Search

The Harvard MRSEC focuses on unraveling complex phenomena in soft materials with the goal of translating these advances to benefit society.

The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara will carry out research within three Interdisciplinary Research Groups or IRGs. The three IRGs address fundamental problems in materials research that could not be advanced without contributions from a team of interdisciplinary and collaborative domain experts. The research in every IRG integrates synthesis, theory/computation, and characterization/property measurement to advance fundamental understanding and develop promising materials classes for a range of applications. The scientific challenge for IRG-1 is to understand and develop unprecedented control over the couplings between strain, magnetization, and temperature in single- and multiphase intermetallic compounds to advance technologies including actuation and solid-state refrigeration. For IRG-2, the challenge is to develop novel polymeric ionic liquid chemistries, understand self-assembly and ion transport in these materials, and develop applications that incorporate the emergent properties of multi-valent ion conductivity, light-driven adaptive mechanics, switchable redox activity, and magnetic response. Inspired by natural marine materials, IRG-3 aims to discover how material assembly and innovative processing can help establish the foundational design rules for creating versatile, graded, multiphase soft materials for eventual use applications such as advanced fabrics, packaging, additive manufacturing, and tissue replacements, and as self-shaping, self-healing, and reconfigurable materials platforms. Seed Projects will be competitively awarded for two-year periods, and will bring in collaborative investigators who will take the NSF MRSEC in promising new directions. Alongside the research UCSB MRSEC scientists and education staff are dedicated to improving access to science and to building a dynamic and inclusive workforce of scientists and engineers. The portfolio of education programs has a core focus on undergraduate research opportunities. Outreach activities will also involve K-12 students, support of teachers to create relevant curricula, and the broader lay public, to share current excitement in materials research. Initiatives to develop a diverse workforce emphasize graduate students and post-doctoral fellows.

The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at University of California, Santa Barbara is focused on classes of material that are both chemically and structurally complex with a significant portion of the effort related to interfaces, including those between organic and inorganic materials. IRG 1, Biomaterial Microstructures, has evolved from the Complex Fluids IRG of the previous NSF MRSEC, and carries out the enabling science for the development of biomaterial microstructure and solution aggregates that perform biological or biomimetic functions and serve as model systems for hybrid devices. IRG 2, Solution Synthesis of Inorganics at Molecular and Atomic Interfaces studies the roles of structure-directing molecules and surfaces in the hierarchical organization of inorganics synthesized from solution at low temperatures. IRG 3, Mesoscopic Macromolecular Structures, develops the principles for synthesis and processing of novel macromolecular structures that are heterogeneous on a mesoscopic scale and exploit these structures to control properties for electronic, optical and biotechnological applications. IRG 4, Strongly Non-equilibrium Phenomena in Complex Materials, applies atomic-scale microscopies and advanced scientific computing to bear on a diverse, but closely related, set of problems concerning deformation, failure, and structural reorganization of complex materials. The Center includes significant shared facilities located in a new Materials Research Laboratory building recently completed to house the Center.

The educational activities include development of evaluation methods to measure the degree of success that their outreach programs are having. Outreach projects include Santa Barbara City College Materials Interns; Research Interns in Science and Engineering; Research Experience for Teachers; and UCSB Scienceline, an internet link with Santa Barbara County science teachers and students, impacting both under-represented minority and female students at the college, and pre-college levels. Last year, these programs reached 28 undergraduates (12 women; 2 under-represented minorities) and 5800 pre-college students (3000 women; 4000 under-represented minorities). This is an interdisciplinary MRSEC with 31 faculty members, 15 post-doctoral associates and 24 graduate students from programs in Materials Science and Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Physics, Chemistry, Electrical Engineering, Geology, Mechanical Engineering, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry. Professor Anthony Cheetham directs the MRSEC.

The IRG-B team is uncovering new insights into how cells use macromolecules to function, while also using these insights toward the design of new responsive materials systems with highly tunable properties. Their research is helping to lay the foundation for a new field of "living" materials science at the interface of biology, chemistry, engineering, and physics — addressing the U.S. National Science Foundation's Big Idea "The Rules of Life."

Established in 1994, the Princeton Center for Complex Materials is dedicated to exploring the frontiers of complexity in materials science. The Center supports two IRGs that will accelerate exploration of quantum technologies and biology-inspired materials.

Fundamental Issues in Materials Integration on Silicon investigates the fundamental atomistic and mesoscopic mechanisms underlying the integration of materials, devices and structures on silicon, as an integration platform. Materials integration on Si leverages the power of CMOS through the addition of other components, thereby increasing function while maintaining the advantages and the versatility of Si processing and device technology. This research provides the foundation for development of vastly enhanced and totally new electronic devices. The NSF MRSEC enables the assembly of broad expertise that allows us to address the detailed structural, chemical, and electronic issues underlying heterogeneous integration. Si is used as the model of a multi-functional material: as an integration platform, a template for growth of nanoscale structures, a mechanical element, and a semiconductor.

The Center on Polymer Interfaces and Macromolecular Assemblies (CPIMA) is a U.S. National Science Foundation sponsored partnership among Stanford University, IBM Almaden Research Center, the University of California Davis and the University of California Berkeley. CPIMA is dedicated to fundamental research on interfaces found in systems containing polymers and low molecular weight amphiphiles.

CAMM at UT Knoxville, focuses on the exploration, discovery, and design of new materials with properties of critical societal importance for energy, transport, and security advancements.

The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) at the University of
Chicago focuses on two overarching, intertwined issues: the manipulation of structural properties connected through hierarchies of length scales, and the feedback between structural properties and dynamical response. The understanding and control of these issues provides a foundation for the design of the next generation of functional materials, from cooperative spin systems, self-assembled nanostructures, or microfluidic systems, to bio-inorganic hybrid materials. The Center's research is organized into four interdisciplinary groups (IRGs). IRG1 investigates the Dynamical Formation of Structures in Liquids and Elastic Solids that emerge as one follows coarse, macroscopic features to finer and finer length scales, including phenomena such as droplet break-up, crumpling and mesoscale flows. IRG2 aims to design and implement Hierarchically Assembled Molecular Materials composed of molecular assemblies on surfaces that express novel function. IRG3, Jamming and Slow Relaxation in Materials Far from Equilibrium, develops a unifying framework to understand the complex behavior of large classes of materials, from spin systems to supercooled liquids to granular matter, that become stuck in states far from equilibrium and defy description by conventional statistical mechanics. IRG4, Bio-Interfacial Science, develops new routes for designing and controlling the interface between biological entities and man-made materials, including development of biochips for quantitative characterization of biological activities and the assembly of protein units for novel nanostructured materials.

The Center's research benefits from extensive shared experimental facilities that provide research support and training of students. The MRSEC operates a comprehensive program that integrates research with education that includes a seminar and workshop series, a shared student and postdoctoral associates program, a long-term visitors program, as well as outreach programs such as summer research experiences for undergraduates and links with the K-12 level that emphasize attracting and keeping women and minorities in science. The Center also has an industrial partnership program that includes research collaborations, joint workshops, and joint student training activities, as well as a close collaboration with researchers at Argonne National Laboratory.

The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) at the University of Minnesota supports a broad research program foucsed on hybrid materials. The Center is organized through two interdisciplinary research groups, and pursues exploratory research in several seed projects. The MRSEC supports an educational outreach program to the Native American community in a four-state area surrounding the University of Minnesota. The Center maintains shared experimental facilities which are accessible to outside users, and also supports interactive efforts with industry and other sectors. One of the two interdisciplinary research groups is investigating the microstructure of macromolecular materials. This group seeks to employ block co-polymers as key ingredients, but rarely as sole ingredients, in order to control the structure and function of new hybrid polymers. The goal of the second group is to develop a fundamental understanding of the materials science of artificial tissues and to develop materials for use in biosystems. An important aspect of this work is to define systematically the relationships betweeen composition, structure, and mechanical properties of arificial tissues.