MRSEC: Micro- and Nano- Mechanics of Materials

布朗大学的MRSEC在材料力学领域有研究方向。 力学问题在先进和新兴材料的整个范围内比比皆是。 坚韧耐用的轻质高温结构材料是实现能源效率的直接途径。 在电子学中，使器件退化的缺陷通过高应力成核，并且在器件制造期间控制应力是一个主要问题。 然而，压力可以驱动有用结构的形成，如量子点。 有许多生物现象，其中压力是主要的驱动力。 因此，力学是整个功能系统的发明、设计和材料行为表现的一个组成部分。 该中心的研究将强调三个领域：（i）薄膜和小尺度结构的力学，侧重于它们的形成、稳定性和生长过程中应力的产生，（ii）复杂多相材料的力学，侧重于微米和纳米尺度的变形、断裂和疲劳的预测和机制，以及（iii）生物系统中的粘附力学，集中于量化区分正常和异常细胞功能的物质行为的范围。 该中心还拥有广泛的教育和推广方案，其广泛目标是让年轻学生接触科学的兴奋;为教师提供在课堂上加强科学所需的工具;让本科生接触高水平的研究，同时为少数民族和妇女提供一个环境，将研究生教育作为一条有吸引力的职业道路;并加强合作院校的新本科工程课程。 该中心的教育部分是由参与MRSEC教师运行，因此与研究工作和本科生和研究生教学密切相关。 该中心涉及约20布朗教师主要来自工程部，还管理着一系列中央实验研究设施，如扫描电子显微镜和分子束外延，可供布朗社区和工业用户。 该中心的参与者与世界各地的研究人员进行互动，并与许多行业，特别是通用汽车公司，其中在基础MRSEC研究开发的独特能力应用于技术重要性的问题的合作计划。

Brown University's MRSEC has a research thrust in the area of Mechanics of Materials. Mechanics issues abound across the full scope of advanced and emerging materials. Strong, tough and durable lightweight and high-temperature structural materials are a direct route to energy efficiency. In electronics, the defects that degrade devices are nucleated by high stresses, and the control of stress during device fabrication is a major issue. Yet, stress can drive the formation of useful structures such as quantum dots. There are a host of biological phenomena wherein stress is a primary driving force. Mechanics is thus an integral part of the invention, design and representation of material behavior across the full spectrum of functional systems. Research in the center will emphasize three areas: (i) the mechanics of thin film and small-scale structures, focusing on their formation, stability, and creation of stress during growth, (ii) the mechanics of complex multiphase materials, focusing on the prediction and mechanisms of deformation, fracture and fatigue at micron- and nanometer size scales, and (iii) the mechanics of adhesion in biological systems, focusing on quantifying ranges of material behavior discriminating between normal and abnormal cell function. The Center also has a broad spectrum of educational and outreach programs with the broad goals of exposing young students to the excitement of science; providing teachers with the tools needed to enhance science in their classrooms; exposing undergraduate students to high-level research while providing an environment for minorities and women that presents graduate education as an attractive career path; and enhance new undergraduate engineering programs at partner institutions. The education component of the Center is run by participating MRSEC faculty, and is thus intimately connected to the research efforts and the undergraduate and graduate teaching. The Center involves about twenty Brown faculty predominantly from the Division of Engineering, and also manages a host of central experimental research facilities, such as scanning electron microscope and molecular-beam epitaxy, that are available to the Brown community and industrial users. The Center participants interact with researchers across the world and have collaborative programs with a number of industries, most notably General Motors, in which the unique capabilities developed in fundamental MRSEC research are applied to problems of technological importance.