Materials Research Laboratory (Materials Research)

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The Materials Research Laboratory at Brown University supports major multidisciplinary research efforts that require the sustained, cooperative effort of several faculty members; central facilities that are important for much of the materials research effort on campus as well as specific MRL projects; and seed funding for promising new research efforts. The program involves 27 faculty members from Chemistry, Physics and four areas of Engineering, and also currently supports 27 graduate students and 5 postdoctoral research associates. The MRL program also involves cooperative efforts with industry and government laboratories. Research in plasticity and fracture addresses problems of fundamental importance in the mechanical behavior of a broad class of materials including metals, alloys and ceramics as well as metal-matrix and ceramic composites. The goal of the research on the microscopic basis of glass properties is an understanding of how glass structure, composition, preparation and thermal history determine glass properties and dynamics. Other research addresses the atomic mechanisms by which film growth takes place and an interface is modified. The scientists and engineers in this MRL are very well qualified to carry out the proposed research. There is a strongly interactive area of excellence in plasticity and fracture which addresses technologically important problems in an innovative way. There are adequate facilities for the proposed research. Support for the plasticity and fracture thrust will be phased out over a two-year period as support for this research from the Materials Research Groups program is phased in. Support for an orderly phase-out of the remainder of the MRL is provided for one year so that current projects can be completed.