the exits of many interstate highways and around temporary construction sites. The Federal Highway Administration estimates that the use of these impact attenuation devices has prevented thousands of highway deaths and serious injuries each year, with an annual savings of about $400 million.

• Medical Imaging. In keeping with its desire to fund scientific research with potentially significant societal benefits, NSF is supporting a collaboration among researchers at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Georgetown University's Lombardi Cancer Research Center, and Johns Hopkins University to detect signs of cancer in digitized mammograms. Sophisticated astronomical image processing techniques, the product of decades of investment by NSF and other Federal agencies, makes such research possible. In this case, image-processing software developed by NASA for the Hubble Space Telescope reconstructs and filters images which, when applied to a digitized mammogram, enables researchers to distinguish suspicious areas that may indicate breast cancer from other areas. With initial results showing promise, the team of researchers will work on refining and testing the detection methods.

• Economics. Over the past decade, NSF has provided about $160 million for fundamental research in management and decision science, and economics. This research has included experiments that have been used to identify strengths and weaknesses of existing and proposed policies and to test innovative alternatives. Improved policies developed by incorporating the results of such experiments can lead to substantial savings. For example, the FCC sold broadband communication licenses using a "simultaneous multiple round auction" system developed by NSF-funded researchers, and captured at least $1 billion in additional net revenue for the government. Based on NSF-funded research, EPA is using pollution permits to promote more cost effective reductions in pollution levels. This approach will save about $100 million in the Los Angeles Basin alone.

• Composite Materials. NSF invests about $10 million annually on basic research on composite materials. This research into new materials bridges the fields of engineering, physics, chemistry, and mathematical simulation. With NSF support of $12.6 million over the past seven years, the Science and Technology Center for High-Performance Polymeric Adhesives and Composites has developed tough new materials like the advanced composite used in the tail-section of the Boeing 777. Light as aluminum but far more durable and fatigue-resistant at high altitudes, this resin-and-fiber composite is ideal for aircraft. Composites are familiar to us in recreational applications such as tennis rackets, golf clubs, and sailboat masts. At the higher performance levels, the success of our satellites, earth-orbiting systems, and stealth aircraft depend on fundamental composite materials research.

• Tornado Research. Coordinated NSF sponsored research at universities, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms (CAPS) is advancing fundamental knowledge of tornadoes and tornadic storms. The NSF and NOAA project VORTEX (Verification of Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment) revealed unprecedented details of tornado genesis and served as a test of short-term forecasts (up to 6 hours) of tornadic thunderstorms. Two types of advanced tools were used during VORTEX. The first was several advanced Doppler Radars developed collaboratively between university scientists, NOAA and NCAR. The second was the numerical prediction system developed at the CAPS - the Advanced Regional Prediction System, the best weather numerical model in existence for the prediction of localized severe weather events.

• Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). EPSCoR, initiated in 1979, enhances the research competitiveness of 18 states and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (all called "states"). EPSCoR builds partnerships among major research universities, industry, and state governments to strengthen science and technology (S&T) research, higher education, and technology transfer. Over the period 1979-1995, EPSCoR awarded $145 million in grants matched by $300 million from participants. In FY 1995, EPSCoR supported over 240 S&T projects conducted at 62 institutions. These projects involved more than 1,000 faculty and more than 2,000 postdoctoral, graduate, undergraduate and high school students and covered all disciplines supported by NSF. EPSCoR participants have made the establishment of university/private sector partnerships a high priority. EPSCoR-sponsored R&D projects have also spawned some productive spin-off activities. For example, EPSCoR-funded research in South Dakota on the recovery of platinum from catalytic converters has provided the basis for two patents and a pilot company.

Facilities: In addition to providing capabilities which produce world class research, the facilities supported by NSF have promoted the potential uses of research results and technological breakthroughs in the instrumentation provided by facilities.

• The four NSF Supercomputer Centers have fostered fundamental advances in our understanding of science and engineering in areas including the application of computing, communications and information technologies to important national problems. One major accomplishment has been the dramatic expansion of the use of high end computing to explore important questions in many scientific fields. For example, research carried out at one of the Supercomputer Centers has led to a clearer understanding of the chemical and physical processes responsible for the formation of air pollution. The computational capability to perform this type of detailed modeling and scientific understanding led to changes in the Clean Air Act and is now a routine part of the design of more effective air pollution control strategies throughout the world. Projects currently underway, such as the linking of powerful supercomputers to solve complex climate simulation problems, promise to keep this nation at the forefront of science, engineering, and education in computer and networking technology well into the twenty-first century.

• Created in 1960, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) serves as the world center for atmospheric research. Facilities available to university, NCAR, and other researchers include advanced computational resources and research aircraft to measure meteorological and chemical state parameters. Recent research using these facilities has ranged from the global effect of clouds on climate, to the background status of aerosols in the atmosphere, the development and testing of the next generation of climate models, from observations and simulations of tornado formation to detailed observations of the sun's corona. This research will increase our understanding of the climate and will help to improve the accuracy of weather forecasting.

• For six years NSF has supported the University NAVSTAR Consortium (a consortium of 30 universities) to provide equipment, technical, and logistic assistance to scientists using the Global Positioning System (GPS). GPS is a space-based radionavigation system of 24 earth-orbiting satellites. The three-dimensional positioning relative to a terrestrial reference frame with an accuracy better than a few millimeters allows direct measurements of the motions of tectonic plates, displacements along seismically active faults, and the swelling of volcanoes before eruption. These projects have led to a much improved understanding of earthquakes and earthquake hazard mitigation techniques.

Education and Training: Many of NSF's educational programs simultaneously seek to use new knowledge in service to society.

• Engineering Education Coalitions. The Engineering Education Coalitions link engineering programs in colleges and universities together to create and implement comprehensive, systemic models for reform of undergraduate engineering curricula. For example, the Engineering Coalition of Schools for Excellence in Education and Leadership (ECSEL), consisting of engineering schools at Howard University, City College of New York, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Morgan State University, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Maryland, and the University of Washington, has made significant progress in institutionalizing the design experience into the core curricula. With $3 million annually from NSF, matched by contributions from the participants, these schools have worked together since 1990 to introduce engineering design all across the curriculum. The ECSEL schools use assorted projects to introduce design at the Freshman level. Howard University has focused on the design of products for the community such as portable shelters for the homeless. The University of Maryland freshman design course is now offered to all 600 incoming students and has resulted in the design, manufacture, assembly, and testing of fully realized products such as windmills to produce electricity and solar water boilers. At Penn State the introductory design course is now offered to approximately 500 students per semester. At the City College of New York (CCNY) the Engineering Freshman Design course is now required in the engineering curricula.

GOAL: Achieving excellence in U.S. science, mathematics, engineering and technology education at all levels.

Research Project Support: Research Projects contribute to the education and training of the next generation of scientists and engineers by giving them the opportunity to participate in discovery-oriented projects. NSF centers provide an alternative and enhanced environment for broad interdisciplinary education at all levels while maintaining the highest standards of intellectual excellence.

• Antarctic Research and Education: Live from Antarctica. Modern communications technologies have enabled NSF to bring antarctic science to classrooms around the United States. In the 1994-1995 antarctic summer, the pioneering public television series, Live from Antarctica, offered students in middle schools and high schools four hour-long "electronic field trips." The live telecasts allowed students to see and examine Antarctica's harsh environment and its research projects (weather, biology, animal life, etc.) with the guidance of the researchers in the field, including researchers at South Pole Station. Students from several sites around the country interacted with NSF funded scientists.

The programs were broadcast across the United States, on public television, and reached thousands of classrooms in 46 states. There were follow-up question and answer sessions via the Internet. With a small investment, this $750,000 project -- with support from several Federal agencies and private-sector organizations in addition to NSF -- demonstrates how the combination of distant, exotic regions or phenomena, new technologies, and the expertise of NSF-funded researchers can inform and educate the public about contemporary science, as well as to motivate and inspire young people.

The father of a sixth-grader wrote, "I've never seen a science project that was more alive with the breath of what it means to do the work of science." One hearing-impaired student pointed out that using the electronic medium for learning has the effect of "equalizing" the educational playing field for hearing impaired or other physically challenged students. An early evaluation of 128 teacher responses representing 272 classrooms and 6,559 students indicated that 99 percent were able to integrate the project fully or partially into their teaching goals and objectives. The same percentage said they are likely to use the materials again with a new class of students.

• Ocean Drilling Program (ODP). The ODP is a multinational program of basic research in the marine geosciences supported through NSF and six international partners. Over the last twelve years, NSF has invested approximately $270 million in the ODP, 60% of the total international effort, as well as $49 million in U.S. science support associated with the drilling program (which includes U.S. educational activities). The program uses a drilling vessel, the JOIDES Resolution, to recover sediment cores and geochemical and geophysical logs from the continental margins and deep oceans. NSF's investment in this program has led to improved understanding of plate tectonic processes, of the earth's crustal structure and composition, of conditions in ancient oceans and of changes in climate through time.

The ODP has always recognized that a strong education component is essential for maintaining the U.S.'s competitive lead in drilling research. The program has sought to incorporate educational opportunities, for students at all levels of schooling, into its research activities. Educational support has primarily been through fellowships and scholarships granted to undergraduate and graduate students. In particular, the ODP has emphasized its doctoral fellowship program which provides students an opportunity to do research, largely of their own choice, which is compatible with the research interests of the drilling program. Since the fellowship program in the Geosciences began in 1987, it has awarded $20,000/year fellowships to four or five students each year. Most fellows conduct their research aboard the drillship, which provides a unique opportunity to interact in the intense scientific environment of the long ocean drilling legs.

In addition to the doctoral fellowship program, the ODP has sought to integrate education through several other programs. For the past five years, ODP has offered a Distinguished Lecturer Series designed to bring the results of the program's research to students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and to the general earth sciences community. In addition, ODP has developed an interactive, multimedia CD ROM which describes, and involves students in, the research activities on the drilling ship. The CD, accompanied by a teachers manual, provides interactive laboratory exercises for primary education students to complete with the guidance of the scientists aboard the drilling ship. NSF's total investment of almost $200,000 in these two programs has been very successful in teaching students about Earth System Science and bringing ODP science results to the general public.

Facilities: The NSF supported facilities directly contribute to the education and training of science and engineering students, and enhance the public awareness of science and the goals of scientific research.

• NSF's nurturing and support of NSFNET, now expanded into the global Internet, has had a profound impact on science, education, and communication worldwide. A natural evolution of the ARPAnet, NSFNET was a Foundation-supported nationwide computer network that enabled almost instantaneous communication between researchers and educators in all fields and served as an experimental platform for high speed networking. As more sites were connected to the network, better communications tools were developed, such as Mosaic (the precursor of today's websurfing software), which was created at the NSF-supported National Center for Supercomputing Applications. The combination of vast stores of information available on-line and simple yet effective tools for accessing this information led to exponentially increasing demand by the public for access to Internet services. The Internet has now moved beyond servicing the research and academic communities and has blossomed into an entire industry supplying an indispensable educational service to society that is used by millions daily.

Education and Training: In addition to the training of the next generations of excellent scientists, NSF strives to enable U.S. students to become well-informed, scientifically and technologically literate citizens.

• Statewide Systemic Initiatives (SSI). SSI is a major effort to encourage improvements in science, mathematics, and engineering (SME) education through systemic changes in the education systems of the states. Initiated in FY 1991, NSF has invested over $275 million in 24 states and Puerto Rico, an investment matched by $200 million from other sources. SSI has touched more than 2,900 school districts, over 13,000 schools and has involved over 100,000 teachers who instruct more than 5 million students. SSIs use a wide combination of reform strategies involving broad partnerships in the development of goals, solutions, and actions. For example:

The Connecticut SSI (Project CONNstruct) has worked for four years with communities, local school districts, state agencies, and other partners to institutionalize improvements in all students' learning of science, mathematics and technology. Other Federal, foundation, and corporate sources have tripled NSF's $8 million contribution to the Connecticut SSI effort. More than 130 of the state's 166 districts are now participating in this systemic initiative. Course taking and test scores in SME, the proportion of high school graduates who continue their education, and the amount of teacher education that is being restructured have all increased since 1991. A vigorous public awareness and community outreach strategy has fostered continuing coverage of the reform effort by over half the state's print media and 80 percent of its electronic media.

Success in math and science education reform is demonstrated in the Louisiana SSI (LaSIP). The heart of LaSIP is professional development, focusing on the redesign of professional development programs for mathematics and science teachers. Accomplishments to date have been substantial. For example, 74 mathematics and science projects, involving over 2,400 teachers throughout the state have been funded by LaSIP in the first three cycles, with approximately 25 additional projects to be funded in 1995-96, affecting 800 more teachers. Almost 18 percent of the 59,400 students who took the 1994 Louisiana grade seven mathematics test were instructed by LaSIP-trained teachers. In a state with high rates of illiteracy and low rates of high school graduation, the LaSIP students, ethnically and economically representative, averaged scores two to three items higher than other students. This performance is directly related to the professional development of teachers over the past four years. In 1995-96, approximately 200,000 students in Louisiana will be taught by LaSIP teachers.

The Systemic Initiative for Montana Mathematics and Science (SIMMS), initiated in FY 1991 has redesigned the state's mathematics curriculum for grades 9-12 into a multidisciplinary approach that is being implemented in 106 of the state's 173 schools. It currently is being taught to more than 7,000 students. Through SIMMS, professional development services in FY 1995 reached about 550 of the state's 980 secondary math and science teachers, directly or indirectly affecting 31,000 students out of a total student population of 47,000.

• The Urban Systemic Initiative (USI) program addresses both the need for systemic change in science and mathematics education at the elementary and secondary levels and for enhanced productivity for groups that traditionally have been underserved by our national education system. Begun in FY 1993, the USI targets the 25 cities with the largest populations of school-age children living in poverty. NSF's USI investment through FY 1995 totaled about $63 million, and although the program is relatively young, initial outcomes are encouraging. For example, the Dallas Independent School District is developing and implementing a new, integrated K-12 science and math curriculum, and the school district is instituting a new management structure to improve delivery of education to its 145,000+ students. Activities in Dallas have resulted in a $2.3 million match from the O'Donnell Foundation to expand USI efforts. Also, the city of Dallas passed a $275 million bond issue for capital improvements, including technical applications, which is testimony to the early strength of USI efforts. The Dallas school district has forged important partnerships with area corporations (Occidental Petroleum, Frito-Lay, Texas Instruments, IBM, and Mobil Oil). The school district notes that mathematics test gains have exceeded expectations in seven of eight tested grades. All of this activity has occurred in just the first year of USI efforts in Dallas.

• Calculus - The Mathematical Gateway to Science. The Calculus and Bridge to Calculus activity has reformed the teaching and learning of calculus nationally. NSF has invested about $22 million in this program since its inception in FY 1988. The program objectives are to reform courses and curricula so that calculus serves as a "pump" rather than a "filter," thereby expanding the academic and career options and opportunities for students. These courses focus on numerical, visual, and applied interpretations of calculus. Students make extensive use of technology, engage in cooperative learning, and learn to attack the open-ended problems faced in the real world. The best selling calculus text last year (over 800,000 copies sold) is a reformed text developed through the NSF funded project produced by a Harvard-led consortium of five universities, two four-year and one two-year college, and a high school. The NSF support was critical to the formation of a consortium of this breadth, an essential feature of this project to develop innovative materials ready for broad adoption. The impact of the NSF program can be measured in several ways, including the fact that over 35 percent of all students enrolled in calculus in the U.S. are now taking a "reformed" course, including those in over 1000 institutions that were not supported by NSF as pilot projects under this program, indicating exceptional leadership, dissemination, and impact.

• Research Training Groups. Since 1989, NSF has sponsored 23 integrated, multidisciplinary, training programs through its biological sciences Research Training Groups (RTGs) program, for a total investment of approximately $30 million. The goal has been to facilitate broadened education and research training centered on a multidisciplinary research theme. RTGs include faculty from disciplines such as mathematics, chemistry and computer science in addition to the biological sciences, and students from undergraduate through postdoctoral levels. Opportunities for industrial internships are included as part of the training.

The programs of individual RTGs often impact students at many institutions. For example, the RTG for Metals in Biology at the University of Georgia offers a summer workshop in inorganic biochemistry to graduate students from across the nation. Over the last 5 years, approximately 400 students from other institutions have received instruction in isolation and genetic characterization of novel bacteria, and in the purification and analysis of novel, metal-containing proteins. The multidisciplinary training being provided students at Georgia and other RTGs is helping to develop a "fearless" biologist, a scientist especially well equipped to tackle the challenging multidisciplinary problems of the 21st century.

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