News

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