Day-to-day responsibility for the management of the Center lies with the Director, who consults regularly with the Internal Advisory Committee, comprised of the Coordinators of the Interdisciplinary Research Groups and Seed Programs, the Education Outreach Coordinator and the Associate Directors.  Emrick serves as the Director and has been approved to continue as the Director in 2009.  Carter is the Associate Director of Research and is responsible for the co-ordination of research activities in the Outreach Programs.  Hayward is the Associate Director of Education and Diversity and is responsible for all aspects of education outreach and diversity efforts of the Center. Gido is the Associate Director of Facilities and is responsible for the operation of the Shared Experimental Facilities.

The coordinators of the IRGs are charged with the responsibility of maintaining the focus, coherence and intellectual vitality of their programs, through solicitation, evaluation and integration of proposals, and through organization of discussions (with or without external participants) of the most significant scientific and technological questions related to these areas of research. Project proposals are submitted to the program coordinators on an annual basis. The Advisory Committee recommends to the Director those programs, projects and facilities that the Committee believes are worthy of support. The Director then makes final decisions regarding support, and consults with the Committee in preparing the annual operating budget of the Center.

External Advisory Board

An External Advisory Board (EAB) was established and included representatives of the industrial and educational institutions who have expertise in the research areas related to the Center. The EAB will meet annually to facilitate collaborative programs and evaluate all aspects of Centers operation. The link to the Center for UMass-Industry Research on Polymers (CUMIRP) will serve to disseminate more broadly the accomplishments of the Center and facilitate contact between industrial scientists and the graduate and undergraduate students involved in MRSEC research.

The educational outreach programs of the Center will involve Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, Howard University and the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez. In the first three cases, the program coordinators (Browne at Mount Holyoke, Easwar at Smith and Pollack at Howard University) have worked extensively (one year or more) in the polymer research laboratories at the University of Massachusetts, so these connections are firmly in place. The program coordinators will report semi-annually to the Board and the Director on the progress of the programs. Browne, due to her strong connections to the New England Board of Higher Education Science/Engineering Academic Support Network, and Pollack, due to his position at Howard University, will coordinate the recruitment and placement of minority undergraduate summer students in the research laboratories of the MRSEC. The K-12 educational outreach programs including curriculum development, distance learning CD-ROM development and interactions with the National Plastics Center and Museum will be coordinated by Dabkowski under the guidance of Gido.

University Administration