This award is for renewed support of the Materials Research Laboratory (MRL) under the direction of Dr. Myron B. Salamon at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The MRL is comprised of about 40 faculty members from six academic departments; 55 graduate students and 7 postdoctoral research associates are also supported. The research effort is concentrated on interactive, multidisciplinary research projects in several major thrust areas. The MRL also operates major central facilities that underpin materials research efforts at the University, and maintains a number of research service facilities in collaboration with other units on campus. There are interactions with industry and government laboratories in relation to MRL thrust area research. The planned research includes major thrust areas in optical semiconductors and heterostructures, advanced catalytic materials, metastability and dynamics of disordered materials, and advanced computational materials research. This MRL provides a superb environment for interactive research. Its central research facilities are second to none and it is effectively managed. The recent establishment on campus of major research centers in fields that complement materials research provides new opportunities that are fully recognized by the MRL. Many of the faculty are outstanding in their own areas of research; together they bring a formidable array of talent to bear in a strongly interactive manner on a number of important problems in materials research. The recommended budget provides adequate resources to support the proposed efforts in optical semiconductors and heterostructures and in advanced computational materials research; to make a rapid start in the area of advanced catalytic materials; to support thrust research in the dynamics of disordered materials; and to provide appropriate seed funding for new initiatives. It also provides for continuing strong support of instrumentation and central research facilities.
