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In collaboration with Amish Patel’s group (IRG-2), researchers in the previous and current Penn MRSEC discovered that disordered packings of hydrophilic nanoparticles infiltrated with hydrophobic polymers—amphiphilic nanoporous films—can spontaneously condense and exude water droplets from undersaturated vapor under isothermal conditions.

Northwestern University engineers have developed a new nanoelectronic device that can perform accurate machine-learning classification tasks in the most energy-efficient manner yet. Using 100-fold less energy than current technologies, the device can crunch large amounts of data and perform artificial intelligence (AI) tasks in real time without beaming data to the cloud for analysis.

The 2026 MRS Spring Meeting & Exhibit, April 26–May 1 in Honolulu, will bring together researchers from academia, industry, and government for a week of collaboration and scientific exchange—highlighting breakthroughs in sustainability, energy, and more.

Helium may be the second-most abundant element in the universe, but on Earth it’s a finite, nonrenewable resource. Helium is so light that it’s not trapped by the lower levels of Earth’s atmosphere. And it’s extremely challenging to capture, since it’s relatively unreactive. Liquid helium is a critical ingredient in systems for cooling equipment used to study quantum systems and image atoms, as well as in the high-performance magnets used in MRI scanners and particle accelerators. But if it is not carefully contained, helium flies to the farthest reaches of the atmosphere or even out into space when it boils.

The University of Pennsylvania's MRSEC Director, Eric Stach was recently named the Scientific Director of the Singh Center for Nanotechnology. Stach’s distinguished career in materials science and engineering, specifically in transmission electron microscopy, combined with his extensive experience managing interdisciplinary research teams, positions him uniquely to lead the Singh Center towards new heights of achievement.

The reason microplastics are all around and even in us is because petroleum-based plastics last for hundreds of years. In our lifetimes they simply don’t go away. But degradable plastics, made from plants, do. Research at UCSD has now proven that those earth-friendly plastics disappear in a matter of a few months. Researchers ground up plant-based plastics into very small bits and tested them in several natural environments.

Yishu Wang has been elected as one of three new general members to the SNS-HFIR User Group (SHUG) Executive Committee (EC) starting January 1, 2026. SHUG consists of all persons interested in using the neutron scattering facilities at Oak Ridge. It provides input to the management on user concerns, provides a forum for keeping the entire community informed of issues and progress at these facilities, and serves as an advocacy group for neutron scattering science at these facilities.

Join DMR Division Director Germano Iannacchione and DMR program directors for our monthly office hour and Q&A session.

The Conference Across MRSEC-PREM Schools is a student-led initiative to bring MRSEC-PREM students, faculty, and industry together to help improve students’ research, academic, and professional skills. The conference was founded as a result of a growing need to network with students from other institutions and learn about their work.

Electrolyte gating uses ions to reversibly modify La0.5Sr0.5CoO3−δ, changing oxygen content and electrical, magnetic, and optical properties at 1–2 V. The team achieved ~100-cycle endurance with humidity control and 4 nm films switching in ~0.7 s. Prospects include tunable optics/photonics; future work targets diffusion and surface chemistry; collaborations.