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OSTP's Materials Technology Subcommittee Reconstituted "MatTec" is back. About a year after it was disbanded, the Materials Technology subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council's Committee on Technology, part of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), has been re-authorized. Its double mission is to track materials research policies and spending within the federal government, and help build stronger ties between materials and other research communities. The subcommittee was a casualty of last year's OSTP reorganization, upon which oversight of materials research issues was scattered among other agencies and departments, primarily the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Department of Energy (DOE). The elimination was short-lived, however. Before he left office this past April, former OSTP Director John Gibbons reauthorized the Committee on Technology. Its new chair is Mortimer Downey, who also is Deputy Secretary of Transportation. Soon thereafter, several former MatTec members petitioned incoming OSTP head Neal Lane (former director of the National Science Foundation) to resume the subcommittee's activities. They argued that MatTec was both useful and necessary because (1) the government's investment in materials research is substantial, amounting to about $2 billion in FY 1994, the latest year for which such information is available; and (2) despite that sizable commitment, there is no overriding agency for materials research policy. Lane accepted the argument, and the newly reconstituted subcommittee met during the last week of May. Its dozen members are from agencies with materials research interests. Two representatives from NIST were chosen to run the subcommittee: Leslie Smith, chair, and Stanley Dapkunas, secretary. One of its first tasks will be to compile an updated survey of federal spending on materials research. That is an important responsibility, according to Smith, who also is director of NIST's Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory. "Materials research in itself is seldom a mission end," he said. Yet it is a critical component of many other research areas. It is also critical to update federal materials research funding levels, according to Dapkunas. "By all accounts, they have remained static for the past five years." Funding may even have declined slightly. So the subcommittee plans to complete a draft report by August, obtain a review by 12
the Committee of Technology in September, and release a final version in October. MatTec also will attempt to strengthen the ties between the materials research community and other disciplines. The goal, Smith said, is to increase awareness of the need to keep the various national materials research facilities funded and running. The Department of Defense is a good example, he said. If a military project involves materials research, the research likely has civilian applications. "Military agencies tend to stay focused on their own missions," according to Smith. They may not explore the
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