Wisconsin - Puerto Rico Partnership for Research and Education in Materials [Wi(PR)2EM]

非技术摘要：威斯康星州-波多黎各材料研究和教育伙伴关系[Wi(PR)2EM]的使命是在一系列材料启用的技术上取得变革性进展，并在这样做的同时扩大拉美裔美国人在科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)领域的参与。Wi(PR)2EM将通过在威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校(UW)和波多黎各大学(UPR)三个校区(Mayaguez(M)、Medical Science Campus(MSC)和Rio Piedras(RP))发展研究和教育推广之间的协同作用来实现这些目标，特别注重利用威斯康星大学材料研究科学和工程中心(MRSEC)的资源来实现可持续合作。Wi(PR)2EM还将利用其多学科和跨文化的研究团队开发一系列以研究为灵感的项目，共同定义一条途径，从管道的所有阶段(从K-12到教师)招募、留住和提拔人员进入波多黎各和威斯康星州的STEM领域，重点是西班牙裔美国人和女性。这一途径强调在普遍定期审议和普遍定期审议的整个伙伴关系范围内提供指导，并将通过一系列精心协调的培训和经验加以促进。拟议的教育和外展活动利用并建立在UW MRSEC跨学科教育集团和国际知名的UPRM车轮科学教育中心开发的STEM外展项目的基础上。Prem将为两所大学的K-12、本科生、研究生、博士后和教职员工以及周围社区的公众扩大机会的广度，长期目标是创建一支多样化和富有创造力的STEM工作队伍。技术摘要：Wi(PR)2EM结合了威斯康星大学和UPR三个校区的共同愿景和专业知识，组成了多学科和多文化团队，将在涉及各种材料的研究方面取得革命性进展。Wi(PR)2EM的三个跨学科研究团队(IRT)汇集了多功能材料的合成、表征、建模和应用方面的深厚和互补的专业知识。这些团队将率先在原子尺度材料设计和理解方面取得根本性进展，包括原子控制的双金属纳米结构和用于催化和分离的纳米或介孔材料(IRT1)；以设计聚合物为模板的非晶态和晶态制药材料(IRT2)；以及活性和可重新配置的液晶软材料(IRT3)。这些团队还整合了来自国家实验室和行业的合作者。将在Wi(PR)2EM进行的研究的长期技术影响是巨大的，包括用于将可持续生物原料化学转化为商品化学品的纳米结构材料、小分子和大分子药物活性材料的新配方、新型化学和生物传感器和分析方法以及用于分离的分层结构材料。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Non-technical Summary:The mission of the Wisconsin - Puerto Rico Partnership for Research and Education in Materials [Wi(PR)2EM] is to make transformative advances on a range of materials-enabled technologies, and to do so while broadening participation of Hispanic Americans in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Wi(PR)2EM will achieve these goals by developing synergies between research and educational outreach at University of Wisconsin - Madison (UW) and three campuses of University of Puerto Rico (UPR) (Mayaguez (M), Medical Sciences Campus (MSC) and Rio Piedras (RP)), with a particular focus on leveraging resources of UW's Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) to achieve sustainable collaborations. Wi(PR)2EM will also leverage its multidisciplinary and multicultural research teams to develop a series of research-inspired programs that collectively define a pathway that recruits, retains and advances people from all stages of the pipeline (K-12 through faculty) into STEM fields throughout Puerto Rico and Wisconsin, with a focus on Hispanic Americans and women. This pathway emphasizes mentoring across the entire scope of the partnership at UPR and UW, which will be promoted through a carefully coordinated series of trainings and experiences. The proposed education and outreach activities leverage and build upon STEM outreach programs developed by the UW MRSEC Interdisciplinary Education Group and the internationally acclaimed UPRM Science on Wheels Educational Center. The PREM will expand the breadth of opportunities for K-12, undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs, and faculty at both institutions, as well as the public in surrounding communities, with the long-term goal of creating a diverse and creative STEM workforce.Technical Summary:Wi(PR)2EM combines the shared vision and expertise of UW and three campuses of UPR to form multidisciplinary and multicultural teams that will make transformative advances in research involving a diverse range of materials. The three interdisciplinary research teams (IRTs) of Wi(PR)2EM bring together deep and complementary expertise in the synthesis, characterization, modeling and application of multifunctional materials. The teams will pioneer fundamental advances in atom-scale materials design and understanding, including atomically controlled bimetallic nanostructures and nano- or mesoporous materials for catalysis and separations (IRT1); amorphous and crystalline pharmaceutical materials templated from designer polymers (IRT2), and active and reconfigurable liquid crystalline soft materials (IRT3). The teams also integrate collaborators from national laboratories and industry. The long-term technological impact of the research to be pursued in Wi(PR)2EM is enormous, including nanostructured materials for chemical transformation of sustainable biological feedstock into commodity chemicals, new formulations of small and large molecule pharmaceutically active materials, novel chemical and biological sensors and assays, and hierarchically structured materials for separations.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.