The U.S. National Science Foundation is pushing materials science beyond the state-of-the-art with an investment of $108 million in six advanced research centers. The centers will explore a broad range of scientific frontiers, such as exotic materials where light and matter are effectively fused together as hybrid particles, and soft materials that can potentially deliver medicines precisely within the human body.
Each center will receive $18 million over six years from the NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers program. NSF has supported such centers since the 1970s when they were called the Materials Research Labs. Renamed as the Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers in the 1990s, they are a discovery powerhouse for the U.S. The centers have collectively produced tens of thousands of published scientific findings, resulting in new and improved materials found in everything from dental fillings to rocket engines.
"For more than fifty years, NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers have helped put America at the forefront of advanced materials discovery," says NSF Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate Head Tie Luo. "These centers will continue to explore the practically infinite number of ways that matter can be formed into materials, bridging the gap between what we can imagine and what we can create."