Northwestern Materials Research Science and Engineering Center

Image: Courtesy Northwestern

The Northwestern University Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (NU-MRSEC) advances world-class materials research, education, and outreach through active interdisciplinary collaborations. The Center partners with academic institutions, industries, national laboratories, and museums both domestically and internationally, fostering innovation at the frontiers of materials research.

NU-MRSEC operates with a synergistic structure comprising interdisciplinary research groups (IRGs), a robust Seed funding program, and advanced shared facilities. These initiatives aim to accelerate the discovery, dissemination, and commercialization of novel materials while addressing critical challenges in technology and science.

Education and outreach are integral to the Center’s mission. NU-MRSEC engages K-12 students, undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs through programs that inspire and train the next generation of scientists and engineers. Public engagement is further enriched by partnerships with institutions such as Argonne National Laboratory, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Science and Industry, and the Field Museum of Natural History.

Center Website

IRG-1

Bioprogrammable Materials via Cell-Free Synthetic Biology

IRG-1 aims to establish cell-free bioprogrammable materials, a new class of bioinspired composites whose properties autonomously adapt in response to specific spatiotemporal cues via the collective activity of embedded artificial cells. These bioprogrammable materials will possess autonomous properties such as self-healing, on-demand cargo release, degradation, dynamic mechanical property modulation, biomineralization, and shape-morphing. IRG-1 will establish a new paradigm for enhancing the performance and capabilities fo soft active materials by endowing them with the adaptive multi-functionality of biological systems, thus accelerating advances in sustainable agriculture, soft robotics, water treatment, smart clothing, food storage, and wound healing.

Leaders

Danielle Tullman Ercek, Sinan Ketan

IRG-2

Orchestrated Iontronics via Dynamic Hybrid Ionic/Electronic Conductors

IRG-2 aims to deliver "Materials for AI" by designing hybrid ionic/electronic conductors (HIECs) based on organic materials and inorganic layered materials that mimic biological neuronal behaviors with broad implications for neuromorphic computing, bioelectronics, and energy storage technologies. By undestanding and leveraging spatiotemporal cooperativity of electronic and ionic processes, IRG-2 will realize neuron-inspired phenomena in HIECs such as adaptive synaptogenesis, sensory transduction, tunable potentiation/plasticity, and optogenetic responses.