Highlights index

BASF, a major international chemical company headquartered in Germany, has established a major research initiative at Harvard, the BASF Advanced Research Initiative, that will provide up to $4M/yr in research support.

Direct, real-space 3-D observation of shear transformation zones in a glass. A colloidal glass is used to mimic the behavior of atomic and molecular glasses. Upon application of an external shear strain, there are highly localized regions of much higher strain, where particles move irreversibly. These are illustrated in the Figure, where the high-strain regions are colored red.

Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education- using Nanoscience Instrumentation for Quality Undergraduate Education

Molecular Biomimetics is an emerging multidisciplinary research area in which genetically selected and designed inorganic-binding peptides are utilized as building blocks, i.e., molecular synthesizers, erectors, and assemblers, in forming functional nanomaterials for implementation in technology and medicine.

Recent work at the Northwestern University MRSEC has shown that aluminum nanoparticles fabricated using a process known as nanosphere lithography (NSL) display plasmons throughout the UV-vis region.

Semiconductor nanowires grown with metal nanocatalysts are new materials that provide a basis for transformative improvements in diverse technologies including thermoelectrics and photovoltaics.

A collaboration between researcher supported by the DOE and NSF-MRSEC’s at UC Santa Barbara and UMASS Amherst, and IBM has led to a revolutionary chip breakthrough that promises to be used in every future microelectronic device.