Center Structure

The Center for Fundamental Studies of Advanced Sustainable Iron and Steel is structured to meet all operational requirements and guidelines of the I/UCRC program. The Center is a true partnership of academic institutions, industry, and governmental organizations with research interests in sustainable iron and steel making. This partnership leverages the strengths of each partner and pools resources to address a diverse spectrum of interdisciplinary research questions of mutual benefit to Center members. The synergy of these new partnerships enables the Center to provide benefits to participants that are greater than each member’s individual financial investment.

As outlined in the NSF program solicitation, the Center’s membership consists of university partners, regular industry, and government members. The university partners are responsible for all administrative management aspects of the Center and will also direct and complete each of the Center’s research tasks. The university partners share a focus of broadening the participation of underrepresented students and faculty in science and engineering research. An additional focus of each research project subgroup is to fully involve both graduate and undergraduate student researchers in substantive research activities. Michigan Tech and the University of Utah have strong existing graduate programs in relevant disciplines. Michigan Tech’s NSF-funded Sustainable Futures Institute IGERT program provides a framework for the project’s interdisciplinary graduate work in sustainability-related issues. In addition, each university has an extensive structure for undergraduate research opportunities (at MTU: Summer Undergraduate Research Program; at Uof U: Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program). The structure, mentoring, and development activities of these current undergraduate research programs is being utilized and expanded upon for I/UCRC research efforts.

MTU and Uof U, the two primary university partners, are leading development of the Center. The structure is such that additional university partners can be integrated as Center research projects develop. New university partners will be carefully considered only if the benefit to the Center and member organizations is clear. In addition, any new member would be required to conform to support guidelines outlined in NSF’s I/UCRC guidelines.

Oversight at the university level is provided by each institution’s Vice President for Research. S.K. Kawatra at MTU is serving as the Center Director; H.Y. Sohn of University of Utah is Co-Director. Each serves as site director at their respective institutions. The Center Director is assisted by a Center Coordinator at MTU. The Coordinator is responsible for business aspects of Center management, including budgets, operations, travel, procurements, industry correspondences, and other interactions of the Center.

NSF Industry & University Cooperative Research Program (I/UCRC)