Materials Science

“New materials create fundamentally new human capabilities. And yet…new materials-enabled human capabilities have been rare in the past 50 years.” The core challenge lies in our inability to reliably design and manufacture materials that meet specific engineering requirements–and to do so at an indu...

Crystallization is crucial for determining molecular structure, yet many molecules resist forming crystals. Improved computational models of crystal growth are needed to guide experimental efforts.

While many promising materials have been discovered in the lab, current synthesis methods are often too expensive to produce these materials in sufficient quantities. Some examples of novel materials that would be highly enabling include:  • Low activation, thermally conductive materials that are r...

The cost of materials is often dominated by the cost to obtain their constituent elements. What presents commercially as the “critical minerals problem” masks a larger scientific bottleneck on how we acquire, concentrate, and substitute chemical elements.