Foundation gives $21.6M grant to Penn materials lab

Penn's Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter is one of the top materials research laboratories in the world -- and it now has a $21.6 million grant to prove it.

The grant, awarded by the National Science Foundation, will be allocated across six years and will be accompanied by $2.1 million from the University.

Established in 1960, the laboratory uses an interdisciplinary approach to creating and working with advanced materials.

The materials developed at the lab are then applied in fields like medicine. For example, synthetic membranes that the lab is programming may eventually be used to replace damaged cells.

This year, the NSF awarded $152 million in support of 13 materials research science and engineering centers at various academic institutions across the country, including the MRSEC at Penn -- which received the largest grant of all the centers.

Andrew McGhie, the associate director of LRSM, said that the funds will primarily support five major projects being worked on at the MRSEC -- a research program in the laboratory.

"The program is an interdisciplinary interaction between different types of scientists and engineers," McGhie said, adding that faculty from the schools of Engineering and Medicine, as well as the School of Arts and Sciences, participate.

Arjun Yodh, the deputy director of Penn's MRSEC, said that each of the five projects is focused on solving a particular science problem.

Yodh said he is excited about LRSM's past work and is looking forward to continuing the research.

"We are one of the best places in the world looking at soft materials," Yodh said. "But it's very competitive."

In 2000, three researchers from LRSM, Alan Heeger, Alan MacDiarmid and Hideki Shirakawa, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work in discovering and developing the field of conducting polymers.

Yodh said that some of the grant money will go toward LRSM's numerous educational programs, which link researchers nationally as well as globally.

"We have a big undergraduate program every summer. Students from all over the country come to work with particular scientists on research projects," he said.

In addition to offering programs for students, LRSM maintains outreach programs with researchers from universities in Puerto Rico, South Africa and Japan.

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