Advanced Materials by Design: Theory and Computation

From the Bronze Age to the present, materials have played a critical role in our lives. As our need for advanced materials has evolved, we have moved from empirical, trial-and-error development to a combination of experiment and theory. The theoretical component of this effort has in turn led to an emphasis on smaller-size scales, as we discovered that the smallest of features govern all properties of materials. Much of the recent worldwide emphasis on nanoscience and nanotechnology has evolved from our newly acquired understanding that nanoscale features control macroscopic behavior. One of the challenges of nanoscience is the ability to design a material with a desired set of properties by building a model of its atomic structure and deducing from this its macroscopic behavior. One of the major goals of the Advanced Materials by Design: Theory and Computation Cluster is the design of materials using theory and computation that will lead to dramatic advances in the discovery of new materials. Another major goal is to break down barriers between departments and strengthen research on materials design at UW-Madison, which had previously been an area that was underrepresented at the university. Having a strong focus in this area is making the UW-Madison more competitive when working on large interdisciplinary grants, including centers such as those funded by NSF, DOE or NIH. The cluster has brought new faculty expertise into the Materials Sciences Program, including an outstanding female professor of Materials Science who was just awarded a CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation. The individuals that were hired under this cluster have formed strong partnerships among themselves and with other faculty on campus, thereby meeting one of the original goals of the cluster, namely increasing communication and exchange between disciplines. These new faculty have been supported by the NSF-funded Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC), which has provided a forum for their interaction with students and researchers from a wide variety of departments and colleges, as well as with industrial collaborators that are brought to campus under the umbrella of the University of Wisconsin Advanced Materials Consortium (UWAMIC).