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.

The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology supports a broad-based interdisciplinary research program. The research is conducted in five interdisciplinary research groups (IRGs). These include Microphotonic Materials and Structures (IRG 1) where new physical phenomena in materials are discovered for which relevant length scales are comparable to a photon wavelength. Such "photonic crystals" can exhibit new phenomena that can be formulated by theory and applied in novel optical devices. IRG 2 on Nanostructured Polymer Assemblies seeks to gain understanding of how polymer nanocomposites organize at the molecular level and how to enhance or control the performance of electronic, magnetic, biosensor and optical devices based on these materials. Electronic Transport in Mesoscopic Semiconductor and Magnetic Structures (IRG 3) explores charge and spin transport in solid-state electronic structures. Both chemically produced as well as lithographically defined nanostructures are investigated. IRG 4 on the Science and Engineering of Solid-State Portable Power Sources focuses on the fundamental science and engineering of materials for solid-state electro-chemical power sources. The ultimate goal of the IRG is to apply this fundamental knowledge to develop ultra-high performance batteries. Quantum Magnetism, Correlated Electrons and Superconductivity in Transition Metal Oxides (IRG 5) investigates the effects of carrier doping, temperature and magnetic fields on materials with strongly correlated electron systems. Such materials exhibit unusual electronic, magnetic and superconducting properties which are currently not understood. Future activities in this IRG are expected to be reduced. The Center has a strong education program directed toward graduate students, undergraduates, middle and high school students and K-12 teachers. Emphasis is placed on including underrepresented minorities in these programs. The education activities enjoy the broad participation of MIT students and faculty and are closely linked to complementary programs in other MIT administrative units, such as the MIT museum and MIT's Council on Primary and Secondary Education. The Center operates shared facilities and has an effective industrial outreach program.

This Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) at Johns Hopkins University is focused on one of the most important new research areas: science and technology of magnetoelectronics. Conventional microelectronic devices, such as microchips, use electric currents - the motion of electric charge as carried by electrons in metals and semiconductors - to control and manipulate information. However, in addition to charge, electrons possess an attribute known as "spin," which makes them tiny magnets, and it is the collective alignment of these spins in materials such as iron that leads to the phenomenon of magnetism. Spin alignment in magnetic materials is the basis of information storage on hard disks and magnetic tapes. In magnetoelectronics, dynamic control of electron spin allows one to transmit and manipulate information in new ways, and the first generation of "spintronic" devices--read heads for computer hard drives, have made possible the huge increase in information storage capacity in recent years and resulted in the explosive growth in computer-based technologies. Advances in this field require nanoscale control of materials properties and device architectures. This MRSEC brings together scientists and engineers with wide-ranging and complementary expertise to carry out research in several extremely promising areas of nanostructured materials for magnetoelectronics: (i) magnetic tunnel junctions that have potential for use in dynamic memory devices, (ii) the science of novel ring architectures for magnetoelectronic devices, (iii) organic semiconductor devices that have potential to expand magnetoelectronics into the rapidly developing field of low-cost, printable electronics, and (iv) nanostructures that will enable new approaches for the transport of spin information.

The MRSEC's research activities will have far-reaching impact on a new generation of magnetoelectronics devices. The Center will foster interactions with relevant industries to leverage the expected scientific advances to realize fully their technological potential. As an integral part of its research program, the Center will provide interdisciplinary research training and education for post-docs, graduate students, and undergraduates, preparing them for careers at the cutting edge of science and engineering in industry, academia, and national laboratories. The Center's education outreach programs will encourage young people to pursue scientific careers, provide continuing education and new curricular material for teachers, and introduce the public to the excitement and importance of materials research. In all of these programs, the MRSEC will promote the participation of women and members of underrepresented groups.

The major theme of the MRSEC research and education programs at the Cornell Center for Materials Research (CCMR) is Mastery of Materials at the Atomic and Molecular Level. The objective is to educate scientists and engineering students (largely PhD students) and postdoctoral researchers in the methods of research used to tackle cutting edge problems in materials research. At the same time CCMR manages and maintains a set of shared experimental facilities that enable this research to be carried out; these facilities are also actively used by a wide spectrum of researchers from across the campus, from other Universities, Government Laboratories and Industry. CCMR also has an expansive and effective educational outreach program that helps students and teachers from primary, secondary and local colleges to learn about materials sciences, recent advances and how to integrate this new knowledge into the classroom. Finally, CCMR's Industrial Partnerships program speeds the transition of new scientific discoveries into technologies that can promote economic growth and opportunities.

Our research is organized into teams focused on several specific topics, including: Controlling Electrons at Interfaces, "Building Blocks" for Photonic Systems, and the Study of the Dynamics of Growth of Complex Materials. CCMR also manages a "Seed Program" that supports smaller short term activities that explore high-risk/high-payoff areas and that integrates new faculty into our interdisciplinary culture. Our long term goal is to control materials systems at or near the level of atomistic precision (atom identity and geometric placement), as is possible in the synthesis of some organic molecules. Our vision is that such control will allow precision tuning of properties and is likely to uncover vast new areas of science, to facilitate the construction of a wide variety of novel devices, and to enable technologies not presently imagined. The proposed research capitalizes on unique science we recently developed, substantially extends the effort in new and ground breaking directions, and explores entirely new topics; all require new talents, new skills and new senior investigators.

This seed project focuses on developing materials capable of coherently transferring quantum information between electrical circuits and optical photons. The research investigates materials systems that can support both microwave and optical excitations, with a particular focus on color centers—atom-like structures in wide-bandgap semiconductors that serve as interfaces between these domains. These centers exhibit spin excitations tunable to microwave frequencies and spin-dependent optical transitions, often in the telecom band.

Despite their coherence, color centers pose challenges in coupling due to their localized spin states and small sizes. Rare earth ions such as erbium require specific host materials to preserve their properties, but these materials may not be optimal for integration into metamaterials or other quantum systems.

The project explores two materials science pathways to enable coherent electrical-optical coupling. The first involves the development of novel color centers with improved coherence and optical stability compared to existing systems such as nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond. The second focuses on optimizing host materials and electrical qubit coupling to address scale mismatches between color centers and microwave photons. By leveraging theoretical operating protocols and new materials platforms, the research aims to significantly enhance magnetic, electrical, and acoustic coupling for quantum information applications.

^{Three physical modalities of coherent coupling between spins and microwaves. (a) Magnetic coupling to spins using a low impedance superconducting circuit (schematic and device images shown) and preliminary ESR signal. (b) Photoluminescence of electrically biased divacancy spins in 4H-SiC, in between two electrodes. (c) X-ray strain measurements of surface acoustic waves in a Gaussian used to acoustically control spins.}

This IRG focuses on designing and building shape-morphing hybrid materials with programmable and self-regulating transport properties by integrating concepts from active matter and inorganic materials science. The goal is to develop activated architectured materials that autonomously respond to their environment, similar to biological systems, enabling applications such as artificial skin and self-printing ink-jet drops.

The research explores two key activation routes:

1. Route 1 – Activation modifies transport properties, such as fluid viscosity, leading to structural changes (e.g., self-shaping droplets).

2. Route 2 – Activation directly alters a material’s structure, which in turn affects properties like thermal transport.

The IRG is organized into three focus areas (FAs):

• FA1: Develops activated fluids (metafluids) composed of self-spinning colloids and nanoparticles to enable spatiotemporal control of stresses for self-printing ink-jet drops.

• FA2: Investigates activated sheets that integrate biological and inorganic materials, using biomolecular motors to manipulate shape, optical, and thermal properties.

• FA3: Combines elements of FA1 and FA2 to develop composite structures, such as artificial skin, by integrating epithelial cells with soft polymer electronics for biomechanical functionality.

By harnessing the interplay between activation, material architecture, and transport properties, this research aims to establish a new paradigm in materials science, bridging the gap between synthetic and biological systems.

^{Material components (gray circles) are activated with spatial and/or time control (α(x,t)) to drive local motion and force (red arrow). This local activation controls material response through two routes, as described in the text.}

The goal of IRG-1 is to understand the mechanisms, capabilities, and applications of electrostatic and electrochemical gating and to gain electrical control over a wide range of electronic phases and functions.

This IRG explores the concept of materials training, drawing inspiration from biological adaptation to develop materials that can evolve their properties in response to external stimuli. Unlike traditional materials design, where parameters remain fixed, this research aims to create trainable materials that modify their internal structure and functions through applied mechanical stress—similar to how bones strengthen under repeated use.

The focus is on soft materials, which have highly adaptable configurations, making them ideal candidates for imprinting memory and evolving properties through structured training protocols. The research investigates how different training methodologies can lead to emergent behaviors such as impact absorption, shape morphing, and multi-functional actuation. A key goal is to develop a systematic framework for designing trainable soft materials, leveraging interdisciplinary insights from materials science, polymer chemistry, soft matter physics, and biological systems.

The group is structured into three focus areas (FAs), each targeting a specific type of soft matter network:

• FA1: Macroscopic network-based materials (adapting structural links)

• FA2: Dynamic polymer networks (allowing node reconfiguration)

• FA3: Particle/gel-network composites (integrating both link adaptation and node reconfiguration)

By understanding trainability, learning, and memory in these systems, this research aims to establish new paradigmsfor materials processing, enabling materials that can be retrained and repurposed for different functionalities without requiring a full redesign.

^{Traditional materials design vs. a materials training approach and the three focus areas (FAs) of Interdisciplinary Research Group 1.}