NSF expands its advanced materials network with nine new centers

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is expanding a network of research centers across the country to translate university-based R&D into new, and hopefully, better advanced materials. In late June, NSF announced the distribution of $162 million to support the creation of nine more Materials Research Science & Engineering Centers (MRSECs), bringing the total number of centers to twenty. Each of the new centers will receive $18 million over six years.

NSF reports the latest MRSECs will expand the centers' portfolios to pursue a broad range of research projects to unlock new capabilities in several areas: semiconductors, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, sustainable energy sources and storage, advanced manufacturing, quantum computing and sensing, and other areas critical for U.S. leadership in materials research. In addition to enabling new commercial opportunities and industries in the U.S., the centers will train students and early career researchers who will become tomorrow's scientific and technical leaders.

The nine new MRSECs are the:

• Illinois Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
• Center for Dynamics and Control of Materials (University of Texas at Austin)
• University of Washington Molecular Engineering Materials Center 
• Northwestern University Materials Research Science and Engineering Center
• Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter (University of Pennsylvania)
• Materials Research Laboratory at UCSB (University of California, Santa Barbara)
• Wisconsin Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
• Center for Advanced Materials & Manufacturing (University of Tennessee, Knoxville)
• Center for Materials Innovations at Michigan (University of Michigan-Ann Arbor)

More information about the centers and the rest of the MRSEC network is available from NSF here.