New NSF Chemical Bonding Centers Target Broad Issues

To help encourage researchers to tackle "big problems" in chemistry, NSF has launched the Chemical Bonding Centers Program. The program encourages researchers to think outside the box and to take risks beyond their current research. It is funded by the agency's chemistry division and provides awards of $1.5 million over a three-year period to each center, with additional funding available after that time. According to Philip B. Shevlin, an NSF program officer managing the bonding centers, "We wanted to encourage very talented people to attack major problems that would engage the public and have a long-term societal benefit." The first three centers to be funded will synthesize and study Darwinian chemical systems, design multifunctional materials, and develop environmentally friendly chemistry. The centers will be based at Massachusetts General Hospital; the University of California, Santa Barbara; and the University of Washington, respectively. The awards are designed to allow for flexibility and agility in a center's organization structure so that investigators associated with the problem of interest can change in concert with the changing expertise needs.