Materials World Network: Cooperative Activity in Materials Research between US Investigators and their Counterparts in Chile

芝加哥大学的一组材料研究人员将继续与智利大学和圣地亚哥大学的同行进行合作研究。它的核心活动是什么？“芝加哥-智利材料合作”计划每年为六名被挑选出来的智利学生在芝加哥大学提供为期十周的实习机会，并为同样数量的芝加哥大学学生在智利的大学提供实习机会。该项目还资助教师双向访问。研究的重点是软质材料的强变形的后果。该项目加强了振动和碰撞下颗粒运动的现有串联研究工作。它扩展了在以前的资助下产生的液体支撑分子膜的屈曲方面的合作。它进一步研究了一系列广泛的问题，包括皱褶片中曲率焦点之间的相互作用，皱褶片和磁体中突然应力松弛事件的随机性，类似于分子膜和干燥悬浮液中拉普拉斯生长的令人困惑的动力学生长模式，受限胶体悬浮液和沉积悬浮液中集体运动的异常，磁性信息在无序磁体中的储存和传输，真核细胞中分子事件与有组织爬行运动之间的联系。尽管智利合作伙伴的研究表现出色，智利学生的学术准备和积极性也很好，但这些教师和学生在科学领域的代表性不足。这些未被认可的人才代表着一个重大机遇。芝加哥大学的研究人员通过利用这个人才库而受益。芝加哥学生参与者通过体验智利合作伙伴的创造性科学文化而受益。在第一个资助期，这些实习对许多学生的职业生涯产生了重大影响。与上一个资助周期一样，在本研究中与领导者一起研究当前研究问题的经验有望激发这些学生的表现和活动达到一个新的水平。该计划还有望在合作机构的高级研究人员之间产生新的合作，就像过去的资助周期一样。

A group of materials researchers at the University of Chicago will continue collaborative research with counterparts at the Universidad de Chile and the Universidad de Santiago. The core activity of this ?Chicago-Chile Materials Collaboration" is to provide ten-week internships for six selected Chilean students each year at the U. of Chicago, and for a like number of University of Chicago students at the Chilean universities. The project also sponsors visits by faculty in both directions. The research centers on the consequences of strong deformation in soft materials. This project enhances existing tandem research efforts in granular motion under vibration and collision. It extends collaboration on buckling of liquid-supported molecular films engendered under the previous grant. It further investigates a broad spectrum of problems, including the interaction between foci of curvature in a crumpled sheet, the stochastic nature of abrupt stress relaxation events in crumpled sheets and in magnets, puzzling kinetic growth patterns resembling Laplacian growth in molecular films and in drying suspensions, anomalies in the collective motion in confined colloidal suspensions and in sedimenting suspensions, the storage and transport of magnetization information in disordered magnets, the connection between molecular events and organized crawling motion in eucaryotic cells. Despite the manifest excellence of the Chilean partners' research and the excellent academic preparation and motivation of the Chilean students, these faculty and students are under-represented on the scientific scene. This pool of under-recognized talent represents a major opportunity. The Chicago researchers benefit by tapping this talent pool. Chicago student participants benefit by experiencing the creative scientific culture of the Chilean partners. During the first grant period, these internships made a major impact on many of the students' careers. As in the last funding cycle, the experience of working on current research problems with leaders in this research is expected to trigger a new level of performance and activity in these students. The program is also expected to spawn new collaborations between senior researchers at the partner institutions, as in the past funding cycle.