Solid State Chemistry Education: Success Story or Crisis? Our Chance to Shake-up the System !

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Solid State Chemistry EducationSuccess Story or
Crisis?Our Chance to Shake-up the System !

• Hanno zur Loye, Maggie Geselbracht
• George Lisensky, Paul Maggard
• Mike O'Keeffe, Angus Wilkinson
• Mike Lufaso

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Connections Between whom and to where?
Are there feedback loops? Are they working? And
are we responding?
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Education For the Future

• Are we educating the solid state/ materials
  chemist of the past or of the future?
• Who is this person?
• How many of them are there?
• What is the ideal skill set for them?
• Is there a shift in the skills needed today vs.
  yesterday to be successful?
• How, where and when are these skills acquired?
• Degree needs B.S., M.A., Ph.D., Postdoc ?
• What is a good degree these days?

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Past vs. Future

• This is now, this was then - what has/should
  change?
• Basic chemistry background
• Materials chemistry background
• Analytical skills
• Synthetic skills
• Writing skills
• Teaching skills
• Research opportunities - local/remote
• Presentation/public speaking skills
• Instrumental competency
• How, where and when are these skills acquired?
• Who teaches them?

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Solid State Materials Chemist of the Future

• Who is this person?
• What does this person want to do?
• Degree? Job?
• What do we want this person to do?
• Degree? Job?
• Where does this person come from?
• Small schools? Large schools?
• Is this person male? female? minority? US born?
  
• Is this person representative of the US
  population?
• Who will hire this person?

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If not a Chemist, then what?

• What and who is the competition?
• Other sciences?
• Medical school?
• Business school?
• Law school?
• Where are the jobs?
• Industry?
• Academia?
• Elsewhere?
• Outsourced?
• Simply not there anymore?

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Knowledge Transfer/Feedback LoopKeeping the
degree "up to date"
How does industry fitinto the loop? Does it?
And how can it?
Faculty teaches undergraduates BS
undergraduates go to graduate school Ph.D.
graduates go towork as faculty Faculty teaches
undergraduates
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Graduate vs. Undergraduate Education More of
the same or different?

• Undergraduate
• Basic knowledge in all areas of chemistry
• Intro to problem solving and analytical thinking
• Intro research experience
• Exposure to modern instrumentation and theory
• Exposure to interdisciplinary teams
• Exposure to industry via internship
• Become excited and stay excited about science

• Graduate
• Advanced, general and specialized knowledge
• Pushing science via instrumentation
• Work in interdisciplinary teams
• Collaborate with industry
• Access and experience with national facilities
• Preparedness for jobs
• What is industry looking for?
• What is academia looking for?

What about Postdocs ???
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Materials Chemistry and Education

• Mike O'Keeffe

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Where are undergraduate students going? Insights
from a survey

• In 2005/2006 a survey of past participants in the
  NSF Summer Program in Solid State Chemistry
  was undertaken
• 80 of the 57 former students who responded
  indicated that they primarily applied to the
  program to get a research experience.
• Only 10 indicated that they primarily applied
  because of an interest in solid state chemistry
• However, over 50 of respondents ended up in
  graduate school studying materials chemistry
• Suggests that exposure to materials concepts
  before going to graduate school can influence
  choice of graduate school topic

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Where are undergraduate students going? Insights
from a survey

• The survey does not provide a strong indication
  of employment choices for 1998-2004 participants
• Getting contact info for people who have left
  school and gone into employment is difficult
• Of the 10 respondents who indicated employment
  outside of academia, only 2 had jobs that were
  identifiably materials related.

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Solid State Courses

• Is there a tendency to include too much?
• Are there more and more exciting topics to be
  covered each year, leading to a dilution
  effect?(I am assuming that no additional time is
  available in today's already crowded curriculum)

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Solid State CoursesShake up the System

• Should any of the traditional topics be
  eliminated and replaced with modern topics?
• Should instrumentation/data analysis be
  emphasized?
• Should non-chemistry skills (writing, analytical,
  logic, problem solving, public speaking) be
  integrated into the curriculum?
• How may interdisciplinary topics be included?
• Time limitation broad overview or selected
  aspects in more detail?

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Solid State Courses

• What should be the core topics of a course?
• Symmetry, structure, bonding, physical
  properties, can often cover too much.
• Are the current graduate textbooks really
  suitable for undergraduates?

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Undergraduate Solid State Materials Courses

• Are undergraduates receiving sufficient
  laboratory exposure to solid-state chemistry?
  (feedback loop missing?)
• There are many published undergraduate
  experiments on, for example, zeolites,
  semiconductors, fuel cells /electrochemistry,
  superconductors, thermoelectrics, etc.
• However, the prevalence of solid-state and
  materials chemistry laboratories remains
  relatively small among public universities.
• Thus, how do we better facilitate the integration
  of these laboratory experiences into
  undergraduate education? (Cost effectiveness?
  Establish precedence?)

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Integrating The Excitement of Research Into
Education?

• (NRC reports) To attract talented students,
  course goals should include
• Excitement of applying chemistry fundamentals to
  new research problems, issues, or related fields.
  
• Understanding the currently evolving processes of
  scientific inquiry at the forefront of research.
• How can education keep pace with the rapid and
  exciting advances in research?
• Many broadly-appealing research articles are
  presented in Science, Nature and other journals.
• However, cutting-edge research is often difficult
  to locate in easy-to-read articles and that
  provide a suitable introduction for students.

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Critical Role of Undergraduate Research

• How many of us got hooked by research?
• Long history of support and success in SSCM
• NSF Summer Research Program 20 years!
• This program works!
• Increasing numbers of options in REU programs
• Mentoring undergrads in your labs during the year
• Plug for SSCM faculty at PUIs doing research
• Requires our support as a community
• Lobby for your students with start-up funds
  (diffractometers, etc.)
• Stewardship on grant-writing and reviewing

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Integrating Solid State Chemistry in the
Undergraduate Curriculum

• Teaching General Chemistry A Materials Science
  Companion
• A great start (1993) but what now?
• Separate courses may not be the answer
• Issues of packed major curriculum
• Limited to solid state chemist on faculty
• Integrate topics in Inorganic and P-Chem lectures
  and labs
• Need to share teaching resources!
• Labs in particular
• One-week hands-on boot camp in solid state
  chemistry
• Summer program tutorial

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Key Topics to Integrate for Undergrads Do we
need more? Less? New topics?

• Crystal Structures
• Common structure types, Bravais lattices and
  basic space group symmetry, group theory, Miller
  planes, phase relations
• Bonding in Metals and Semiconductors
• From molecular orbitals to band theory, doping
• Synthesis and Characterization
• Synthesis and reactivity (chimie douce) of
  extended solids, X-ray powder diffraction, other
  techniques if possible?
• Properties in Extended Solids
• Structure property relationships, electrical (and
  ionic) conductivity including superconductivity,
  magnetic ordering, optical properties,
  dielectrics
• Laboratory, Applications, Special Topics

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Needs of a Postdoc

• Why should a graduate student become a postdoc?
  Required for research academia?
• What opportunities are available? How can one
  find out more information?
• What additional skills should be developed?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of a
  academic, government, or industrial postdoc?
• Research independence, interaction/contacts, ?
• How to obtain non-research knowledge?
• e.g. interviewing, grant/proposal writing,
  personnel management, finances, service
• Opportunities to obtain teaching experience?

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• George Lisensky

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Other Stuff

• Anybody? Anybody?