Magnetic anisotropy is the key component in permanent magnets. This research focuses on creating a new type of magnetic anisotropy, leading to synthesis and measurement of two new ternary compounds.

A team of researchers, led by Yoel Fink of the MIT MRSEC, has developed light-detecting fibers that can be woven together to create a flexible, basic camera. These fibers are each less than a millimeter in diameter, and consist of several nested layers of light-detection materials. The fibers measure the intensity of the light illuminating them and convert it to an electrical signal, which is then fed into a computer that

11,586 users worldwide have run nearly 16,643 experiments to date • iLabs are online experimental tools that allow pre-college and college students to access scientific instruments housed at universities to conduct experiments via the internet. • Use of iLabs has been shown to improve student inquiry skills and experimental design skills resulting in more authentic scientific investigations

• The NU-MRSEC has partnered with the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry to create a new exhibit focused on materials science and society, scheduled to debut in Spring 2015. • The exhibit is designed in a manner that it can be easily moved to other locations following its run at the Chicago MSI. • Approximately 1.5 million guests, including >300,000 children in school groups visit the Museum annually.

Collaboration between faculty, shared facilities, and industry to fabricate instrumentation for high-throughput cryogenic sample preparation

• Inkjet printable graphene based on ethyl cellulose stabilizer in terpineol. • Low resistivity of 4 mΩ-cm maintained following repeated flexing/folding.

Biofilms form on submerged or moist surfaces when bacteria attach and excrete slimy biopolymers to protect themselves, and they are particularly problematic when they develop on urinary catheters.  

Diffusionless martensitic transformations are a class of solid–solid phase transitions in which the crystal unit cell changes shape and internal structure, while keeping its stoichiometry constant. Because these transformations do not require long-range diffusion, they are fast and repeatable, and thus have been exploited in a number of engineeringapplications.