Materials Science & Engineering Research

Computational materials and materials informatics

Computational tools are transforming materials discovery and optimization, providing unprecedented insights and predictions and accelerating the introduction of transformative materials in areas from energy efficiency to next-generation computing. We are leading the development and application of a new generation of molecular and mesoscale simulations, thermodynamic modeling, and machine learning. We are discovering new fundamental mechanisms and materials in multiferroic, electrochemical, and metal alloy systems, and using these discoveries to develop materials and devices, including for spintronics, nuclear reactors, batteries and fuel cells, and electronics.

Faculty

Core faculty

• Jiamian Hu
• Dane Morgan
• Izabela Szlufarska

Affiliated Faculty

• Curt Bronkhorst
• Adrien Couet
• Melih Eriten
• Irena Knezevic
• Dan Negrut
• Bu Wang
• Yongfeng Zhang

Additional participants

• Sindo Kou
• Paul Voyles

Centers, Consortia and Institutes

• Wisconsin Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC)
• Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center on Templated Synthesis and Assembly at the Nanoscale
• Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery
• Energy Institute
• Polymer Engineering Center
• Wisconsin Centers for Nanoscale Technology
• University of Wisconsin Nuclear Reactor
• Center for High-throughput Computing
• Wisconsin Applied Computing Center
• Water Science and Engineering Laboratory
• Wisconsin Quantum Institute

Research Centers, Facilities and Initiatives

UW-Madison has some of the world’s most extensive and advanced resources to support materials research. To promote interaction among faculty and students with materials interests, the engineering campus hosts many laboratories for research areas such as electron microscopy, crystallography, electronic materials, fatigue and fracture, nuclear materials, polymer science, powder metallurgy, radiation damage, rheology, crystal growth and purification, superconductivity, cryogenics, and surface properties.

Facilities and expertise required to design and fabricate special research equipment is available on the engineering campus. In addition to materials research laboratories in engineering and physical science departments, the Wisconsin Centers for Nanoscale Technology offers state-of-the-art general-purpose laboratories, materials preparation facilities, and commonly used apparatus, such as electron microscopes and x-ray diffractometers.

Campus-wide facilities include computing centers, heavy ion and electron accelerators, and a nuclear reactor with facilities for neutron diffraction. Students and faculty also use the Physical Sciences Laboratory.

Check out what’s happening in the Advanced Materials Industrial Consortium, which gives our commercial partners the opportunity to collaborate with students and faculty in advanced materials research across the UW-Madison campus.