Spring 2024 Mathematical and Physical Sciences Advisory Committee Meeting

Spring 2024 Mathematical and Physical Sciences Advisory Committee Meeting

DATE AND TIME:     
March 26, 2024; 10:00 AM to 4:50 PM
March 27, 2024: 8:55 AM to 2:00 PM

PLACE: 
In person: NSF, 2415 Eisenhower Avenue, Alexandria, VA 22314

Zoom Register here: https://nsf.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_7euP7kwBTYyj746vgtsYcg

Important note: To attend the meeting in person, all visitors must contact the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences at least 48 hours prior to the meeting to arrange for a visitor's badge.

All visitors must access NSF via the Visitor Center entry adjacent to the south building entrance on Eisenhower Avenue on the day of the meeting to receive the visitor's badge. It is suggested that visitors allow sufficient time to pass through security screening.

TYPE OF MEETING: Open

CONTACT PERSON: Catalina Achim, National Science Foundation, 2415 Eisenhower Avenue, Room E9335, Alexandria, Virginia 22314; Telephone: 703/292-2048

MEETING INFORMATION:  http://www.nsf.gov/mps/advisory.jsp

PURPOSE OF MEETING: To provide advice, recommendations and counsel on major goals and policies pertaining to MPS programs and activities.

AGENDA:

All times shown in Eastern Time (ET).

Tuesday, March 26

Day 2, Wednesday, March 27

 All times shown in Eastern Time (ET). Room 2030. 

Advisory Committee Summary Minutes 

Day 1, Tuesday, March 26, 2024

MPS AC attendees:

• Cornelia Lang
• Suzanne Weekes
• Yuri Tshinkel 
• Bill Tolman
• Karen Goldberg
• Eva Halkiadakis
• Herbert Levine
• Susan Sinnott
• Ed Thomas Jr. 
• Roldolfo Torres
• Thomas Epps III
• Jill Pipher
• Anna Balazs

Tuesday, March 26 

10-10:10 a.m. Call to order and official opening of the meeting

Approval of minutes of the November 2023 meeting

Cornelia C. Lang, MPS Advisory Committee Chair, University of Iowa

Immediately prior to the meeting being called to order, U.S. National Science Foundation Directorate Mathematical and Physical Sciences Advisory Committee (MPS AC) Chair Cornelia Lang asked for introductions around the room. Catalina Achim briefed members on the policies of the "Federal Advisory Committee Act" regarding conflicts of interest for committee members, as well as a reminder that the meeting was open to the public and occurring under the guidelines of the act. The meeting was officially opened at 10:02 am by Lang.  The minutes from the previous meeting, held in November 2023, were unanimously approved through a motion introduced by Lang.

10:10-10:30 a.m. Science highlight: The first logical quantum processor

Mike Cavagnero, Deputy Division Director, NSF Division of Physics

Saul Gonzalez, Division Director, NSF Division of Physics

Mike Cavagnero discussed the recently published Logical Quantum Processors based on Reconfigurable Atom Arrays by Bluvstein et al., which appeared in Nature volume 626, 58-65, Feb. 1, 2024. Developing logical quantum computing involves overcoming errors through quantum error correction to enable large-scale processing. The Nature article reports the realization of a programmable quantum processor using logical qubits with up to 280 physical qubits. It features high gate fidelities, arbitrary connectivity and programmable operations. Various encoding types show improved gate performance and fault-tolerance. The system demonstrates complex circuits with logical qubits entangled in hypercube connectivity, outperforming physical-qubit fidelities in quantum simulations. This advancement signals progress toward error-corrected quantum computation with large-scale logical processors.

10:30-11 a.m. MPS update 

Tie Luo, MPS Deputy Assistant Director 

MPS Deputy Assistant Director Tie Luo provided an update on the state of the directorate. Luo's remarks included the following topics: 

• MPS organizational change.
• An overview of the NSF budget. 
• Recent progress in artificial intelligence, biotechnology and quantum information science.
• Announcement of the first NSF Regional Innovation Engines​.
• MPS partnerships.
• Major facilities update.
• Eclipse 2024.

11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Break

12:15-1:15 p.m. Lunch with the divisions

1:30-2:30 p.m. Report by the MPS AC Subcommittee on Next-Generation Gravitational Wave Detector Concepts

Vicky Kalogera, Daniel I. Linzer Distinguished University Professor, Northwestern University

Vicky Kalogera presented an overview of the structure and findings of the MPS AC Subcommittee on Next-Generation Gravitational Wave Detector Concepts. Her presentation described the committee's charge, its process in drafting the report and the assessment factors in the report. The report provides a recommended list of gravitational wave detection network configurations that will deliver sensitivity an order of magnitude greater than the aLIGO A+ design. The committee voted unanimously to accept the report through a motion introduced by Lang.

2:30- 3 p.m. Follow up on the second report of the AC Subcommittee on Facilities and Major Research Infrastructure

This afternoon's session followed up on the Subcommittee on Facilities and Major Research Infrastructure's report to the November 2023 AC meeting, in which the subcommittee recommended three criteria for MPS to use when prioritizing major facilities: (1) Scientific and Technical Need and Impact, (2) Readiness to Proceed and (3) Alignment with Broader Missions. 

Acting MPS Assistant Director Denise Caldwell reengaged the subcommittee to weigh in on the directorate's plan to apply the report's recommendations. The subcommittee co-chairs, Jill Pipher (Brown University) and Roger Falcone (University of California, Berkeley), delivered the subcommittee's response to the AC members. The subcommittee was very pleased to be invited to provide input on the implementation plan and strongly supported the proposed panel review process and question list. The subcommittee offered some suggestions for implementing the plan.

3-3:10 p.m. Break

3:10-4:10 p.m. Digital twins 

Yulia Gel, Program Director, Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS)

Yuliya Gorb, Program Director, DMS

Yulia Gel and Yuliya Gorb of DMS discussed the current state of the field for research on digital twins, the virtual representations of physical counterparts informed by bidirectional dynamic interactions between the virtual and physical counterparts. Gorb summarized the findings of the December 2023 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Mathematics study, Foundational Research Gaps and Future Directions for Digital Twins, and the recommendations for NSF in the report. Gel summarized NSF activities on digital twins, notably workshops and two recently released solicitations: (1) Foundations for Digital Twins as Catalyzers of Biomedical Technological Innovation (NSF 24-561), in partnership with the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; and (2) Mathematical Foundations of Digital Twins (NSF 24-559), in partnership with the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.