The University of Pennsylvania Materials Research Science & Engineering Center (MRSEC) will build on past success and embrace new faculty to pursue a program to integrate the design, synthesis, characterization, theory & modeling of materials. These materials range from hybrid macro-molecules and de novo proteins, with architectures & functions inspired by nature, to nano- and micro-structured hard & soft materials with unique properties. Potential practical outcomes are in the areas of drug delivery, energy transduction, electronics, sensors, and cellular probes. The MRSEC research is organized around five Interdisciplinary Research Groups (IRGs), which target new advanced materials with potential for high-technology applications in diverse areas such as energy transduction, electronics, sensors, & cellular probes. Materials interfaces are a recurrent theme, as is the interplay between biological & synthetic constructs and composites of hard & soft materials. The MRSEC sustains an array of education and human resources development programs, whose impact will range from K-12 students and their teachers to undergraduates and faculty at minority serving institutions. It is associated with the University of Puerto Rico at Humacao through a Partnership for Research and Education in Materials (PREM). The MRSEC manages extensive shared facilities that benefit the broader research community. The MRSEC is linked with Penn's Center for Technology Transfer to license its discoveries and inventions for translational research thereby ensuring the coupling of MRSEC research to the needs of society.
The MRSEC contains the following IRGs: Filamentous Networks and Structured Gels, IRG-1 explores the properties of filamentous networks with a goal to design & synthesize responsive network materials. Functional Cylindrical Assemblies, IRG-2 will synthesize semi-flexible, functional cylinders, composed of dendrimer-based polymers & self-assembling block copolymers. Synthetic Programmable Membranes, IRG-3 draws expertise from four departments to design fully integrated functional analogues of cellular membranes. De Novo Synthetic Protein Modules for Light-Capture & Catalysis, IRG-4 draws on the rich biological resource of atomic-level structures and functional mechanisms to guide design & synthesis of novel proteins as modular nano-scale materials. Oxide-based Hierarchical Interfacial Materials, IRG-5 will harness expertise in theory, synthesis, & experiment, from four departments to create and understand novel hierarchical interfacial oxide materials.
Participants in the Center currently include 38 senior investigators, 12 postdoctoral associates, and 22 graduate students from seven departments. Professor Michael L. Klein directs the MRSEC.
With critical assistance from the National Science Foundation, the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) materials community maintained an NSF Materials Research Science & Engineering Center (MRSEC, DMR 0520020) for the period from 2005-11. The Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter (LRSM) at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) hosted to the MRSEC whose broad mission was to discover new materials and innovative applications through collaborative interdisciplinary research. To this end, LRSM developed infrastructure in the form of state-of-the-art characterization tools and shared facilities locally, regionally and nationally, and LRSM faculty trained a competitive and diverse science & engineering work force that is in demand by US academe, government and industry. Per education and outreach, LRSM fosters local, regional, national and international activities and partnerships with a goal to ensure that its research and education activities are harnessed for the good of society. Finally, LRSM is fully committed to all aspects of diversity, with long-range diversity goals to improve national pools of URMs, females, and disabled persons in all STEM activities. The MRSEC provided the core funding for LRSM activities and thus sustained both the high impact research (i.e., activities of more than 40 core faculty) and an array of education and human resources development (HRD) programs. The 2005-2011 Penn MRSEC collaboratively pursued five major research themes: Filamentous Networks & Structured Gels; Functional Cylindrical Assemblies; Synthetic Programmable Membranes; De Novo Synthetic Protein Modules for Light-Capture & Catalysis; Oxide-based Hierarchical Interfacial Materials. Among the most exciting new materials synthesized were those based on amphiphilic dendrimers. A dendrimer is a class of repeatedly branched molecule, and an amphiphilic dendrimer employs a two-sided molecule, with water liking/disliking components, as the building block. The group created a spectacular library of hundreds of amphiphilic dendrimers which then self-assembled into a plethora of supramolecular structures including vesicles, disks, twisted ribbons, and icosahedra. Another constellation of experimentalists and theorists explored how to pattern soft colloidal particles via self-assembly. Mixtures of two distinct amphiphiles were shown to form patterned cylinders (cylindrical micelles) and spheres (spherical vesicles). Such patterned arrays, on the surface of a colloid, could prove useful for drug delivery wherein patterned cell-specific macro-molecules match receptor patterns on cells. Two projects focused on fundamental materials physics, (1) generating new insights about so-called frustrated matter that cannot develop long-range order because geometric constraints prevent its constituents from finding their lowest energy states, and (2) identifying new kinds of electrical conductors called topological insulators. A hard-matter collaborative effort spectacularly demonstrated the manipulation of adsorbate chemistry on oxide surfaces, showing how the polarity of an oxide surface can impact adsorption and layer formation of both gas species and metal atoms. A bio-inspired research program synthesized artificial protein modules based on non-biological heteropolymers, creating the first artificial protein module that binds oxygen substantially more tightly than carbon monoxide, i.e., exactly opposite its natural protein counterparts. Finally, a general procedure was developed for growing large-area (centimeter-size) binary nanocrystal superlattice films on solid substrates, and the first such films exhibited a nanocrystal-arrangement dependent magnetoresistance. The 2005-11 MRSEC hosted an array of education and outreach programs that target students at all levels, from K-12 to post-docs, teachers, small college faculty, regional academe, industrial, and governmental scientists, and the general public. The MRSEC sustained important core education & outreach programs. For example, since 1989, our REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) program has run continuously and has seen ~520 undergraduates pass through (~60% from URGs (~38% minority and ~42% female)). The class of 2007 was typical. This class had 23 students of whom 18 went to graduate school in STEM disciplines, and of the remaining five students, 3 are in industry (STEM), one is a high school math teacher, and the other is a commodities trader in London; the class was composed of 43% female, 43% minority, and were from 30% PUIs. Another successful annual core program (since 1994) is our Pennsylvania Summer Science Initiative (PSSI), a 4-week summer program for HS students. Enrollment is now 26-28/year (with 55% women, 22% minority for 2005-11). The 2005-11 MRSEC also developed important new initiatives. In 2008 with local teacher, Schuyler Patton, we established an all-year elective course in materials science for seniors at Central HS, Philadelphia, which educates 66 students/year. In 2008, we started videoconferencing several lectures/year simultaneously to up to 5 high schools through the Penn MAGPI center, a regional Internet2 Research and Education Network. In 2010 we started a monthly series of materials-based "Science Cafes". In 2010 and 2011, respectively, we began annual participation in the "Philadelphia Science Festival" and a "Philadelphia Materials Science and Engineering Day" for K-12 students and the general public. Finally, in 2011 we started a week-long STEM outreach program for twelve 7th graders attending Girard College, a City of Philadelphia-run school for disadvantaged minority students from single parent families.
