The State University of New York at Stony Brook (SUNY-SB), in cooperation with Princeton University and the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, will establish a Science and Technology Center for High-Pressure Research. The Director of the Center will be Professor Donald J, Weidner of SUNY-SB. The goals of the Center are: to determine and interpret the properties of Earth materials at high-pressure; to design and construct the next generation of high-pressure devices for applications in physics, chemistry, and materials science, as well as the earth sciences; to apply high-pressure research to better understand the Earth's interior and to resolve fundamental questions about its evolution, structure and dynamic state; a better understanding of the interiors of other planets; to apply high-pressure research to improve understanding of synthetic materials of interest to materials science. To accomplish these goals the Center will undertake the following programs: design improved multi-anvil presses capable of higher combinations of pressure and temperature on experimental samples of larger volume; new designs for ultra-high pressure diamond-anvil cells, permitting more uniform conditions of pressure and temperature over larger sample volumes; develop capabilities for measuring calorimetric effects, elastic constants, electrical conductivity, and the rheology of samples while subject to pressure and temperature; instrumentation of x-ray beamlines for high- pressure experiments at the National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven; synthesis of new materials, including super-hard materials and new phases theoretically predicted at high pressure and temperature.
