What Matters: December 2002
From Molecular Beams, to Energy, to Helping Soldiers: A Journey of Learning at MIT
By Bill Peters PhD '72
More than 40 years ago, MIT President Jay Stratton '23 said "as long as you live, go on learning how to live." Since 1967, MIT has provided me a host of opportunities to follow President Stratton's advice—as a student, dormitory tutor, researcher, classroom instructor, technical manager, and laboratory executive. Numerous MIT faculty, students, staff, and alumni have been my teachers. They have helped me appreciate that learning is multidimensional—the comprehension and communication of existing information, the creation of new knowledge, and the understanding of fellow learners. I am grateful for my MIT journey of learning and delighted that it continues. Allow me to share some more of its lessons.
In September 1967, I came to MIT for graduate training in physical chemistry. I joined Professor Isador Amdur's group, where molecular beam studies were illuminating the forces that govern fast collisions between atoms and molecules. I learned that experiments to unravel fundamental atomic and molecular processes are often hard to carry out and frustratingly slow to surrender good data. I also learned that perseverance in research remits an almost priceless reward—the satisfaction of generating new knowledge. Moreover, I learned that not only is basic research worthwhile for its own sake even if it has no commercial benefits, but also that basic research generally turns out to have practical applications. For example, Professor Amdur's fundamental collision studies help us better understand a vast array of practical phenomena such as flames, detonations, thermal plasmas, sound dispersion, and heat dissipation during atmospheric reentry of spacecraft.
By 1974 I had become interested in more applied research. This brought me back to MIT from Yale (where I was a postdoc) as a research associate in the then-embryonic Energy Lab. This segment of my MIT career lasted more than twenty-five years including ten as Energy Lab Associate Director for Fuels and Environmental Research. I had several remarkable teachers, including Jack Howard, Jack Longwell, Dave White, Mal Weiss, Adel Sarofim '57 ScD '62, Jeff Tester PhD '71, Lis Drake '58, ScD '66, and Ken Smith. They taught me how to think and communicate as an engineer, write successful research proposals, and assemble and manage multidisciplinary research teams. I also learned that one of MIT's most potent "core competencies" is the Institute's ability to nurture collaborative research among people with diverse professional expertise, and that a multidisciplinary team can break logjams on otherwise impenetrable research questions. Perhaps most importantly, it came home to me that MIT is unique and exciting because of the special people who study and work here, and that to build and sustain good teams it is important to understand the perspectives and sensitivities of each contributor.
Some of us are privileged to experience an exciting but unpredictable career development. This happened to me in September of 2001 (about a week after 9/11) when Dean Tom Magnanti telephoned to ask me to help put together a proposal to the Army, for the new Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN). The objective of this five-year, $50 million program of unclassified, basic research would be to provide unprecedented protection and survivability capabilities to the individual soldier by incorporation of nanotechnology-enabled materials and devices in a lighter weight uniform. I welcomed this invitation to contribute to another of MIT's many initiatives to serve the nation. What followed proved to be the beginning of a new chapter in my journey of learning.
I immediately joined Team-ISN, which at the time consisted of Ned Thomas as leader, Tim Swager, Paula Hammond '84, PhD '93, and Don McGowan SM '75, PhD '82. My assignment was to help craft a three-part research, management, and fiscal proposal that would bring together more than thirty MIT faculty as well as industry partners and the Army, to carry out research, transition (scale up) results of the research into practical products, and communicate with diverse Army and other interested communities. The next twenty-four weeks, possibly the most demanding of my professional life, returned a barrage of handsome dividends in swift succession: December 31, 2001: proposal submitted; January 30, 2002: Army site visited MIT; February 28, 2002: final proposal submitted; March 12, 2002: Army announced selection of MIT to host ISN; April 25, 2002: ISN contract signed; May 21, 2002: I officially became ISN Executive Director.
I am "rationally exuberant" about the ISN. Today's soldiers carry too much weight and have insufficient protection from numerous threats including bullets, chemical and biological agents, physical injury, and hostile terrain. The ISN mission is to help the soldier out of this predicament by creating nanotechnologies that impart revolutionary protection and survivability capabilities in a dramatically lighter weight uniform. This is a noble mission and the ISN has a great group of people to carry it out. As a member of Team-ISN I have diverse opportunities to apply the lessons MIT has taught me and to learn many new ones.
Team-building is at the heart of what the ISN does—teams of faculty supervise graduate students; students and postdocs team with visiting researchers from industry and the Army; and MIT-industry-Army teams carry out strategic planning of the ISN agenda and facilitate systems integration and technology transfer. The ISN has great visibility at the highest levels of the Army and MIT. It is the brainchild of Dr. Michael Andrews, Chief Scientist of the Army. President Vest HM has stated that "We are at the crest of a wave in nanoscience and nanoengineering and the ISN will define the future." MIT has committed substantial resources to the ISN, including $14.6 million in cost sharing plus 28,000 square feet of new laboratory and office space to open next May at 500 Tech Square.
Since last March we have assembled a marvelous headquarters team and launched seven research teams involving thirty-four faculty from eight MIT Departments. By next summer these teams will include about eighty graduate students, twenty postdocs, and several visiting researchers from industry and the Army. The research focuses on protection of the soldier from battlefield and environmental hazards, prevention and cure of injury, and leveraging physical strength. Projects aim to discover new nanomaterials and nanodevices, and to develop the engineering understanding to scale these up into affordable practical technologies.
The Army is an active ISN partner, providing expertise on soldier needs including research, development, and engineering, as well as knowledge of the performance, acquisition, and testing requirements for soldier technologies. The Army will help the ISN interact directly with the soldiers who will use ISN products in the field. Several members of Team-ISN have already visited Fort Benning to meet with soldiers, observe their training regimens, and learn how a lighter weight, multifunctional uniform can help the soldier. Another "greening" visit by ISN personnel, this time to Fort Polk, is planned for the end of January.
Industry and the Boston medical community are also important ISN partners. Their mission is to actively participate in strategic planning, place visiting researchers at MIT, and accelerate the transfer of ISN innovations into affordable technologies which can be mass-produced for the soldier. Our founding partners, Raytheon, DuPont, and Partners Health Care [Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology (CIMIT)] have pledged over $15 million in co-investment over five years. We plan to engage more industry partners to supply additional core competencies, and expect many ISN products to be commercialized for civilian uses.
I'm happy I got that phone call from Tom Magnanti inviting me to join Team-ISN. The ISN is a grand opportunity to continue learning, made extra special because the ISN mission is to create technology to protect soldiers who risk their lives for others. This is something "that matters."
For more information about the Institute of Soldier Nanotechnologies read our frequently asked questions and research outline.
About the Author
William A. Peters received a bachelor's from McGill in 1967 (first class honors in chemistry), a PhD from MIT in 1972 in physical chemistry, and was a postdoctoral researcher at Yale from 1972-74. From 1974 to 2001, he held various research and research management positions at MIT including research associate, principal research engineer, and associate director for fuels and environmental research in the energy laboratory. His research concentrated on applications of thermal processing and arc discharge plasmas to energy and the environment, e.g., clean fuels from coal, biomass, and natural gas; health effects of combustion effluents; decontamination of soils, water, and wastes; and extraction of metals from ores. In 2002, he was appointed executive director of a new MIT Center, the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN). The ISN mission is to provide unprecedented protection and survivability capabilities to the individual soldier by incorporation of nanotechnology-enabled materials and devices in a dramatically lighter weight uniform. His current technical interests are technology integration and transitioning, thermal synthesis and stability of materials, and effects of fluctuations on the chemical and physical behavior of tiny systems. He has authored or coauthored over 85 technical publications including five U.S. patents. He also has an extensive record of professional service to government and non-government entities.
What Matters is a guest opinion column written by a different MIT alumnus or alumna. The views expressed are entirely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Alumni Association or MIT. Interested in writing a column? Email whatmatters@mit.edu.
