MIT and INL Research Collaboration

MIT Engineering and the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory launch research collaboration

The International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology today began a major new collaboration that will enrich each institution's research activities in nanoscience and nanotechnology.

The two institutions will create MIT-INL, a new education and research enterprise focusing on nanotechnology. The collaboration will create 10 senior research positions for scientists who will launch an aggressive new nanotechnology research agenda, and it will enable approximately $35 million (25 million euro) of new sponsored research with MIT in its first five years. José Rivas, director-general of INL, and Subra Suresh, dean of engineering at MIT, formalized the agreement at a signing ceremony on Saturday in Lisbon.

This is the INL's first major alliance with an American academic institution. Conceived in 2005-06, founded in 2007, built in 2008-09 and opened in 2009, INL is an international research facility located in Braga, Portugal, and is a joint project of the governments of Portugal and Spain. The MIT-INL agreement leverages the Institute's especially strong reputation in materials science, engineering, nanotechnology and biotechnology.

See the MIT News Office for the full story.

Solid-State-Thermal Energy Conversion Center led by Gang Chen will be funded at $17.5M

Objective: To create novel, solid-state materials for the conversion of sunlight and heat into
electricity.

This Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) aims to advance our fundamental scientific understanding of thermoelectric and thermo photovoltaic materials and to develop novel materials and devices to harvest energy from the sun and terrestrial heat sources. The multidisciplinary effort integrates theory and experiment to study the fundamentals of photon, phonon and charge carrier interactions in thermoelectric Synopses of the Department of Energy.

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Prof. Edwin Thomas named to AAAS

Professor Edwin Thomas named to AAAS

Professor Ned Thomas is among the 210 new Fellows and 19 new Foreign Honorary Members recently elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Established in 1780 by founders of the nation, the academy undertakes studies of complex and emerging problems. Current projects focus on science, technology and global security; social policy and American institutions; the humanities and culture; and education. The academy’s membership of scholars and practitioners from many disciplines and professions gives it a unique capacity to conduct a wide range of interdisciplinary, long-term policy research.

Since the academy’s founding, its fellows have included George Washington and Benjamin Franklin in the eighteenth century, Daniel Webster and Ralph Waldo Emerson in the nineteenth, and Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill in the twentieth. The current membership includes more than 250 Nobel laureates and more than 60 Pulitzer Prize winners.

See the MIT News Office for the full story.

Materials Day 2009

Materials for Energy was the focus of this year’s Materials Day.   New materials are playing critical roles in the development of new sources for renewable and clean energy, as well as in energy conservation.  Wide ranging activities include development of new lighting and high-efficiency photovoltaic technology; lighter, stronger, and greener materials for transportation and construction; and new materials for energy harvesting, storage, and transport.

Congratulations to our Poster Session Winners:

  • Stop-flow Lithography:  A Platform for NOvel Particle Synthesis
    Priyadarshi Panda, Chemical Engineering
    Advisor: Patrick Doyle
  • Luminescent Solar Concentrators
    Carlijn Mulder, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
    Advisor: Marc Baldo
  • "Backpack" Functionalized Living Immune Cells
    Albert Swiston, Materials Science & Engineering
    Advisor: Darrell Irvine, Robert Cohen, Michael Rubner

Download the Materials Day Opportunity Brief

Research Opportunities

New Opportunities for Research in Materials for Infrastructure and Energy Applications

The Materials Processing Center (MPC) at MIT views materials innovation as key to sustainable physical infrastructure for transportation, building, energy, and communications worldwide. This is a new area of endeavor for MPC. Already strong in research in microphotonics and microsystems, nanotechnology and biotechnology, the Center, under new director Carl Thompson, Stavros Salapatas Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, is adding new research thrusts in materials for infrastructure and materials for energy applications.

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