Ferroelectric ferromagnets are a holy grail of materials research, since they would enable electrically  switchable magnetism with diverse potential applications in information technology, sensing and new  “electro-magneto-mechanical” devices.

PCCM partnered with the Harvard University MRSEC to host the annual Holiday Lecture on December 11, 2021. Taking on a completely original and new topic for 2021, PCCM focused on fluid dynamics in its presentation: Let it Flow: A Festival about Fluids.

The 2022 Holiday Science Lecture “Engine Earth” was held at Princeton University on December 3, 2022 with over 500 people attending two lectures at McDonnell Hall.

The 2023 Holiday Science Lecture “A World of Patterns” was held at Princeton University on December 9, 2023 with over 400 people attending two lectures at McDonnell Hall. Howard Stone and other PCCM researchers (including graduate student and postdoctoral presenters) illustrated ideas of shape, symmetry, packing and pattern formation. Some of the experiments and interactive demonstrations included:

The Imaging and Analysis Center (IAC) supported by PCCM is a world-leading facility for materials characterization. Its central mission is the education, research, and training of students at Princeton University and beyond. The IAC also collaborates with researchers in industry and other academic institutes.

We utilized microfluidic methods to investigate the role of geometric structures, e.g. thin spherical block copolymer shells, in the microphase separation in block copolymer thin films. The shells are comprised of the triblock copolymer styrene-isoprene-styrene (SIS). For air-in-oil-in-water emulsions, microfluidic devices with two consecutive flow-focusing junctions were used to generate air bubble-containing droplets of a solution of the SIS triblock

The Imaging and Analysis Center (IAC), supported by PCCM, is a world-leading facility for materials characterization. Its central mission is the education, research, and training of students at Princeton University and beyond. The IAC also collaborates with researchers in industry and other academic institutes.

Materials with a negative refractive index can form super-resolution planar lenses, sub-surface cameras or compact resonators which are otherwise impossible to realize. MRSEC researchers have predicted for the first time a tunable negative-index material with low loss, using liquid crystals, whose operating wavelength can be changed by controlling the liquid crystal orientation. Download

At the University of Chicago MRSEC, we pursued new outreach directions with campus museums including the Smart Museum of Art and the Oriental Institute.