January 2009
The MRL is pleased to announce that a current graduate student,
Bharat Jalan,
under the supervision of
Professor Susanne Stemmer, and working in IRG-2 has
received the Young Scientist Award of the 36th Conference on the Physics and Chemistry
of Surfaces and Interfaces (PCSI-36).
December 2008
The MRL is proud to announce that
Professor J. Herbert Waite, IRG-1, has been
elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Herb is being recognized for his fundamental studies of the chemical and physical aspects of biological
adhesion leading to new biomimetic materials.
The Director of the MRL,
Professor Craig J. Hawker has recently been selected as a new PMSE
Fellow of the American Chemical Society. Craig is being recognized for his pioneering work
in the synthesis and applications of functionalized polymeric macromolecules and nanoscale architectures.
September 2008
Professor Song-i Han, co-leader of IRG-1 and Director of the MRL's Spectroscopy
Facility has been selected as a
2008 Packard Fellow for Science and Engineering.
This is one of the highest honors that can be bestowed on a young Professor
and comes with an unrestricted grant of $875,000.
The MRL is pleased to announce that a former graduate,
Dr. Heather Evans,
who obtained her Ph.D. under the supervision of
Professor Cyrus Safinya,
has been named to a fellowship with the
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Heather will contribute to national science policy and has just begun
her fellowship at the National Science Foundation in
the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office.
Arthur Gossard, Professor of Materials and IRG-4 co-leader, has received the
2008
Al Cho Molecular Beam Epitaxy Award in recognition of his fundamental contributions
to the science and technology of MBE. The award was presented
at an international conference in August.
August 2008
MRL Investigator, Professor
Galen Stucky has been honored for his role
in the development of a
blood-clotting gauze that is helping save
soldiers who suffer severe, life-threatening injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Department of Defense's
Advanced Technology Applications for Combat
Casualty Care Award was presented to Galen on August 11 for his pioneering
work in helping to develop the QuikClot® range of medical products.
July 2008
Research from MRL Investigator Professor
Herb Waite and
Chris Broomell on the
remarkable mechanical properties of the jaws of ragworms has received external
press and recognition in
"The Economist"
magazine. In the July 26th issue, the
Science and Technology section highlights their recent work (
Biomacromolecules,
9 (6), 1669-1677, 2008) showing that jaws are as strong as aluminium and
impressively light. However unlike most strong biological structures - bones,
teeth, shells, etc. these materials are not highly mineralised. In fact, it is
chelation of histidine-rich proteins with zinc ions that allow the formation of
these unusual material, pointing towards a new design principle for advanced
materials.
June 2008
Diversity is one of the key initiatives within the MRL and one way
that the MRL supports these goals is through MRL Diversity
Fellowships. These are designed to reflect and reward graduate
students who share this strong commitment to diversity. The awardees of the
2008 MRL Diversity Fellowships are:
Brent Melot (Materials - Seshadri),
Mananya Tantiwiwat (Physics - Nguyen),
Andres Garcia (Chemistry & Biochemistry - Nguyen)
and
Juliana Bernal-Ostos (Materials - Stucky).
April 2008
MRL Director Craig Hawker has just been announced as the first winner
of the recently established DSM
Performance Materials Award. This international prize - a cash award of 50,000
euros - is sponsored by the DSM Corporation
in cooperation with IUPAC. The prize will be presented at Macro 2008 this June in Taipei, Taiwan.
MRL Education Programs are pleased to announce the following graduate students awards for 2008 for which
each recipient will receive a certificate of appreciation and a cash prize: The MRL Education Programs
Service Award is given to a graduate student who provides consistent support in multiple programs,
including participation as an undergraduate intern mentor, a volunteer in our school programs
and/or as a ScienceLine answerer. This year the award is shared by Alan Kleiman (Chemical Engineering)
and Nick Strandwitz (Chemistry). The Excellence in Mentoring award is given to a graduate student
who provides undergraduate mentoring above and beyond the call of duty. We are very pleased to
present this award to Wei Tang (Chemical Engineering) and Aubrey Cano (Marine Science)
for their dedicated support of undergraduate research. Finally, the ScienceLine Award
is given to a student who provides consistent, reliable and thoughtful answers to our young
ScienceLine users. This year our ScienceLine Award goes to Mark Wistey (Materials, Electrical and Computer
Engineering).
February 2008
On February 22, 2008, eight UCSB CAMP students presented their research at
the annual Statewide CAMP symposium in Irvine, California. Among the 75
student presenters, two UCSB students, Natalie Wilson and Jose Muro,
received special merit awards. Other UCSB attendees included Education
Director Dotti Pak, Coordinator Julie Standish, former Coordinator
Patti Halpin, Faculty Director Glenn Beltz and Faculty Mentor Ed Orias.
January 2008
MRL's Education and Research newsletter, "Science Matters",
welcomes Dr. Julie Standish onboard as the new Intern Coordinator. This edition also recognizes the achievements
during summer 07 of the CAMP and RET programs and summarizes notable accomplishments of various members of the
MRL faculty.
November 2007
With the help of an endowment from CSP Technologies, the Materials
Research Laboratory (MRL) has initiated a new fellowship
program to aid UCSB graduate students engaged in research in the
area of polymeric materials, the CSP Technologies Fellowships.
FOUR fellowships have been awarded to: Tanya Chantawansri, Julia Ortony,
Eric Pressly and Kathleen Schaefer.
September 2007
Glenn H. Fredrickson and
Edward J. Kramer of the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB)
together with Frank S. Bates of the University of Minnesota (UMN)
and Stephen F. Hahn and Dennis A. Hucul of the Dow Chemical Company
have been awarded the 2008 Cooperative Research Award from the American Chemical
Society. Together the team has produced an exciting new class of poly(cyclohexylethylene)
(PCHE) block copolymer materials. These thermoplastic materials possess
remarkable combinations of properties including: excellent transparency
and melt processability, rigidity and toughness, high Tg, low moisture
uptake, and low birefringence. As such, they show exceptional potential as
substrates for optical media, as components in advanced displays, lighting,
and optical devices, and as resins for precision molding.
The Materials Research Laboratory (MRL) at UCSB has received
endowment support for a new fellowship program to aid UCSB graduate students
engaged in research in the area of polymeric materials, the CSP Technologies
Fellowships. The fellowship will provide support for graduate education and
training, including salary, tuition, fees, benefits, and travel to conferences
and TWO (2) fellowships providing 50% support for one year will be awarded in Winter 2008.
June 2007
It is with great delight that the American Institute of Chemical Engineers has
just announced that Professor Matt Tirrell is the 2007 recipient of the
William H. Walker Award for Excellence in Contributions to
Chemical Engineering Literature. The $5,000 award is presented to a
member of AIChE who has made an outstanding contribution to chemical
engineering literature. The award will officially presented to Matt Sunday evening,
November 4, 2007, in Salt Lake City, UT, in connection with AIChE's Annual Meeting
and National Student Conference.
May 2007
Multi-disciplinary research involving researchers at the MRL and UMASS MRSEC
(Hawker, Kramer, Fredrickson and Russell) in the development of self assembling
block
copolymers has led to a lithographic process that allows traditional
dielectric materials to be replaced by air. This chip breakthrough is slated
for high volume manufacturing in 2009.
April 2007
MRL Faculty members, Song-I Han and Todd Squires, have both
received a prestigous NSF
CAREER Award which recognizes teacher-scholars who are most likely
to become the academic leaders of the 21st century.
A special Lecture, Gallium Nitride Solid State Lighting: The Science,
and Some Applications in Architecture
[DISPLAY EVENT FLYER] will be held on Friday, April 13th at 4:00 pm in the Bren School Auditorium
(Room 1414 Bren Hall). There will be a reception in the Bren Hall Courtyard
immediately following the Colloquium.
March 2007
Arthur Gossard, a professor of materials and MRL faculty member,
has won the 2007 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Newcomb Cleveland Prize
for "Coherent Manipulation of Coupled Electron Spins in Semi-Conductor Dots."
His award is shared by seven other researchers, including Micah Hanson,
a graduate student in the Materials Department at UCSB. The AAAS is the world's
largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science.
The prize was established in 1923, with funds donated by Newcomb Cleveland
of New York City, to recognize outstanding Science articles. It is given
annually to the author(s) of the best research article or report published
in Science. The value of the prize is $25,000; the recipient also receives
a bronze medal.
January 2007
Professor Ed Kramer, due to his numerous contributions and achievements in polymer physics,
has been recognized by the Dutch Polymer Society as the recepiant of the
2007 Medema Medal and Award.
Due to the generosity of the DOW Chemical Company, MRL is partnering with
the UCSB Technology Management Program to hold a Materials
New Venture Competition in 2007. This will be part of the highly successful New Venture
Competition (which is in its 8th year) and will be administered by the
Technology Management Program.
In addition to the normal prizes awarded during the competition, there is a
a new DOW Innovation Prize in Materials for the best business plan in the Materials area.
The value of the prize will be $10,000. The competition presents a unique
opportunity to network with and receive mentoring from inventors,
marketing experts, etc. MRL students and researchers are strongly encouraged
to participate.
December 2006
The Italgas Prize Science and Environment has been awarded to Armand Paul Alivisatos
for the studies on very thin solar cells composed by tiny photosensitive crystals (nanocrystals)
and to Alan Heeger, who won the Nobel prize for chemistry in 2000,
for his innovative research on solar cells made with plastic material: cheap, versatile and clean.
The prize, that consists of a sum of 120.000 euros, is aimed to scientists that have
achieved relevant results in research on energy sources and their relation with the environment.
This year's
Materials Research Outreach Program (MROP) Symposium will be
held from January 24-26 at the Corwin Pavilion at the UCen. Jan. 24 and 25 there will be
poster sessions each evening at the Engineering Sciences Building (ESB) room 1001.
Reservations to present research posters must be received by Jan. 10th.
Please email Jeramy or Nalini at mrop2007 at mrl.ucsb.edu with any
questions.
November 2006
The Winter edition of
Science Matters was released in mid-November, 2006. The publication is an
Education and Research Newsletter which demonstrates MRL’s continued
commitment to providing unique educational experiences to promising
students of diverse backgrounds in many areas of scientific research.
October 2006
MRL faculty member Glenn Fredrickson has been awarded the 2007 Polymer Physics Prize
by the American Physical Society. The award recognizes outstanding accomplishment and excellence of
contributions in polymer physics research. Past recipients of the prestigous APS honor include
MRL faculty members Ed Kramer and Fyl Pincus.
September 2006
The Arthur C. Cope Award recognizes each year outstanding achievement in the field of organic chemistry.
MRL faculty member Professor Gui Bazan is the 2007 recipient of this generous and very prestigous
recognition which includes a medallion, cash award and unrestricted grant-in-aid. Previous UCSB
faculty members who have been recognized by the Arthur Cope Fund Grant are Tom Bruice, Fred Wudl and Bruce Lipshitz.
August 2006
Professors Pierre Gilles de Gennes and Francoise Brochard-Wyart
presented two lectures, Monday, August 28 and Thursday, August 31, 2006, 9AM - 12 PM,
at the UCSB Multicultural Center Theater.
Shuji Nakamura, UCSB professor of Materials and of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
has been awarded the world's biggest technology award, the 2006 Millennium Technology Prize for his invention of
revolutionary new light sources: blue, green, and white light-emitting diodes
and the blue laser diode. The award will be presented in Finland September 9th and includes
a cash prize of one million Euros - approximately $1.3-million. Following the ceremony, Professor Nakamura will
conduct a seminar for technologist on September 11th.
June 2006
The summer edition of
Science Matters was released in late June, 2006. The publication is an
Education and Research Newsletter which demonstrates MRL’s continued
commitment to providing unique educational experiences to promising
students of diverse backgrounds in many areas of scientific research.
The Millennium Prize Foundation of Finland announced that
Professor Shuji Nakamura, who is involved with MRL's IRG-2 project on
Oxide Based Semiconductors, is the sole winner of the 2006 Millennium
Technology Prize, accompanied by one million euros (about $1.3
million in U.S. dollars). The Millennium Technology
Prize was founded by the Millennium Prize
Foundation of Finland, and is bestowed every 2 years by the
President of the Republic of Finland. It is described by the
Foundation as "the world's largest technology prize."
May 2006
Prof. Sir John Meurig Thomas FRS, FREng, Department of Materials Science,
University of Cambridge, and, The Davy Faraday Research Laboratory, Royal
Institution of Great Britain will give a public lecture on
"The unpredictability of science and its consequences" on May 18, 2006 at
4:00 pm in the Marine Science Research Building Auditorium. The lecture
is part of the UCSB Materials Research Laboratory special lecture
series on Science and Society.
April 2006
A
festschrift symposium
was held in honor of
Professor Tony Cheetham’s 60th year. The symposium
began on the morning of Thursday, April 6th with opening remarks from
Chancellor Yang, EVC Gene Lucas and Deans Moskovits and
Tirrell. Approximately 25 of his former graduate students, post docs and
colleagues traveled to UCSB to present scientific talks.
A revolutionary honeycomb-like lipid - DNA structure with the potential to deliver
therapeutic genes directly to cells has been created by
MRL's Safinya Group. In a paper featured in the March 29th Journal
of the American Chemical Society, Cyrus Safinya, Project Director and UCSB
Professor of Materials, Physics and Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology,
and Kai K. Ewert, Project Scientist, described the process of transfection
and its efficiency in four cancer cell lines. Contributing co-author recognition
includes graduate students Alexandra Zidovska, Nate Bouxsein, Ayesha Ahmad and
Heather Evans.
March 2006
MRL Education Outreach held its 7th annual Research Experience for Teachers
(RET) Workshop on March 15th. Fifty Santa Barbara County secondary school
teachers attended the workshop that focused on: Ways to improve students'
literacy skills through science article review; Current scientific research on
diseases and integrating it into the California State Standards and New ways
of teaching organic chemistry. The keynote speech, "Magnetism: An old
phenomenon with new surprises", was delivered by Professor Ram Seshadri.
George M. “Bud” Homsy, has been elected to the prestigious
National Academy of Engineering. The academy cited Homsy, a vital
member of the MRL faculty and UCSB professor of mechanical engineering
and chemical engineering, for “innovative experimental and theoretical
studies of multiphase and interfacial flow phenomena, and for the
development of educational materials in fluid mechanics.”
February 2006
MRL faculty member, Arthur C. Gossard was honored recently because
of his work as part of a research team that has received the 2004-2005 AAAS Newcomb
Cleveland Prize,, the oldest award conferred by the American Association for the
Advancement of Science (AAAS), publisher of the journal Science. In a paper
published in Science in late 2004, the research team reported observing the
“spin Hall effect”—the first time it had been documented in an experiment.
January 2006
MRL hosts the 8th annual Materials Research Outreach Program (MROP) at UCSB. The 3-day program is a forum
for outreach and collaboration with peers in industry, academia and national laboratories. This year's program celebrated
recognition from the State of California who co-sponsored the event with a Discovery Award. Over 200 participants gathered
this year including attendees from 31 unique companies and 6 foreign organizations.
December 2005
Dedication Ceremony for the New Wing of the Materials Research
Laboratory Building. Keynote Speaker: Dr. Arden Bement, Director,
National Science Foudation.
December 19, 2006, 3:00 pm.
November 2005
The latest issue of the MRL's Education and Reseach newsletter, Science Matters, is now available for download. Previous issues are available here.
Registration opens for the Materials Research Outreach Symposium at UCSB
January 25-27, 2006. Symposium host: Art Gossard Register Here
October 2005
The National Science Foundation renewed and increased its support of UCSB's Materials Research Laboratory with a $20.52 million, six-year award. The MRL at UCSB is one of 11 NSF supported Materials Research Science & Engineering Centers (MRSECs) in this round of funding. UCSB's MRL and the University of Pennsylvania were the only two centers to receive increased funding. Through the MRSEC Program of the National Science Foundation under Award No. DMR05-20415, UCSB's MRL continues its outstanding achievement investigating a wide range of materials including new semiconductors for microelectronics, nanostructures for communications devices and advanced polymeric materials.
September 2005
Construction nears completion on the MRL's building addition. The new construction houses new office space and multiple conference and seminar rooms. It increases the square footage of the building by 40%. The building addition was financed by overhead return on research funds provided by the Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation to the Mitsubishi Chemical Center for Advanced Materials (MC-CAM) and by the National Science Foundation to the Materials Research Laboratory (MRL) [grants DMR00-80034 & DMR05-20415].
June 2005
Announcing the current issue of Science Matters , the MRL quarterly newsletter which was launched in December 2001,, to highlight MRL education and research programs and to enhance our links with science educators in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties.
May 2005
Ram Seshadri, assistant professor of materials, will receive the American Chemical Society’s 2005 ExxonMobil Solid State Chemistry Faculty Fellowship this August. It is for junior faculty who are making “significant contributions” to solid state chemistry.
Ralph Reid has been named as a theMicrosoft UK Innovative Teacher for his “exceptionally innovative use of IT in the classroom.” Ralph participated in the MRL’s Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) program in 2002-2003; he developed a curriculum project using webcam technology to allow interaction between his chemistry classroom at the Halliford School in Surrey, England and MRL scientists.
For more information on this award.
For information on Ralph Reid's project.
Pankaj Karande is the recipient of the 2005 Fiona Goodchild Award for Excellence of Graduate Student Mentoring of Undergraduate Research. Pankaj has mentored numerous undergraduate and community college research interns through MRL’s Community College Interns in Materials Research (CCIMR) and Research Interns in Science and Engineering (RISE) programs, as well as other campus intern programs. The Fiona Goodchild award recognizes graduate students who have distinguished themselves through their excellence in, and contribution to, undergraduate research supervision, and to encourage others to become involved in these research efforts. Pankaj is a Chemical Engineering Ph.D. candidate in Samir Mitragotri’s laboratory.
Galen Stucky, professor of chemistry and materials, has been elected fellow of the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Press release attached.
Press release attached
Professor C.N.R. Rao, distinguished visiting professor in the Materials Research Lab (MRL) at UC Santa Barbara, has received the Dan David Prize, an international award endowed by the Dan David Foundation headquartered at Tel Aviv University in Israel. Press Release