Search

Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers are supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to undertake materials research of scope and complexity that would not be feasible under traditional funding of individual research projects.

New Publication from the Illinois MRSEC: Next-Generation Logic and Memory Devices    By Illinois MRSEC News, Posted July 3, 2018

Consider a hypothetical scenario: A new faculty member is happy to start her independent university faculty career with a substantial startup package, which allows her to purchase a state-of-the art diffractometer. Research is progressing well, and the group is productive. However, come year four, problems commence.

The Division of Materials Science and the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center Program are proud to present the first-ever MRSEC Science Slam. With participants from all 19 MRSECs, the Science Slam will feature five-minute long slams on a research highlight or unique broader impact accomplishment. Creativity is key! Non-NSF audience will vote for the winner.

The next time you sink your teeth into a soft slice of bread, think about the material training that went into making that bread. Material training is one of many approaches to designing new materials and involves taking a material and applying a repeated training protocol that modifies small-scale structures in the material. The result is the same material that you started with but with new properties. When it comes to that slice of bread, repeatedly kneading the dough changes its gluten structure and results in a stronger and more elastic version of itself -- and also makes for a truly delicious materials science experiment. That science experiment was one of 19 at the first-ever MRSEC Science Slam, recently held online.

This year, the National Science Foundation (NSF) is awarding 11 MRSECs totaling $200 million over six years. In addition to eight existing Centers successfully recompeting, NSF is establishing three new MRSECs.

A multi-institutional team has just published a new way to “read” an antiferromagnet electrically—that is, a new way to determine what its magnetic state is. The discovery is important because magnets play a foundational role in much of today’s technology. For example, computer memory is generally based on magnets; information is stored in the alignment of magnets’ north and south poles, which signify ones or zeros.

In early 2023, the National Science Foundation (NSF) appointed Germano Iannacchione as the new Division Director of its Division of Materials Research (DMR)—a division with a critical objective to invest in the discovery, development, and design of new materials. “Our research makes the expensive, cheap; it makes the dirty, clean; it makes the hard, easy; it makes the dangerous, safe,” says Iannacchione.

A new form of agricultural pest control could one day take root—one that treats crop infestations deep under the ground in a targeted manner with less pesticide. Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed nanoparticles, fashioned from plant viruses, that can deliver pesticide molecules to soil depths that were previously unreachable. This advance could potentially help farmers effectively combat parasitic nematodes that plague the root zones of crops, all while minimizing costs, pesticide use and environmental toxicity.

Olga Ricketts-Peart is not what she calls a “science person.” But she loves science anyway. The 77-year-old has been attending “Science with Seniors,” a program offered at the Levy Senior Center in Evanston that’s gone online in the past few months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The third Thursday of each month, graduate students from Northwestern University meet virtually with seniors from the Levy Center for lectures on science and technology, topics that range from sleep to solar cells.