1) Name: The Polymer Science Learning Center
2) Date Founded: September 1, 1999
3) University Official or action that authorized the center:VP of Research
4) Current director of the Center: Lon Mathias
5) Mission: Develop Multimedia and Distance Learning material in Polymer Science
6) General Accomplishments: We have established a core staff that has seveloped material and is extending material listed below. Several starter grants were obtained from the American Chemical Society, POLYED Committee along with donations from GE, ICI and Elf Atochem that allowed iniation of this effort. Collaborations have now been established at several educational institutions in the US and throughout the world.
7) Specific Accomplishments over the last 5 years: The Macrogalleria and the Macrolab: www.psrc.usm.edu/macrog/index.htm and /macrog/lab/index.htm. Also, see material under development at: /macrog/new.htm
8) Current Listing of Affiliated faculty/staff:

USM Lon Mathias Nancy Warren Greg Brust Virginia Smith Karie Sorrells Cheri Hufford Rhonda Kingery Kristi Lowery Amy Cuevas Virgil Breeden

Chemical Heritage Foundation Mary Virginia Orna Mark Michalovic Johnnie-Marie Whitfield

University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point John Droske Robert Badger

9) Total external funding received directly attributable to the center: $342,000
Grant from National Science Foundation Materials Division
10) External funding received directly attributable to the center over the last 5 years: $342,000
11) Total annual University expenditure for the center: approximately $50,000
12) Specific university expenditure for the center over the last 5 years: approximately $20,000
13) Other benchmarks to affirm the center: Enormous use of material on-campus and throughout the world in high school and college chemistry and polymer science courses. Others find this material so useful that they translated into their language for free: Afrikaans, French Portuguese, Spanish and Italian.
14) Future plans for the center: Expand staff and to expand current resource material and implement distance learning courses and degree programs at USM and in collaboration with other universities world-wide.