The MIT Center for Materials Science and Engineering (CMSE) is devoted to the design, creation, and fundamental understanding of materials that are capable of enhancing the human experience. CMSE has a special mission: to foster collaborative, interdisciplinary research and education in the science and engineering of materials that will address the future needs of society. CMSE promotes collaboration among MIT faculty and between MIT faculty and researchers of other universities, industry, and government laboratories.

The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) at the University of Southern Mississippi supports an interdisciplinary research program in the area of polymer coatings and films. The Center also supports a wide range of educational activities, including the establishment of advanced degrees in polymer education and a new course leading to an advanced degree in Distance Leaming. The Center is entitled the Response-Driven Polymeric Films Center. The Center supports well maintained and accessible shared experimental facilities and interacts with industry and other sectors at local, regional, national and international levels.

The Center's research is organized into two interdisciplinary research groups (IRGS).
IRG 1, Design and Synthesis ofresponse -Driven Poymers, focuses on the the design and synthesis of molecular processes in biomaterials, liquid crystals, and environmentally fismart" molecules. IRG 2, Response-Driven Film Formation, conducts molecular level investigations of films and coatings that exhibit response-driven properties. Potential application of the Center's research are in diveres areas such as water treatment, controlled drug release, and formulation of water-based coatings.. In addition, seed support is provided for emerging research opportunities which are within the general scope of the Center.

The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) on Nanostructured Materials and Interfaces at the University of Wisconsin, Madison supports research in three interdisciplinary groups focusing on film growth by chemical vapor deposition, grain boundaries and current percolation in high-temperature superconductors, and nanostructured magnetic oxides. The first group investigates the fundamental mechanisms underlying film growth by chemical vapor deposition, with a focus on the growth of Si and Ge and their alloys. The second group focuses on the role that grain boundaries and the electronic structure play in determining the critical current density of polycrystalline high temperature superconductors. The third group addresses the fabrication, characterization, and understanding of the properties of perovskite-like magnetic oxides with potential device applications. The MRSEC supports shared experimental facilities for materials research, exploratory research through seed funding, and collaborations with industry and with other universities. Educational outreach programs include development of instructional materials for high school science teachers and outreach visits to local schools. The Center supports 15 senior investigators, 8 postdoctoral research associates, 16 graduate students, 7 technicians or other professionals, and 10 undergraduates. The MRSEC is directed by Professor T. F. Kuech. %%% The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) on Nanostructured Materials and Interfaces at the University of Wisconsin, Madison supports research in three interdisciplinary groups. The first group investigates the fundamental mechanisms underlying the growth of semiconductor films with focus on the growth of the technologically important materials silicon and germanium and their alloys. The second group focuses on the role structural defects play in determining the critical current density of polycrystalline high-temp erature superconductors. The third group addresses the fabrication, characterization, and understanding of the properties of magnetic oxides with potential device applications. The MRSEC supports shared experimental facilities for materials research, exploratory research through seed funding, and collaborations with industry and with other universities. Educational outreach programs include development of instructional materials for high school science teachers and outreach visits to local schools. The Center supports 15 senior investigators, 8 postdoctoral research associates, 16 graduate students, 7 technicians or other professionals, and 10 undergraduates. The MRSEC is directed by Professor T. F. Kuech.

Develop the science and technology of graphene and other electronic materials to permit fabrication of devices and circuits for post-CMOS low power electronics.  Integrate the science/technology developed with educational programs, student/teacher training, and industrial needs to ensure availability of the necessary workforce and tech transfer capabilities for future electonic materials and processing.   Enhance the diversity of students and faculty involved in the development and fabrication of future electronic materials, devices, and circuits.

The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technolgy supports interactive research in five interdisciplinary groups spanning a wide area of materials research.. The group investigating microphotonic materials and structures aims to explore the fundamental nature, synthesis and properties of photonic bandgap materials, and to exploit these properties for the design and fabrication of novel structures and devices for the creation and control of electromagnetic radiation. The molecular and supermolecular engineering group is developing the chemistry and molecular level processing needed to control and manipulate the organization of macromolecular systems with novel electronic and optical properties. The group investigating phase behavior in the presence of quenched randomness is carrying out experimental and theoretical studies of phase changes in disordered systems. Such changes may underlie fundamental mechanisms in the life sciences, and may have application in the information sciences. The group studying the structure, chemistry and transport properties of intercrystalline interfaces seeks a unified and comprehensive understanding of the role of atomic-level structure, chemistry, and local electronic structure in determining the physical properties of interfaces between crystals. The fifth group is investigating the properties of transition metal oxides in order to guide the development of a theory of correlated systems and ultimately explain the mechanism of high temperature superconductivity. The MRSEC supports the development, operation and maintenance of shared experimental facilities for materials research. It provides seed funding for exploratory research, and fosters research participation by undergraduates. The center is associated with an educational outreach program with emphasis on attracting and retaining women and underrepresented minorities in materials science. It also supports a science and engineering day camp which is directed toward seventh and eighth grade students from underrepresented minorities. The center administers an industrial outreach program The center currently supports 37 senior investigators, 13 postdoctoral research associates, 10 technicians, 39 graduate students, and 13 undergraduates who perform research as summer interns. The MRSEC is directed by Professor Marc A. Kastner.

The Center investigates the mechanics in thin films and bulk materials through a combination of experimental and computer modeling techniques. The Center has a broad spectrum of educational and outreach programs, including the very successful BrownOut program that brings hands on demonstrations to local K-12 science and math classes.

The Center for Emergent Materials engages researchers from multiple disciplines to work in teams on scientific problems too complex for a single researcher to solve. The CEM, established in 2008, is located at The Ohio State University and funded by a National Science Foundation MRSEC award.

The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) at the Cornell University supports a broadly based interdisciplinary research program on control of advanced ordered and disordered materials at the nanoscale. The research is carried out in five interdisciplinary research groups with appropriate seed projects. IRG A Nanostructured Materials: Electron and Spin Transport will exploit uniquely nanostructured materials to elucidate fundamental issues of electron and spin transport in systems whose electronic structure have considerable technological potential; IRG B Nanoscale Polymer-Inorganic Hybrid Materials will combine synthesis, physical characterization, and modeling to control the properties of new generations of industrially important polymer-inorganic nanoscale hybrid materials; IRG C Oxide Glasses: Surfaces and Thin-film Interfaces will develop fundamental knowledge of the chemistry and nono- and intermediate length scale structure at and near the surfaces and key interfaces in silicate glasses crucial to emerging thin-film-on-glass technologies; IRG D Fundamentals of Energetic Surface Processing will develop further the means to improve thin film deposition using novel energetic supersonic and hyperthermal ion beams; and IRG E Dynamic Mechanical Properties of Nanoscale Materials will strive to understand and control energy dissipation and the non-linear response of nano-mechanical oscillators to assist in enabling new GHz technologies. The MRSEC includes a comprehensive educational outreach programs targeting K-12; undergraduate; graduate; school teachers and the general public. It places special emphasis on outreach to rural school districts. The Center maintains a significant set of shared experimental facilities that provide state of the art instrumentation for the entire University; act as a focal point for graduate education and for knowledge transfer to industry. Participants in the Center include 44 senior investigators, 8 postdoctoral associates, 41 graduate students, 20 undergraduates, and 18 technicians and other support personnel.
Professor Neil Ashcroft directs the MRSEC.

Peptides are the workhorses of life, providing cellular and molecular communications, carrying out enzymatic reactions, controling material formation, and performing transport and motor functions. The overarching vision of the Center has been to combine the recent advances of molecular biology/genetics, engineering/nano/molecular technologies and computation/information science to create molecular biomimetics, a new paradigm in materials science and engineering. In this unique approach, while the molecular machinery of biology is used to carry out the molecular recognition and assembly, inorganics and synthetics are utilized towards functional hybrid molecular- and nano-structures in developing novel materials and systems, beyond what materials science has been able to achieve until now.

 

The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) at Princeton University supports a broad based interdisciplinary research program in the area of complex materials, including polymers and soft materials, electronic materials, and biomaterials. The Center also supports a wide range of education activities, including science curriculum support for middle and high school teachers, a summer outreach program for high school students, and an African outreach program. The Center supports well-maintained and accessible shared experimental facilities and interacts with industry and other sectors at local, regional, national and international levels.

The Center's research is organized into three interdisciplinary research groups (IRGs). IRG 1, Interplay of Magnetism and Transport in Correlated Electronic Materials, focuses on charge and spin transport in complex, correlated electronic materials. IRG 2 on Guided Self-Assembly investigates new methods for fabricating large-scale assemblies of patterned structures with features on the nano and micrometer scale. Potential applications are in the areas of nanomagnetics, manipulating biomolecules on a nanoscale, as well as photonics. Adhesion, Deformation, and Transport at Contacts in Small Structures (IRG 3) is an entirely new effort with focus on small scale contacts that are of importance in microelectronic, photonic, and micro-electromechanical devices. Two large seed projects are devoted to patterned assemblies of functional cell-based biomaterials, which propose to combine protein design with the design of novel interfaces between synthetic materials and living cells, and to heteroepitaxy and electronic structure of high dielectric constant oxides.