Materials Research Science and Engineering Center

非技术描述：芝加哥大学材料研究科学与工程中心（MRSEC）是一个战略性的跨学科研究中心，通过高度合作的努力，结合对教育和推广的坚定承诺，解决一些最深刻的材料研究的智力挑战，这些挑战是优先行业的核心。第一个研究重点是发现新材料，这些材料的特性对新兴技术至关重要，这与NSF的大理念——理解生命的规则完美地结合在一起；材料生物学令人兴奋的成果将通过识别生物领域中发挥作用的训练机制，包括人工肌肉的进步，推进对合成生物系统的掌握。本研究将为材料加工的创新方法奠定科学基础。第二个研究重点是探索包含分布式分子引擎的材料，使新型材料能够自发变形和流动：这项研究的未来愿景是设计和构建具有可编程和时空自我调节传输特性的形状变形混合材料。由此产生的材料平台将对传感、驱动、分离和生物设计产生巨大影响，从而为合成材料生物学带来创新。第三项努力与NSF的“大构想——量子飞跃”相一致，重点关注创建集成量子电路所需的新材料：这里开发的强大的新方法将使量子信息的操纵和传输成为可能。这一研究愿景使MRSEC能够打造一个强大的社区，在这里，学生、博士后和教师将不同的专业知识和研究兴趣带到引人注目的科学目标中，旨在提高我们在这些领域的国家竞争力。芝加哥大学MRSEC管理着最先进的材料制备和测量设施，可供所有学术和工业研究人员使用。外展和教育活动的目的是广泛交流研究成果，促进学生的专业发展，增强公众对科学的兴趣。因此，芝加哥大学MRSEC为大学、更广泛的材料科学界提供了一个充满活力的资源，并通过社会影响，为当地的市中心社区和公众提供了一个充满活力的资源。技术描述：芝加哥大学MRSEC建立了新的概念框架来指导材料的发现和探索协同联系。研究活动分为两个跨学科研究小组（IRGs）和一个超级种子。可训练软材料的IRG建立了一个框架，用于构建材料类别，这些材料的物理响应是通过使用外部操作来训练新功能来设计的。它从控制生物网络结构和巨大适应性的基本过程中获得灵感，以便通过改变训练协议获得多能材料制造的新原理。活性建筑材料研究小组通过将活性材料与无机胶体和薄膜合成的最新进展结合起来，构建具有时空可编程和自调节传输特性的材料。这项工作使无机材料的传输特性的动态控制具有潜在的应用在传感，驱动和生物设计。电光量子转导材料的超级种子专注于在跨越许多能量尺度的不同量子材料之间创建具有相干接口的集成量子电路的挑战。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Nontechnical Description: The UChicago Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) is a strategic trans-disciplinary research hub that tackles some of the deepest intellectual challenges of materials research central to priority industries through highly collaborative efforts united to a strong commitment to education and outreach. The first research thrust, beautifully aligned with the NSF Big Idea - Understanding the Rules of Life, is discovering new materials whose properties are essential to emerging technologies; exciting outcomes in materials biology will advance the mastery of synthetic biological systems by identifying training mechanisms at play in the biological realm including advances in artificial muscles. This research will lay the scientific foundation for innovative approaches in materials processing. A second research thrust is exploring materials containing distributed molecular engines enabling new classes of materials that can spontaneously deform and flow: the future vision of this research is to design and build shape-morphing hybrid materials with transport properties that are programmable and spatiotemporally self-regulating. The resulting materials platform will have tremendous impact in sensing, actuation, separations, and biodesign, thus adding innovation to synthetic materials biology. A third effort, aligned with the NSF Big Idea - Quantum Leap, focuses on new materials needed for the creation of integrated quantum circuits: powerful new methodologies developed here will enable the manipulation and transfer of quantum information. This research vision allows this MRSEC to forge a robust community where students, postdocs and faculty bring diverse expertise and research interests in the service of compelling scientific goals designed to increase our national competitiveness in these areas. The UChicago MRSEC manages state-of-the art materials preparation and measurement facilities that are accessible to all academic and industrial researchers. Outreach and education activities are designed to communicate research results broadly, to foster professional development of students and to strengthen interest in science in the general public. As a result, the UChicago MRSEC provides a vibrant resource to the university, to the broader materials science community, and, via societal impacts, to the local inner-city neighborhood and to the general public. Technical Description: The UChicago MRSEC establishes new conceptual frameworks to guide materials discovery and explores synergistic connections. The research activities are organized into two Interdisciplinary Research Groups (IRGs) and one SuperSeed. The IRG on Trainable Soft Materials establishes a framework for building classes of materials whose physical response is engineered by using external manipulation to train in novel functionality. It takes inspiration from the fundamental processes that govern the structure and enormous adaptability of biological networks in order to derive new principles for pluripotent material fabrication by varying the training protocol. The IRG on Activated Architectured Materials constructs materials with spatiotemporally programmable and self-regulating transport properties by bringing together recent advances in active materials with inorganic colloidal and thin film synthesis. This work enables dynamic control of transport properties of inorganic materials with potential applications in sensing, actuation and biodesign. A Super-Seed on Materials for Electrical-Optical Quantum Transduction focuses on the challenge of creating integrated quantum circuits with coherent interfaces between different quantum materials spanning across many energy scales.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.