Dropping a smart phone, for example, may dent the metal case but shatter the glass screen. Its members will develop strategies to enhance toughness in disordered solids like glass.

The first group, Rearrangements & Softness in Disordered Solids, is led by Douglas Durian of the department of physics & astronomy and Paulo Arratia of the department of mechanical engineering and applied mechanics. The newly awarded Penn MRSEC has three such groups, the maximum permitted by NSF, which draw faculty from nine departments in the School of Arts & Sciences, the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Perelman School of Medicine. To tackle these complex problems, MRSEC members are organized into interdisciplinary research groups. Our new activities engage 35 faculty and literally involve collaborations between chemists physicists chemical, electrical and mechanical engineers materials scientists bioengineers biologists and medical researchers.” “These problems are multifaceted and are too difficult for individuals or small teams to solve. Skinner Professor of Science in the department of physics & astronomy in the School of Arts & Sciences. “Our research projects identify and tackle big problems at the frontier of materials science,” says Arjun Yodh, director of the LRSM and the James M. The new MRSEC, one of eight selected nationwide, provides crucial support for the LRSM’s education and outreach missions, its shared experimental facilities, as well as its research aims in three new areas. The LRSM has been an academic center for interdisciplinary materials research since it was founded in 1960, and it has hosted an NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) since 1996. Penn’s Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter (LRSM) has been awarded a six-year, $22.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support the center’s work in cutting-edge materials science.

Space 1999 Volume 03 by Marc Platt