Information on Argonne's Materials Science Division

         The Materials Science Division (MSD) is the focal point for research in materials science at Argonne National Laboratory. Our mission is to develop new materials for society, and we do so with a team of materials scientists, physicists and chemists who carry out collaborative research on a variety of problems. Typically, we can bring to bear fundamental research, involving synthesis, characterization and modeling, to improve performance of old materials, or design new materials. Current materials of interest include superconductors, magnetics, ferroelectrics, organic crystals and diamond coatings. We rely heavily on and support medium and large-scale facilities for materials science research, including BESSRC, a materials-oriented synchrotron-based research facility, and the IVEM-Tandem National Electron Microscope user facility. We are closely involved with other Argonne facilities such as the Advanced Photon Source and the Intense Pulsed Neutron Source. We also have a web of interactions with universities and industries.

          Our research is funded primarily by Basic Energy Sciences at the Department of Energy, and is mainly "fundamental" in character. That is, we are driven to understand the science underlying materials - questions like "what is the basis of superconductivity?" or "how is magnetism different in small structures?". From such research, we can learn to design and synthesize new materials, and control the physical properties of existing materials. Since materials are ultimately "useful" to society, materials science is intimately coupled with engineering and applications. So we have many partnerships with industries, and are always interested in performing mutually beneficial collaborative research. If you are an industrial scientist, browsing through our web pages would be a good way to learn about what we do. If you are in the education field, we hope that our resources are useful to you. Please do not hesitate to contact me or any member of the division for further information. Other materials resources at Argonne, to which we are intimately linked, are found at www.techtransfer.anl.gov/techtour/materials.html.

          I hope that you find materials of interest to you on these pages, and please recognize that we are always ready to respond to new challenges. Flexibility and the team approach are hallmarks of good national labs research. We are always looking for new opportunities and welcome your interest. About 10% of our funding does come from outside the Department of Energy, and we expect this fraction to grow in future.

          If you are interested in gee whiz - I recommend our "telepresence."

          As an example of major new directions which we are pursuing, I direct your attention to nanosciences and aberration corrected electron microscopy. Here are a few links on these subjects:

• Future Plans for Nanoscience at Argonne
• Center for Nanoscale Materials
• Nanoscience at the University of Wisconsin
• Electron Microscopy Center
• National and International Professional Society Sites for Microscopy & Microanalysis
• Microscopy Links