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The Mineral Physics
Institute grew out of common tools, common problems, and common needs of a small
group of
faculty. The central scientific theme of the Mineral Physics Institute is that we can gain
information about the
Earth through a better understanding of the materials of the Earth.
Seismology today is discovering the magnitude and location of lateral changes in acoustic
velocity within the Earth s mantle. These highs and lows are inferred to reflect flow
within the Earth and hence are tied to the origin of earthquakes and volcanoes. However,
without an understanding of the properties of the materials that make up the mantle
subject to the environment of this region, we cannot interpret the seismic observations in
terms of temperature or flow. In fact most of our knowledge of the Earth is tied to our
understanding of both physical and chemical properties of earth materials. These studies
require extremely sophisticated equipment. The environment in the Earth demands that the
frontiers of pressure and temperature be continually pushed back and the material
properties be monitored using experimental probes including synchrotrons, lasers, electron
beams, and acoustics.
The Mineral Physics Institute found its roots in the experimental
research tradition of the geoscience program in the Department of Earth and Space
Sciences. At the time of its formation in the mid to late 60 s this department was able to
attract world class experimentalists by establishing state- of-the-art laboratories with
State support. The second wave of scientists to join the department were attracted mostly
by the reputation established by these pioneers and it is the second wave that founded the
Mineral Physics Institute. In late 1987 the founding faculty of the Mineral Physics
Institute submitted a proposal for the formation of the Mineral Physics Institute to
University Provost. The proposal was accepted and the Institute was born early 1988.
In addition to the Graduate Research Initiative which established a
funding potential for such institutes within SUNY, there were several factors that
motivated the formation of this institute. Prominent among these was the need to establish
an identity for the research thrust that is common to the founding group of scientists.
With an identity, it was possible to pursue funds from outside agencies; with an identity,
it was possible to establish a platform that enables interactions with several
constituencies from the worldwide scientific community to the industrial and educational
communities. The Stony Brook High Pressure Laboratory had already become defined as a
national facility by the National Science Foundation. The identity within the University
as an organized research unit served to complement this externally defined distinction.
Additional motivation came from the common needs of the Institute
faculty. The originating group were exclusively experimentalists. For this group, the
frontier of the science is limited by the tools that we use. It is necessary that these
tools be maintained and that their capabilities grow. Thus, it is essential to preserve a
talented core of technical personnel engaged in the program. Again, the department
recognized this need in the early founding days by investing in a machine shop and
electronics shop using University support. Now it was necessary to form a coherent program
that would continue to articulate the importance of the existing technical resources and
to augment this base by combining resources.
With the establishment of the Institute, we broadened participation
with the addition of colleagues from the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie
Institution of Washington and Princeton University and entered the national
competition for a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center.
In 1990, the Center for High Pressure Research (CHiPR) was founded as one of
the 25 STC s awarded by NSF out of over 500 applications during two rounds of
competition. CHiPR, having a mandated lifetime of 11 years, terminated in 2001.
Stony Brook wasthe host institution for CHiPR and the Mineral Physics Institute
was identified as the Stony Brook element of CHiPR. It is the vehicle through
which State matching funds for the Center flowed.
The principal goal of the Mineral Physics Institute is the advancement
of scholarship in the form of experimental scientific studies relevant to the earth
sciences.Mineral Physics, an interdisciplinary field that includes physics, chemistry, and
materials science as well as the geosciences, has undergone tremendous advances in the
last few years.
Important in the progress of the field has been our contributions to
improved technologies. We have developed state-of-the art instrumentation for achieving
high pressure, repeatedly breaking high pressure and high temperature records. We have
developed high pressure synchrotron measuring techniques for studying samples at high
pressure and temperature. We continually set new limits in characterizing thermodynamic
properties and structural properties of tiny samples. We were the first to establish a
modern multi-anvil research facility in the USA (in 1985); since then over a dozen multi-
anvil laboratories have been founded in North America and Europe. During the last few
years, we have been able to refine the chemical composition of the earth's lower mantle
and define possible storage modes for water in the earth's interior. We have synthesized
and characterized many new materials.
Contributions of The Mineral Physics Institute should be measured
not only in terms of a list of our own publications, but also in the extraordinary
impact that the events leading up to the formation of the Center and establishment
of CHiPR and COMPRES have had on research efforts in dozens of laboratories.
We have interacted with virtually every successful high-pressure and/or mineral
physics effort in the world. The Mineral Physics Institute has been a source
of samples and facilities for scientists outside of the Institute. We are one
of the few laboratories that routinely synthesizes large volume samples of the
perovskite phase of MgSiO3, the dominant mineral in the earth's interior.
These and other high pressure samples made at Stony Brook have been studied
with a variety of techniques in laboratories throughout the world. Our facilities
are used by many researchers from a number of disciplines to study materials
of interest to their programs. For example, we have begun interacting with the
Center for Superconductivity at the University of Illinois. This STC has conducted
pilot studies using our facilities to synthesize high temperature superconductors
which require pressure for their stability. The facilities that we are continuing
to develop at the national synchrotrons and neutron sources provide access for
the entire scientific community to these world-class instruments.
The Mineral Physics Institute provides an exciting, friendly,
and interactive environment for scientists, students, and visitors. A daily
round table lunch gathering, weekly seminar speakers, a continual stream of
visitors for short and long term help to create an atmosphere that supports
young scientists and stimulates potential scientists.
In addition to the many individual positions such as president of a
scientific society or editor of a journal held by the MPI faculty as described in the
individual vitae, the Institute enables the sharing of the unique facilities that exist at
Stony Brook with the scientific community. With the first and one of the few current high
pressure facilities in the US capable of creating materials that are stable only deep in
the Earth, we have opened our laboratory to outside users who wish to conduct their own
experiments under these extreme conditions.
The Mineral Physics Institute has built and uses a large volume
high pressure system using x-rays to study samples at elevated pressure and
temperature. This system, operating at Brookhaven National Laboratory, is open
to outside users from the entire scientific community. Experience gained from
this operation has led Stony Brook scientists in the design of a further installation
at the Advanced Photon Source, the 3rd generation synchrotron at the Argonne
National Laboratory near Chicago. The base that the MPI provides is essential
for such activities. The entire earth science community benefits as this effort
opens world class scientific instruments such as the 3rd generation synchrotron
to the earth science community.
All of the departmental faculty in the Mineral Physics Institute
are fully dedicated university educators. They assume a full teaching load as
defined by the Department of Geosciences guidelines. This involves teaching
at both the graduate and undergraduate level as deemed necessary by the department.
The only exception is the director, who assumes a 1/2 time teaching load.
The Mineral Physics Institute has a research-oriented summer
scholars program for undergraduates from around the country. This program is
widely advertised, is geared for the summer after the junior year, and attracts
about 100 applications for 6-8 internships. The undergraduate students work
with a faculty supervisor on a research project over a 10 week period, culminating
with a written report and an oral presentation.
Education in the US needs to reach out to traditionally underrepresented
groups of people. The Institute has an active program to reach this community. The most
successful efforts have come from our direct ties with Delaware State University, an
historically black institution. A recent alumnus of Stony Brook is now an Assistant
Professor of Physics at this college. He has worked with us to recruit underrepresented
minorities and women into our summer scholars program and, as an adjunct faculty in the
Institute, he joins us in the summer to help advise these students. While this program is
still small, 1/3 of our summer scholars program have been from underrepresented groups. We
have also been quite successful in the participation of women at all levels.
Cutting edge research generates a contagious excitement and
enthusiasm for science. The Institute provides the opportunity to share this
excitement with abroader community and capture the imagination of the next generation
of scientists and engineers. The Mineral Physics Institute has initiated a program,
Journey to the Center of the Earth , which works with the K- 12 local school
systems. The program includes working with teachers to develop, within the existing
curriculum, teaching tools and materials that communicate this enthusiasm to
students, visits of Stony Brook personnel to the local schools, teacher training
workshops, student visits to the laboratories, and the development of a display
area in the Museum of Long Island Natural Sciences. Programs such as Let's Make
Diamonds and Earth Shakers have been developed for different age groups that
bring students into the University setting and into the laboratory.
Based on our first few years of experience and contact with
teachers and students, we are now hoping to expand our pre-college program.
Science is doing, not collecting facts. This is the basis for our approach.
Furthermore, teachers know how to teach and can learn and transmit information.
We can contribute to the schools because we know how to do research, how to
ask questions, how to find answers. The recently proposed
NY State Regent's curriculum for 9th grade Earth Sciences emphasizes
the need for students to do research. The Mineral Physics Institute obtained
funding from NSF for a program that will help make this a reality. We help teachers
lead research efforts by their students. We give summer workshops, we give year
long guidance to both teachers and students, and we create a resource center
for earth science teachers at Stony Brook that will help support this effort.
This Earth Science Educational Resource Center
began in the summber of 1995.
Outreach to Industry
Materials with unusual properties are of fundamental importance to
national industry. Our basic research thrusts into the added dimension of high pressure
provides a basis for discovering and understanding materials that can serve these needs.
Our approach has been to encourage and nurture scientist-to-scientist interactions,
providing facility support, technical and scientific expertise, and a dialogue for the
exchange of ideas, capabilities, and needs. We have conducted a systematic testing program
to determine the properties of tungsten carbide, a critical component of all high-pressure
devices. Our need for hard anvils has stimulated a dialogue with GE to fabricate better
sintered diamond products. Fruits from this type of interaction may benefit both the
industrial applications as well as the high pressure research community.
The Institute mission is not directed towards a product. However,
we do need industrial developments to improve our equipment and we can help
to define parameters to improve their products. We do this. We know individuals
within industrial research groups and can pass to them information that we gain
that might be useful to them.
Most of the life of the Institute to date has been devoted to
initiating the programs outlined above. The next five years will emphasize execution
of these programs. We hope to approach these years with the same flexibility
as with the past five, pursuing ideas and directions that are compatible with
the basic premise set out above. The Mineral Physics Institute covers a broad
spectrum of activities that define important University roles in the coming
years. Connections with industry, and working with the education of the pre-college
students, are not traditionally in the purview of a University, but the Mineral
Physics Institute is doing something because there is a need and because we
can help. We will make mistakes, but because we have the flexibility defined
by the Institute, we will continue to try, and we will continue to have successes.
Last modified February 18, 2003