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Senior Investigators: J. M. Kikkawa & I.-W. Chen IRG Leaders; D. A. Bonnell, P. K. Davies, A. M. Rappe, J. M. Vohs IRG-5 focuses on creating & understanding novel hierarchical interfacial oxide materials. By juxtaposing oxides at various length scales, responsive instabilities appear at their interfaces & give rise to new functionality. This team has expertise in theory, synthesis, & experiment, tailored to studying these instabilities. Quantitative schstronges for modeling ferroelectrics (pioneered in the IRG), predict exciting effects between atomic layers of magnetoresistive & ferroelectric oxides and possible oxide applications to microfluidics.

The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) at Princeton University addresses fundamental problems in the science and engineering of complex materials. Research in this Center, which has been named the Princeton Center for Complex Materials, is organized into four interdisciplinary research groups. The Center also provides seed funding for new opportunities in materials research. The Center supports efforts in materials education at all levels including summer undergraduate research experiences, a topical summer institute for graduate students working on materials-related areas, and outreach to the pre-college level via an internet-based software developed by the Center and prototyped in a nearby science museum. The MRSEC also supports shared experimental facilities that are accessible to center participants and to outside users, and has strong research collaborations with industry and national laboratories.

A common theme in the four interdisciplinary research groups of the MRSEC is fundamental understanding of the links between molecular structure or mesoscopic texture and macroscopic properties with the goal of rationally designing materials for technological purposes. One group investigates the unusual phases and excitations in low-dimensional electronic materials, including high temperature superconductors and semiconductor heterostructures. A second group explores engineered structures based on semiconducting organic thin films for application to optoelectronic devices. A third group pursues the materials science of organic molecules that order spontaneously in solutions or melts with an outlook on advanced lubricant and novel lithographic applications. A fourth group emphasizes the development of nanostructured composites with improved mechanical and dielectric properties by mimicking biological composite materials. Participants in the Center currently include 26 senior investigators, 8 postdoctoral associates, 16 graduate students, 14 undergraduates, and 3 technicians and other support personnel. Professor William B. Russel directs the MRSEC.

The range of possible semiconductor materials and materials properties is extensive and barely explored. Materials processing routes that allow fabrication of single-crystalline semiconductor structures for which one or more dimensions are smaller than 100 nm (dots, ribbons, membranes) provide opportunities to realize material states and behaviors that are unconventional and unexpected. IRG 1 examines how the combination of nanoscale patterning and structuring, strain manipulation, and phase engineering can be used to push semiconductor materials from their natural ‘bulk’ states to realize unique and undiscovered functionality.

The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) at Johns Hopkins University supports research on nanostructured materials, with a focus on the development of novel low dimensional nanostructures with unique physical properties and diverse technological applications. The research combines experimental and theoretical studies to develop an understanding of the interrelationship between the properties of nanostructures and the degrees of freedom available for their design and fabrication. Materials to be studied include multilayers of functionally dissimilar materials, e.g. metals and insulators, arrays of nanowires, and ultrafine granular materials. The MRSEC also supports shared experimental facilities for materials research, exploratory research through seed funding, and collaborations with industry and other academic institutions. The Center's educational outreach program includes summer internships for talented high school students in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Institute for the Advancement of Youth. The Center supports 7 senior investigators, 3 post-doctoral research associates, 5 graduate students, 1 administrative assistant, and 4 undergraduate students. The MRSEC is directed by Professor C-L. Chien. %%% The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) at Johns Hopkins University supports interdisciplinary research on materials whose structure is modulated on a nanometer scale. As a result of the microstructure, these materials display unique physical properties which have potential technological applications. The research combines experimental and theoretical studies to develop an understanding of the interrelationship between the properties of nanostructures and the degrees of freedom available for their design and fabrication. Materials to be studied include multilayers of functionally dissimilar materials, e.g. metals and insulators, arrays of nanowires, and ultrafine granular materials. The MR SEC also supports shared experimental facilities for materials research, exploratory research through seed funding, and collaborations with industry and other academic institutions. The Center's educational outreach program includes summer internships for talented high school students in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Institute for the Advancement of Youth. The MRSEC is directed by Professor C-L. Chien.

IRG3 focuses on the interactions of biological systems with functional organic materials on the biologically important 1-100 nm scale. This length scale is commensurate with a range of biological assemblies (lipid assemblies, proteins, viruses, and cells) that lie between the well-studied molecular and micrometer limits, and therefore offers exciting prospects for discovery. IRG3 combines hierarchical multi-scale theory for polymeric, amphiphilic and liquid-crystalline systems with the synthesis of functional polymers and development of novel nanofabrication processes to understand and exploit interactions between nanoscale surface topography, patterned surface chemical functionality and biological assemblies. The research is fundamental and will impact a range of biotechnologies, including materials for rapid identification of viral pathogens (e.g. for biosensors), for profiling of the protein composition of cells or for control of cell behavior in vitro.

Leaders: Nicholas Abbott, Paul Bertics

Addresses multifunctional, reconfigurable networks of nanoparticles, polymers, and organic molecules that respond to a range of external stimuli. Fundamental principles are elucidated for understanding and controlling the assembly and reconfiguration of nanoparticles connected by molecular linkers, with theoretical and experimental efforts combining to create unique optical, chemical, or biological materials functionality. Research advances in this IRG are expected to enable responsive, reconfigurable materials based on integration of nanoparticles and macromolecules for applications in electronics, energy storage, photonics, and biology.

The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) at Johns Hopkins University supports an interdisciplinary research program on nanostructures with enhancd magneto-electronic properties. The research is carried out in one interdisciplinary research group, with appropriate seed projects. Within the IRG one thrust is on the magneto-transport properties of high quality bismuth thin films; another thrust is on ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic multilayers, and another on nanostructured half-metallic chromium oxide films; two other thrusts highlight electrodeposited one-dimensional structures (nanowires) and patterned structures such as arrays of epitaxially grown interacting chromium oxide dots. The center is engaged in a variety of educational activities, including Research Experiences for undergraduates and Research Experiences for Teachers, an undergraduate fellow program and a high school teacher internship program. The Center supports well maintained shared experimental facilities, which are accessible to outside users and also supports interactive efforts within industry and other sectors.

The University of Chicago MRSEC has established a highly successful, multidisciplinary approach to issues of technological importance at the forefront of materials research. The overarching goal, common to all of our Interdisciplinary Research Groups (IRGs), is to produce the design principles for the next generation of materials. Each of the four IRGs addresses a fundamental issue applicable to a broad class of materials. Our programs attack some of the deepest challenges of materials research. Common themes include investigating materials formed far from equilibrium, exploring new paradigms for materials fabrication and response especially at the micro- and nano- scale, and exploiting feedback between structure and dynamics. These themes, reappearing in each IRG, deal with important basic problems exploring design principles that are far from conventional and whose prospects are far from certain.

The Brandeis Bioinspired Soft Materials Center seeks to create new materials that are constructed from only a few simplified components, yet capture the remarkable functionalities found in living organisms. In addition to opening new directions in materials  science  research,  these  efforts  will elucidate the minimal requirements for the emergence of biological function. This challenging endeavor draws upon our expertise in diverse and complementary experimental and theoretical techniques that span the physical and life sciences. Brandeis offers an ideal environment for such an interdisciplinary undertaking. Its small size engenders a highly collaborative environment. Its innovative graduate program trains students who work and thrive at the interface of physical and life sciences. Its life science faculty have pioneered biochemical studies of molecular motors and cytoskeletal machinery, its chemists have synthesized biocompatible self-assembling filaments, and its physicists have made important contributions toward understanding soft materials such as liquid  crystals,  gels  and  colloids. Researchers in the BioInspired Soft Materials Center combine elemental building blocks, such as motor proteins, DNA origami and filamentous virus, to understand the emergence of biomimetic functionalities that are highly sought-after in materials science and to synergistically engineer life-like materials.

The goal of IRG1 (Membrane based Materials) is to uncover the  design principles that cells  use  to  shape and reconfigure membranes,  and  to apply  these principles in order to engineer heterogeneous and reconfigurable membrane materials. To accomplish this we will exploit the analogy  between  nanometer-sized  lipid  bilayers  and micron-sized  colloidal monolayers assembled from filamentous viruses or DNA origami rods.

The goal of IRG2 (Biological Active Materials) is to create active analogs of quintessential soft matter systems including gels, liquids crystals, emulsions and vesicles using elemental force generators, such as motor proteins and monomer treadmilling. We will experimentally and theoretically characterize the emergent properties of such materials, including their ability to convert chemical energy into mechanical work, perform locomotion, and undergo dynamical reconfiguration.