9624364 Espinosa A CAREER award will support research and education in the area of nanostructured ceramics and coatings. In particular, the wear and friction properties and the crack initiation and blunting phenomena will be studied with varying nano-crystalline microstructures. Instrumentation employed in the work include SEM, TEM and AFM. Also measured will be the emanating elastic waves, resolved interferometrically with nanosecond resolution. The education plan includes mini-design projects, outreach to high schools, and the use of team work and of open ended problems. ***
