Materials and molecular simulation center of the Beckman institute at caltech: a model for university/industry/government research collaborations

We believe that there are considerable advantages both to universities and to industry for a tighter coupling between university research and industrial applications. The Materials and Molecular Simulation Center was established with two goals: (a) focus on the critical research issues impeding applications to industrially important problems; (b) transfer the technology to industrial research and development teams by establishing collaborative efforts of specific projects. The MSC was initiated in July 1990 with seed funding from DOE/AICD and has operated with over half the funding from industry (the other half is from DOE/AICD, NSF/CHE, and other government agencies). The focus areas for applications are: biotechnology, polymers, catalysis, superconductors, ceramics and nanotechnology. We believe that the MSC is accomplishing both goals and will describe both the advances in the basic research and how these advances have been transferred to and used by the industrial collaborators.