The National Research Council's (NRC) Committee on Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Sciences (CAMOS) is a standing committee with membership drawn from universities, industry, and government laboratories. Its members have expertise that is intended to cover the full breadth of the atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) sciences. The operating guidelines of CAMOS include the following objectives:
- To provide active stewardship of the agenda laid out by the most recent decadal study prepared for AMO sciences, "Controlling the Quantum World"; - To provide a means by which federal agencies can request technical information and assistance from the NRC about AMO science and related fields, and by which other units in the NRC can obtain expertise on AMO science; - To initiate ad hoc studies and workshops on important timely topics in AMO science and/or its multidisciplinary connections with other fields of science and technology; - To develop brief informational summaries of emerging topics and/or questions of current interest; - To provide an interface for communication among the subfields of the AMO community as well as with the staff of federal agencies that support research in the field; - To begin preparations for the next decadal survey of AMO science.
To carry out those objectives, CAMOS meets annually in person in Washington, D.C. and between those meetings, conducts its business through telephone conferences.
The activities of CAMOS will generate broader impacts in two ways. First, these activities engage a group of leading scientists from across the subfields of AMO science in joint deliberations and provide a learning environment for that body regarding the public-policy process for science and the position of AMO in the broader context of the physical sciences. Second, CAMOS activities lead to an improved understanding of AMO science by the broader scientific and policy-making communities. By holding multi-disciplinary workshops, preparing short, nontechnical documents, and initiating studies, CAMOS will continue to educate researchers, policy makers, and the general public about advances in AMO science that have impact in other fields of science and technology.
This grant provided partial support for the National Research Council’s (NRC) Committee on Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Sciences (CAMOS). CAMOS is a standing committee consisting of a group of scientists drawn from universities, industry, and government laboratories that provides guidance on ways to maintain and strengthen AMO science as a discipline. Its goals include (1) serving as active stewards of the recent decadal survey for AMO science, Controlling the Quantum World; (2) responding to requests for technical information and assistance that relate to AMO science; (3) initiating and overseeing the conduct and publication of studies that involve AMO science and its connections to other fields of science and technology; and (4) providing a forum for discussion among AMO scientists and Washington D.C. policymakers. To carry out its objectives, CAMOS meets face-to-face on an annual basis and between those meetings, conducts its business through telephone conferences. Over the three years covered by this grant, CAMOS conducted focus sessions at its meetings that concentrated on several of the areas highlighted in Controlling the Quantum World as having great scientific promise. Summaries of the presentations and the discussions in those focus sessions were prepared and provided to funding agencies and are available through CAMOS’s web site - http://sites.nationalacademies.org/BPA/BPA_048649. The committee also developed several study proposals based upon the committee’s assessment of the needs of this field.
