The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) at the University of Wisconsin addresses the science and engineering of nanostructured interfaces. The MRSEC plays a critical role in promoting collaboration between a wide variety of scientific and engineering disciplines at which the University of Wisconsin excels. It includes a leading-edge, world-renowned interdisciplinary education group. The Wisconsin MRSEC has the philosophy that Education and Human Resource Development requires the same level of innovation as research. This philosophy provides a wealth of opportunities to bring the excitement of cutting-edge MRSEC research to diverse audiences. The UW-Madison MRSEC's Interdisciplinary Education Group (IEG) is a national leader in producing new instructional aids illustrating nanoscale materials and phenomena in MRSEC-related topics, and in materials science and engineering more broadly. The MRSEC supported shared experimental facilities provides infrastructure to the broader materials science community on campus and regionally.
The University of Wisconsin's MRSEC is comprised of three Interdisciplinary Research Groups (IRGs): IRG-1: Silicon Based Nanomembrane Materials will explore the science and technology of membranes so thin that the thinness determines the structure and topography, and creates unique electronic, mechanical, and defect properties. Ultra-thin silicon and strain engineering allow a vision of a new field of investigation - fundamental studies of extremely thin semiconductor membranes - with potentially significant technological outcomes. IRG-2: Functional Organic-Inorganic Electronic Interfaces will design, fabricate, and characterize interfaces between inorganic materials and organic molecular structures in order to achieve a high level of control over their structural and electronic properties, critical to a broad spectrum of applications from sensing to lighting. IRG-3: Nanostructured Interfaces to Biology will move its focus to the design of polymeric and liquid-crystalline materials that provide both spatial and temporal control over the chemical functionality and physical properties of interfaces of synthetic materials presented to biological systems, including proteins, viruses and human embryonic stem cells.
Participants in the Center currently include 39 senior investigators, 7 postdoctoral associates, and 17 graduate students from over 10 departments throughout campus. Professor Juan De Pablo directs the MRSEC.
The University of Wisconsin (UW) MRSEC on Nanostructured Interfaces was funded in 2005 with support for three Interdisciplinary Research Groups (IRGs): Silicon-Based Nanomembrane Materials, Functional Organic-Inorganic Electronic Interfaces, and Nanostructured Interfaces to Biology, respectively. Since the award in 2005, internal UW matching funds and MRSEC Seed funds were also used to explore new and emerging ideas, particularly in the areas of novel semiconductor materials, biological interfaces, and joint projects with the University of Puerto Rico (UPR). The UW MRSEC produced more than 800 publications in peer-reviewed journals and well over 30 patent applications. Over 100 of these publications appeared in general-audience or high-impact scientific journals, and several patents have now been licensed. UW MRSEC researchers received important scientific and educational awards, and several of them were inducted into the Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Several start-up companies were launched on the basis UW MRSEC based scientific discoveries. The UW MRSEC also produced a plethora of educational products (including journal articles, widely distributed kits, teahcing modules, and videos) that have reached hundreds of thousands of individuals. The web site created and maintained by the UW MRSEC for dissemination of its educational products continues to receive several thousand unique visitors every day. The UW MRSEC supported the research activities of approximately 60 graduate students, and approximately 200 undergraduate students, most of whom are now prusuing scientific and engineering careers. The UW MRSEC was also succesful in improving the participation of indivudals from underrepresented minority backgrounds in scientific and engineering pursuits.
