Ohio State awarded NSF funds to start Center for Emergent Materials

A new $10.8 million interdisciplinary research center at Ohio State University will study and develop materials for tomorrow's electronics.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced that Ohio State would receive funds over six years to establish a Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC). With this the university will join a national network of 27 MRSECs that foster active collaboration between universities and industry. To the $10.8 million in NSF funds, the university will add a $6.2 million cost share, bringing the total funds to $17 million.

The Ohio State MRSEC will be called the Center for Emergent Materials (CEM), and it will marshal Ohio State's considerable expertise in electronic materials. From plastics to semiconductors to unique hybrid materials, the CEM faculty are experts in understanding and manipulating materials on the atomic, molecular, nanometer, and micrometer levels. Ohio State CEM is among five new MRSECs that were awarded by NSF out of 87 applications, in a national competition that is held every 3 years. "This is a first for Ohio State and the state of Ohio," said Nitin Padture, professor of materials science and engineering at Ohio State and director of the CEM. Ohio State is already home to another NSF-funded materials-related center, the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC), which supports research in nanotechnology. Only eight universities nationwide boast both an NSEC and a MRSEC: University of California, Santa Barbara; Cornell University; Harvard University; University of Pennsylvania; Northwestern University; University of Massachusetts; University of Wisconsin; and now Ohio State University.