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Press Release 12-099 Projects will investigate materials for renewable energy, advanced electronics, biomaterials, organic and polymeric materials The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced six Partnerships for Research and Education in Materials (PREM) awards as a result of the 2012 PREM competition.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) today announced awards for three Materials Interdisciplinary Research Teams (MIRT) and nine Centers of Excellence in Materials Research and Innovation, also known as Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSEC). The awards resulted from the 2011 Materials Research Centers and Teams competition (solicitation NSF 10-568).

Xavier University of Louisiana and New York University have received a $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation to bolster diversity among materials scientists through collaborative research and curriculum development. The award was one of eight awarded this year under NSF’s Partnerships for Research and Education in Materials (PREM) program and funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

MRSEC programs provide transformative opportunities for  students and faculty at minority-serving institutions to participate in leading-edge materials science and engineering  research. But in order to encourage more underrepresented  minority researchers to take advantage of these opportunities, we need to cultivate personal connections with those at

PROGRAM GUIDELINES Solicitation  10-568

REINVENTING PHOTOVOLTAICS

The National Science Foundation (NSF) announces 14 Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSECs) awarded as a result of the 2008 MRSEC competition (solicitation NSF 07-563). MRSECs support outstanding multi- and inter-disciplinary materials research and education addressing fundamental problems in science and engineering. These centers investigate complex problems that benefit from the scope and level of interactions provided by a center. They foster active collaboration among universities, other MRSECs, industry, and National Laboratories.

A team of Penn State researchers has shown for the first time that the entire class of "non-magnetic" materials, such as those used in some computer components, could have considerably more uses than scientists had thought. The findings are important because they reveal previously unknown information about the structure of these materials, expanding the number of properties that they potentially could have. A material's properties, such as electrical conductivity and mechanical strength, are what determine its usefulness.

An Assessment of the Impact of the NSF's Materials Research Science & Engineering Centers Program was carried out by an independent NRC committee over a 2-year period. The purpose of this study was to:

A remarkably simple experiment devised by scientists yields important information about the mechanical properties of thin films--nanoscopically thin layers of material that are deposited onto a metal, ceramic or semiconductor base. The research results, funded by the National Science Foundation and performed at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, appears in the August 3, 2007, issue of Science.