MRSEC: MRSEC on Nanostructured Interfaces

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The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) at the University of Wisconsin addresses the science and engineering of nanostructured interfaces. The MRSEC plays a critical role in promoting collaboration between a wide variety of scientific and engineering disciplines at which the University of Wisconsin excels. It includes a leading-edge, world-renowned interdisciplinary education group. The Wisconsin MRSEC has the philosophy that Education and Human Resource Development requires the same level of innovation as research. This philosophy provides a wealth of opportunities to bring the excitement of cutting-edge MRSEC research to diverse audiences. The UW-Madison MRSEC's Interdisciplinary Education Group (IEG) is a national leader in producing new instructional aids illustrating nanoscale materials and phenomena in MRSEC-related topics, and in materials science and engineering more broadly. The MRSEC supported shared experimental facilities provides infrastructure to the broader materials science community on campus and regionally. The University of Wisconsin's MRSEC is comprised of three Interdisciplinary Research Groups (IRGs): IRG-1: Silicon Based Nanomembrane Materials will explore the science and technology of membranes so thin that the thinness determines the structure and topography, and creates unique electronic, mechanical, and defect properties. Ultra-thin silicon and strain engineering allow a vision of a new field of investigation - fundamental studies of extremely thin semiconductor membranes - with potentially significant technological outcomes. IRG-2: Functional Organic-Inorganic Electronic Interfaces will design, fabricate, and characterize interfaces between inorganic materials and organic molecular structures in order to achieve a high level of control over their structural and electronic properties, critical to a broad spectrum of applications from sensing to lighting. IRG-3: Nanostructured Interfaces to Biology will move its focus to the design of polymeric and liquid-crystalline materials that provide both spatial and temporal control over the chemical functionality and physical properties of interfaces of synthetic materials presented to biological systems, including proteins, viruses and human embryonic stem cells. Participants in the Center currently include 39 senior investigators, 7 postdoctoral associates, and 17 graduate students from over 10 departments throughout campus. Professor Juan De Pablo directs the MRSEC.