Solid State Chemistry Education:

Success Story or Crisis?Our Chance to Shake-up the

System !

Solid State Chemistry Education:

Success Story or Crisis?Our Chance to Shake-up the

System !Hanno zur Loye, Maggie GeselbrachtGeorge Lisensky, Paul MaggardMike O'Keeffe, Angus Wilkinson

Mike Lufaso

Hanno zur Loye, Maggie GeselbrachtGeorge Lisensky, Paul MaggardMike O'Keeffe, Angus Wilkinson

Mike Lufaso

Connections: Between whom and to where?

Are there feedback loops?Are they working?

And are we responding?

High School

College University

Industry

B.S. Ph.D.

Postdoc

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?

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?

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?

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?

Knowledge Transfer/Feedback Loop

Keeping the degree "up to date"

How does industry fitinto the loop? Does it? And how can it? Faculty

Under Graduategraduate

Industry ?

Faculty teaches undergraduates

BS undergraduates go to graduate school

Ph.D. graduates go towork as faculty

Faculty teaches undergraduates

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 ???

Materials Chemistry and Education

• Mike O'Keeffe

• 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

Where are undergraduate students going? Insights from a survey

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.

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)

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?

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?

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?)

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.

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 PUI’s doing research Requires our support as a community Lobby for your students with start-up funds (diffractometers, etc.)

Stewardship on grant-writing and reviewing

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

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

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?

• George Lisensky

Other Stuff

• Anybody? Anybody?