Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSECs) provide collaboration and diversity in research and outreach
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Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSECs) provide collaboration and diversity in research and outreach
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he National Science Foundation (NSF) awards funding to Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSECs)1 for transdisciplinary work that covers all areas of materials science and helps foster collaborations on national and international levels. During the course of the six-year grant, MRSECs tackle innovative, challenging research questions that are too large and complex for a single primary investigator (PI) or small group of researchers to answer. The research funding is interdisciplinary—across departments and colleges—and helps to break down institutional silos. These centers serve as hubs of collaboration and support some of the world’s best materials research and education initiatives. There are currently 20 MRSECs that involve more than 2200 participants ranging from faculty and postdocs to graduate students, undergraduate students, and technicians. Of the more recent MRSEC awards, three are to new
institutions: The University of Texas at Austin, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Washington. In addition to primary research, MRSEC members are also charged with volunteering for education and outreach efforts, where they can engage with and positively affect target audiences of all ages, with the goal of increasing participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields and building the next-generation STEM workforce. This center-level investment in outreach and human resource development is an important part of the MRSEC structure and a key element in reaching overall impact goals. Therefore, while the grant is fundamentally a research award, proposed activities that extend beyond the laboratory are critically important. “The education, outreach, diversity, and other broader impact efforts in a MRSEC grant have to evolve as well as the research,” said Kristin Dreyer, MRSEC Program
High-school students from central Pennsylvania visit the Penn State Nanofabrication Laboratory to learn about materials science from graduate student, Yixian Chen. Credit: Penn State Center for Nanoscale Science.
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Director for Education and Outreach at the Center for Nanoscale Science2 at The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State). “In other words, because MRSECs are large, the expectation for its proposed education and outreach strategy is that it should be ambitious, exciting, and challenging to accomplish,” added Dreyer. Penn State’s Center for Nanoscale Science involves approximately 45 students and postdoctoral fellows and 40 faculty members from seven academic departments. The Center’s activities are currently organized around four interdisciplinary research groups (IRGs) that provide an umbrella-like infrastructure at the university, and three Outreach Teams that each include representatives from all IRGs. The education and outreach structure builds community across the entire Center. “Our education and outreach structure
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