Documentation to "My Case"

April 21, 2003

AD/Office Head
Directorate for Geosciences
The National Science Foundation
4201 Wilson Boulevard, Rm 705 N
Arlington, VA 22230

Re: Proposal No. 0308362: Experimental Investigation of the Origin of Inclusions in Diamonds from the Deep Mantle


Dear Ms. Margaret S. Leinen:

Since my request to reverse the declination of my proposal No. 0308362 for funding has been denied by the Director of the Division of Earth Sciences, Dr. Herman B. Zimmerman, I am requesting that you reconsider this action in accordance with the policies outlined in the NSF Grant Policy Manual, document No. 02-151.

In view of the positive reviews of my proposal, I believe that the single factor that made the proposal uncompetitive was the high level of the requested funding. This is because the proposal requested my full salary, essentially the salary for my former position of the lab manager, without which the high-pressure lab, where I propose to continue in my research, cannot function. I am prepared to reduce the requested level of funding as much as possible to preserve the option of keeping the lab operational, until an alternative way of funding is found.

The lab is a national asset, a unique facility established in 1985 at great cost to the American taxpayers as the first modern multi-anvil lab in the Western hemisphere. The lab was in, what has been considered by many, a successful and highly productive operation for 16 years. I developed the experimental techniques, procedures and sample assemblies, which were later copied in the United States by almost everybody else. The resulting techniques and procedures have made possible to conduct experiments at pressures up to 24 GPa and temperatures up to 2500°C at a high success rate. My first major studies clearly demonstrating the successful operation of the high-pressure lab were published in 1989 and 1990. These early developments and studies played a decisive role in the successful bid by the Mineral Physics Institute in Stony Brook to acquire in 1990 a NSF Science and Technology Center, the Center for High Pressure Research (CHiPR). On January 31, 2002, the CHiPR ended its planned 11 years of operation, and later that year was resurrected as the Consortium for Materials Properties Research in Earth Sciences (COMPRES) initiative, funded by the same resources that were used previously to fund CHiPR. However, COMPRES no longer included funding for the high-pressure lab, nor my position as lab manager. This ended the highly successful petrology and geochemistry programs headed during the CHiPR years by myself and others. The research objectives of the COMPRES initiative are now much more narrowly focused on the measurement of physical properties using the synchrotron radiation. My proposal seeks funds to restart the operation of the high-pressure lab and of my petrology/geochemistry program. Significantly, this would also enable others to use the lab. Since I am the only one in Stony Brook who has the most complete and detailed knowledge of everything associated with the high-pressure research and equipment, I would be available to assist and advise all users of the lab. I am still doing it anyway.

I believe that the joint decision by the leadership of COMPRES and the NSF officials not to fund the operation of the Stony Brook High Pressure Lab was a major mistake. This decision, which ended one of the most successful petrology/geochemistry programs worldwide for the study of the Earth’s mantle, is inconsistent with the recommendations of the National Science Board in the publication NSB02-190, which emphasize the development of multi-disciplinary infrastructure platforms and identify the exploration of the Earth’s mantle among its priorities. The lab is essential not only for reviving the programs in petrology and geochemistry, but also as a supporting facility for the synchrotron-based research of the COMPRES initiative. The synchrotron beam-time is already highly oversubscribed, and an average student may get only one or two opportunities per year to conduct in-situ high-pressure experiments. If these experiments fail, a whole year is lost. The high-pressure multi-anvil experiments are extremely difficult, and the users need a supporting facility where they can train to maintain the high level of skills necessary to maximize their chances of success in those crucial in-situ experiments. It is also necessary to continuously test high-pressure assemblies to make sure that they would work, particularly when new batches of material used to manufacture parts for the high-pressure assemblies are purchased.

I would like now to address the reviews. The most serious comment made by several reviewers was that I do not cite enough the work of others. I may have left some references out, mainly due to space limitations, and I believe I am better than most in giving credit in my publications. However, based on 20 years of experience, I am convinced that the only way to achieve equilibrium and obtain the highest-quality data is by using fluxes. Since very few want to use fluxes in their experiments, most data by others may not be as good in quality as mine, or even incorrect, and their usefulness may, therefore, be limited. I also consider internal consistency to be of extreme importance, and the only way to add to my extensive data base of internally consistent data, obtained in close to 700 multi-anvil experiments, is by continuing to conduct experiments in the lab for which I seek funding by using the same equipment, procedures, techniques and calibrations that I used before. For additional details about my research, please visit my Web site (http://www.mpi.stonybrook.edu/ResearchResults/PhaseRelationsGasparik/).

Enclosed is the revised budget, reduced from $ 890,041 to $ 300,532. I am shortening the funding period from 3 to 2 years, giving myself a 10 % pay-cut and eliminating the post-doc. I will limit my research to the lines of inquiry 1 (experiments in simple Fe-bearing systems) and 2 (mineral inclusions in diamonds). The funding would keep the high-pressure lab operating for another 2 years. This funding is my only opportunity to stay in science. I have been unemployed since the end of CHiPR on January 31, 2002; hence, I cannot afford to resubmit a revised proposal next year. It is now or never.

I hope you will agree to fund this proposal at the reduced level, and I thank you for your attention on this matter.

Sincerely yours,



Tibor Gasparik
Research Associate Professor

Cc: Dr. Herman B. Zimmerman