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With an eye toward improving material science through increased diverse perspectives, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded six Partnerships for Research and Education in Materials (PREM) awards this year, in its fifth such competition since 2004. Whether they focus on new laser treatments that may better target cancer cells, or on exploring new materials that could lead to sustainable energy alternatives, PREM awards couple the expertise of NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSEC) with minority-serving colleges and universities to involve those students in some of the nation's preeminent materials research.

The Fashion Institute of Technology-Columbia University MRSEC collaboration AlgiKnit, run by Professor Theanne Schiros and Professor Asta Skocir (knitwear design), recently received  first-place in the Sustainable Planet category of the National Geographic CHASING GENIUS challenge.

Penn Researchers establish a universal signature that proves to be fundamental in understanding how glassy materials fail.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) today announced awards for three Materials Interdisciplinary Research Teams (MIRT) and nine Centers of Excellence in Materials Research and Innovation, also known as Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSEC). The awards resulted from the 2011 Materials Research Centers and Teams competition (solicitation NSF 10-568).

NSF invites eligible organizations to submit research proposals that inform, create, implement, and evaluate models of intervention that will advance the knowledge base for establishing and retaining underrepresented minorities in STEM fields with particular attention to life science and the biosciences. 

Scientists across North Carolina will now be able to probe the mysteries of very tiny particles, polymers, and surfaces for applications ranging from biomedicine to polymer science. Thanks to an $850,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), a consortium of universities – Duke, North Carolina State and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill – has created the Triangle Small Angle X-Ray Scattering (SAXS) facility at Duke.

A few years ago, Sammy Tin, a professor of materials engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology reached out to Northwestern University with a specific request. Tin was studying advanced polycrystalline nickel-base superalloys and needed access to Northwestern University's state-of-the-art equipment at its Center for Atom-Probe Tomography. Northwestern University is part of NSF's Materials Research Facilities Network (MRFN) -- a nationwide partnership designed to enhance access to the latest equipment and expertise in the materials research and engineering field. As part of his research, Tin collaborated with researchers in China as well as others in the U.S., and the team published their findings last year.

How NSF’s decades-long materials science program has fostered partnerships across scientific fields.

At the recent American Physical Society (APS) March meeting in Los Angeles, more than 100 attendees stopped by the NSF MRSEC booth to learn more about this interdisciplinary program.  Close to 50 volunteers representing 16 of the 20 Centers helped answer questions that ranged from “What is the MRSEC?” and “What are the benefits of being involved?” to “How do students become part of the program?” and “How does the funding structure work?”.

The goal of I-MRSEC’s “Musical Magnetism” curriculum was to expose Franklin STEAM Academy eighth grade students to materials science and magnetism, but also to another of the center’s main emphases: scientific communication.