Materials Systems for Controlling Extra- and Intracellular Assembly and Function
Funding Period: April 1, 2019 – August 31, 2020
Principal Investigator
Wendy Crone
Professor, Engineering Physics
crone@engr.wisc.edu
Co-Investigators
Timothy Kamp
Professor, Medicine/Cell and Regenerative Biology
Wisconsin Institute for Medical Research
Lih-Sheng Turng
Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Students
Alana Stempien, astempien@wisc.edu
Molecularly Doped Topological Photonic Materials
Funding Period: April 1, 2019 – August 31, 2020
Principal Investigator
Randall Goldsmith
Associate Professor, Chemistry
Co-Investigators
Paul Campagnola
Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Zongfu Yu
Associate Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Students & Postdocs
- Samuel Alkmin, alkmin@wisc.edu
- Michael Mattei, mattei2@wisc.edu
- Lei Ying, lying8@wisc.edu
- Ming Zhou, mzhou34@wisc.edu
Synthetic Soft Matter Inspired by Behaviors of Bacterial Communities
Funding Period: April 1, 2019 – August 31, 2020
Principal Investigators
David Lynn
Professor, Chemical and Biological Engineering
Helen Blackwell
Professor, Chemical and Biological Engineering
Co-Investigator
Reid Van Lehn
Assistant Professor, Chemical and Biological Engineering
Students & Postdocs
- Harshit Argawal, hagarwal3@wisc.edu
- Lawrence Chen, lmchen@wisc.edu
- Curran Gahan, cgahan@wisc.edu
- Kayleigh Nyffleler, nyffeler@chem.wisc.edu
- Benjamin Ortiz, bortiz@wisc.edu
- Samarthaben Patel, spatel46@wisc.edu
- Thomas Polaske, polaske@wisc.edu
- Fengrui Wang, fwang82@wisc.edu
- Korbin West, khwest@wisc.edu
- Ke Zhao, kzhao29@wisc.edu
Potential Energy Landscape, Two-Level System and Boson Peak in Silica
Funding Period: April 1, 2019 – August 31, 2020
Principal Investigator
Bu Wang
Asisstant Professor, Civil & Environmental Engineering
bu.wang@wisc.edu
Co-Investigator
Isabel Szlufarska
Professor, Materials Science and Engineering
Students
Zheng Yu, zheng.yu@wisc.edu
Machine Learning Algorithms for High-Throughput Materials Data
Funding Period: April 1, 2019 – August 31, 2020
Principal Investigator
Victor Zavala
Associate Professor, Chemical and Biological Engineering
victor.zavala@wisc.edu
Co-Investigator
Reid Van Lehn
Assistant Professor, Chemical and Biological Engineering
Students
- Shengli Jiang, sjiang87@wisc.edu
- Alexander Smith, adsmith23@wisc.edu
Complex Oxides Nanomembranes: Synthesis, Assembly, and Order-from-Disorder Transitions in Confined Geometries
Funding Period: April 1, 2019 – January 31, 2020
Principal Investigators
Francesca Cavallo
Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
fcavallo@unm.edu
Co-Investigator
Christoph Deneke
Professor, Applied Physics, Universidade Estadual de Campinas – UNICAMP
Students
- Divya Jioty Prakash, University of New Mexico, dprakash@unm.edu
- Vijay Saradhi Mangu, University of New Mexico, vjsaradhimangu@unm.edu
Seed Highlights
(2020) Energy Transfer Inside of a Topological Photonic Materials
The Wisconsin MRSEC has shown that molecules inside in a type of topological photonic material called a Weyl crystal can exchange energy over much larger distances. The intricate twisting structure of the material uses light to connect one molecule to others much farther away. Developing photonic Weyl crystals may contribute to more efficient LEDs and solar cells and improve molecular sensors.
February 22, 2021
(2020) Machine Learning Algorithms
The Wisconsin MRSEC has developed machine learning techniques that enable the design of new toxin sensors using liquid crystal droplets that respond to the presence of different bacterial toxins and at extremely low concentrations by changing shape and appearance. Machine learning enables computers to automatically analyze the droplet responses to measure toxin concentration and type automatically at high accuracy. More generally, these results demonstrate that the machine learning approach can quickly extract valuable information from complex datasets.
June 17, 2020Newly Awarded Superseed and Seed Projects Will Forge Research Paths for MRSEC
Two Superseed projects and one Seed project have been awarded funding to pursue research as part of the Wisconsin Materials Research Science and Education Center (MRSEC). The collaborative Superseed and Seed projects will enhance the ongoing materials research of the Center and support the exploration of transformative new directions.
June 15, 2020
Calls for Seed and Superseed Proposals Funded by MRSEC
The Wisconsin Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) seeks proposals for interdisciplinary, collaborative Superseed and Seed projects.
October 21, 2019
(2019) Design Rules for Soft Materials with Integrated Natural and Synthetic Building Blocks
Bacteria communicate via molecular signals that they produce in high concentrations. Bacterial communication promotes the formation of biofilms that can be harmful to humans and costly to industry. We have shown that collections of individual bacterial signaling molecules interact in water to form soft materials (“self-assemble”) with spherical, layered, or cylindrical structures. Simulation images showing the formation of a spherical structure (“micelle”) are shown with corresponding experimental images.
June 27, 2019- More Seed posts