MRSEC Vision: To be a comprehensive center that integrates interdisciplinary materials research with innovative outreach to inspire excellence in all aspects of science and engineering
Building on a tradition of collaboration in the College of Science and Engineering (CSE), the University of Minnesota (UMN) Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) currently unites around 30 senior and junior faculty and 75 graduate students and postdocs, from seven academic programs, in a highly collaborative and interdisciplinary center. The vision of the MRSEC is to be a comprehensive center that integrates interdisciplinary materials research with innovative outreach to inspire excellence in all aspects of materials-related science and engineering. The core elements of this vision are international distinction in materials research, education and outreach, broad participation, industrial outreach, national lab interaction, international collaboration, and shared materials research facilities.
Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSECs) support interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary materials research and education of the highest quality while addressing fundamental problems in science and engineering that are important to society. MRSECs require outstanding research quality, intellectual breadth, interdisciplinarity, flexibility in responding to new research opportunities, support for research infrastructure, and they foster the integration of research. MRSECs assess fundamental materials research topics of intellectual and technological importance, contribute to national priorities by fostering active collaboration between academia and other sectors, and enable researchers to address problems of a scope and complexity requiring the advantages of scale and interdisciplinarity provided by a campus-based research center.
The MRSEC program reinforces NSF’s commitment to excellence in interdisciplinary research and education; it is national in scope and significance, requiring coordination of the overall effort among Centers. The MRSEC program complements, but does not substitute for, NSF support for individual investigators, small groups, national user facilities, and instrumentation in materials research.
MRSECs are supported by NSF to undertake materials research of a scope and complexity that would not be feasible under traditional funding of individual research projects. NSF support is intended to reinforce the base of individual investigator and small group research by providing the flexibility to address topics requiring an approach of broad scope and duration. MRSECs are university-based, and undertake an interactive, interdisciplinary approach to materials research and education while fostering active cooperation among university-based researchers and those concerned with the application of materials research in industry and elsewhere. A MRSEC may encompass one or more interdisciplinary research groups (IRGs). Each IRG involves several faculty members and associated researchers, addressing a major topic or area in which sustained support for interactive effort by several participants with complimentary backgrounds, skills, and knowledge is critical to progress. The IRGs in a Center may be topically related, or they may address different topical aspects of materials research; they contribute to the synergy arising from the research and education activities of the Center and its common infrastructure, shared facilities and outreach programs. Thus, the Center as a whole is expected to be more than the sum of its parts.
Funded by the National Science Foundation through the University of Minnesota MRSEC under Award Number DMR-2011401
UMN MRSEC
435 Amundson Hall, 421 Washington Ave. SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55455
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