June 2021

‌ ‌ ‌

About MRL

Custom-made tool probes materials at nanoscale

Assistant Professor Long Ju and colleagues have built a new, customized version of a laboratory tool known as near-field infrared nanoscopy and spectroscopy for MIT users. It and an earlier version also in Ju’s lab are the first such tools at the Institute. Here Graduate Student Matthew Yeung, Professor Ju, and Postdoctoral Associate Zhengguang Lu stand beside the new tool. Photo courtesy of Long Ju

Offers advantages to researchers across many disciplines An MIT physicist has built a new instrument of interest to MIT researchers across a wide range of disciplines because it can quickly and relatively inexpensively determine a variety of important characteristics of a material at the nanoscale. It’s capable of not only determining internal properties of a material, such as how that material’s electrical or optical conductivity changes over exquisitely short distances, but also visualizing individual molecules, like proteins.

Read more

11 Summer Scholars have been selected

During Summer 2019, Leah Borgsmiller worked on niobium-aluminum thin films for superconducting nanowire single photon detectors in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Professor Karl K. Berggren’s lab through the NSF-funded MIT MRL Research Experience for Undergraduates program. Photo courtesy of Denis Paiste

MIT Materials Research Laboratory announces 11 recipients of Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) internships. The MIT Materials Research Laboratory [MRL] has selected 11 top-ranking undergraduates to conduct graduate-level research. They were chosen from among 173 applicants. This years program will be held remotely from June 9 to Aug. 13, 2021. The interns have selected their own projects from MIT faculty presentations given during the first few days of the program.

Read more

Four MIT faculty members receive 2021 US Department Of Energy early career awards

Left to right: Riccardo Comin, Class of 1947 Career Development Assistant Professor of Physics; Netta Engelhardt, Biedenharn Career Development Assistant Professor of Physics and member of the Center for Theoretical Physics; Philip Harris, assistant professor of physics and researcher in the Laboratory for Nuclear Science; and Mingda Li, Norman C Rasmussen Assistant Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering Photos courtesy of the researchers. Li's photo: Gretchen Ertl Read more

Faculty from the departments of Physics and of Nuclear Science and Engineering were selected for the Early Career Research Program. The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) recently announced the names of 83 scientists who have been selected for their 2021 Early Career Research Program. The list includes four faculty members from MIT: Riccardo Comin of the Department of Physics; Netta Engelhardt of the Department of Physics and Center for Theoretical Physics; Philip Harris of the Department of Physics and Laboratory for Nuclear Science; and Mingda Li of the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering.  Each year, the DoE selects researchers for significant funding the "nation’s scientific workforce by providing support to exceptional researchers during crucial early career years, when many scientists do their most formative work."

Ultralight material withstands supersonic microparticle impacts

Engineers at MIT, Caltech, and ETH Zürich find “nanoarchitected” materials designed from precisely patterned nanoscale structures (pictured) may be a promising route to lightweight armor, protective coatings, blast shields, and other impact-resistant materials. Photo courtesy of the researchers Read more

The new carbon-based material could be a basis for lighter, tougher alternatives to Kevlar and steel. A new study by engineers at MIT, Caltech, and ETH Zürich shows that “nanoarchitected” materials — materials designed from precisely patterned nanoscale structures — may be a promising route to lightweight armor, protective coatings, blast shields, and other impact-resistant materials. The researchers have fabricated an ultralight material made from nanometer-scale carbon struts that give the material toughness and mechanical robustness. The team tested the material’s resilience by shooting it with microparticles at supersonic speeds, and found that the material, which is thinner than the width of a human hair, prevented the miniature projectiles from tearing through it.

Events Calendar

The Materials Science and Engineering Seminar Series For updated information, please keep checking our website or the MIT Events Calendar.

Join the MRL Collegium

We invite your company to become a member of the MRL Industry Collegium. As a member, your company will receive: premium access to member only briefing materials and information via our website periodic publications and research activity highlights invitations to workshops, conferences and symposia support for research staff visits on-campus facilitation of corporate meetings and events customized interactions with MIT students

To join the collegium contact: Mark Beals Associate Director, MRL 617-253-2129 mbeals@mit.edu https://mrl.mit.edu 77 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139 617-253-5179 mit-mrl@mit.edu