MIT to lead new NSF materials research center on imaging and sustainable metals

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has selected MIT to establish and lead a new Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) with an expected $18 million in funding over six years, pending a formal research agreement. The center will be directed by Associate Professor Rafael Jaramillo of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, with Professor Caroline Ross as associate director, and will be housed administratively within the MIT Materials Research Laboratory.

The award brings together 16 research groups from nine departments across four institutions: five MIT departments, Yale University, the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the Department of Radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. The MIT departments involved are Materials Science and Engineering, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Earth Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, and Physics.

The center will pursue two main research thrusts. One will engineer nanostructured scintillators — materials that convert X-rays into visible light — to improve the resolution, speed, and energy sensitivity of X-ray detectors used in medical imaging, industrial inspection, and security screening. The other will investigate high-temperature sulfur-based molten materials to develop more efficient and sustainable methods for producing critical metals such as copper and for creating new thin-film semiconductor technologies.

Expertise in high-temperature sulfur-based materials has become increasingly rare in U.S. academia, and a stated goal of the center is to rebuild that capability at MIT. The funding will also support a new shared laboratory for testing magnetic materials and materials under extreme conditions, managed by MIT.nano and available to academic and industry users.

The selection is part of a $108 million NSF investment in six MRSECs nationwide. The MIT center builds on nearly 60 years of interdisciplinary materials research at the Institute, extending a legacy that began with Department of Defense-supported laboratories in the 1960s and continued through previous NSF-funded centers.

Beyond research, the center plans outreach activities to highlight the importance of materials science in society, particularly in the Boston region. One initiative, called DISASTER!, will engage MIT undergraduates in researching and telling stories of real-world catastrophes caused by materials failures, such as the Titanic rivets and the de Havilland Comet crashes, to illustrate how forensic materials science prevents future failures.

Jaramillo said the long-term goal is for the center to become a self-sustaining hub for interdisciplinary materials research and to compete successfully for future funding cycles. The award is pending MIT's negotiation of a formal research agreement with the NSF.