DMR News Blast

A newsletter from the Division of Materials Research  |  February 2024

Dear Colleagues,

It was a busy January in DMR with two highly successful webinars: the first highlighted the new PREM solicitation and the second provided an overview of the DMR Ceramics Program. We hope you will join us later this week for our February Open Hour on supplements with an emphasis on the MPS-High Supplement to broaden participation of high-school students from groups traditionally underrepresented and underserved in STEM.

In this newsletter you will find updates from our Division, highlights from our community, and open funding opportunities of special interest. I would like to draw your attention particularly to the Partnerships for Research and Education in Materials Research (PREM) solicitation, the Future of Semiconductors (FuSe2) solicitation, and the Expanding Capacity in Quantum Information Science and Engineering (ExpandQISE) solicitation.

Thank you for working with us to advance materials research and the benefits it provides to our communities.

Germano Iannacchione
Division Director
NSF Division of Materials Research

📅 Upcoming events

Friday, February 16 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern | Virtual
DMR Open Hour: Supplements and MPS-High Q&A
Join Germano Iannacchione, director of NSF's Division of Materials Research, and DMR Program Directors for our monthly office hour and Q&A session.

March 3-8 | Minneapolis, MN
American Physical Society (APS) March Meeting
DMR Program Directors and staff will be available in the job fair area of the conference expo hall to answer questions and provide opportunities for one-on-one speed coaching.

On March 5 at 7:15 p.m. Central, join DMR Program Director Andy Lovinger for a Q&A Session on Polymers and Soft Matter Funding at NSF in Room 101DE.

March 17-21 | New Orleans, LA and Hybrid
American Chemical Society (ACS) Spring Meeting
DMR Program Directors and staff will be available in the expo hall throughout the conference to answer questions and provide opportunities for one-on-one speed coaching.

🔬 Updates from around the Division

📰 News from our awardees

Strong light-matter interactions enhance the intrinsic properties of two-dimensional magnetic materials

Vinod Menon and his team at CUNY City College have shown that strong light-matter interactions caused by light trapping enhance the intrinsic properties of two-dimensional magnetic materials. The resulting quasiparticles called polaritons exhibit the characteristics of the intertwined electronic, magnetic and photonic states, and modify the sensitivity and response of bulk crystals of CrSBr to magnetic fields.

Ceramic-based materials offer new possibilities as electrostrictors

Anatoly Frenkel (Stony Brook University) and collaborator Igor Lubomirsky (Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel) are exploring the use of ceramic-based materials as efficient and lead-free electrostrictors in sensors and electronic devices. The team has recently published their findings in Nature Communications. Read more about the work in the associated Stony Brook University press release. In other exciting news from Professor Frenkel’s lab, Sophie D’Halleweyn, a high-school student mentored by Professor Frenkel, has been named a finalist in this year’s Regeneron Science Talent Search.

Stabilizing Au(II) in a mixed-valence 3D halide perovskite

Hema Karunadasa and her group at Stanford University have been able to synthesize the mixed valent Au(II)/Au(III) material at room temperature using common reagents with the Au(II) oxidation state remaining stable over the period of many months. A unique aspect of this Au(II)/Au(III) halide perovskite includes the presence of uncompensated spin moments at the Au(II) site. This rather simple synthetic method towards harnessing the elusive Au(II) in a solid material should pave the way towards studying the fundamental physics of Au(II). Read more about Professor Karunadasa’s work in the associated Stanford press release.

Fabricating nanoscale metallic composites and nanoporous metals through solid-state metal dealloying Yu-chen Karen Chen-Wiegart and her group at Stony Brook University have recently had their work on solid-state metal dealloying featured on the cover of Advanced Materials Interfaces.

Deriving renewable energy from iron powder

Yiannis Levendis, Hameed Metghalchi, and Randall Erb of Northeastern University are pursuing iron powder as an abundant carbon-free circular energy source.

The Navajo Technical University electrochemistry research lab recognized

The Electrochemical Society recently highlighted the electrochemistry research lab at Navajo Technical University (NTU) under the leadership of PREM PI Dr. Soundappan. NTU has a four-year Bachelor of Science program in Chemistry, making it the first and the only tribal university to offer a comprehensive four-year BS in Chemistry.

JUAMI Winter School inspires a new generation of scientists

In June 2023, the Joint Undertaking for an African Materials Institute (JUAMI) hosted its fourth materials research winter school in Nairobi, Kenya. Previous winter schools were held in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda. The two-week program brought together a diverse group of young scientists from around the world to study and work together on problems related to materials research for sustainable energy technologies. Learn more about JUAMI.

Opinions, findings or recommendations of NSF awardees or their institutions do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

📢 National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource Pilot

Launched in January, the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) is a vision for a shared national research infrastructure for responsible discovery and innovation in AI.

The NAIRR pilot is being launched and led by the U.S. National Science Foundation in partnership with ten other federal agencies and many non-governmental partners. The pilot makes available an array of computational, data, software, model, training and user support resources to the U.S. research and education community with the aims of demonstrating and investigating all aspects of the NAIRR vision. 

The NAIRR Dear Colleague Letter (NSF 24-051) includes background information on the NAIRR and a Request for Information seeking input on research and education focuses for the NAIRR. Responses are due by March 8, 2024.

The NAIRR pilot offers several initial opportunities for researchers, educators, and students: 

Survey on Researcher and Educator Use Cases for the NAIRR

This survey/request for information will be instrumental in helping to shape the NAIRR pilot effort towards an eventual full-scale NAIRR. We welcome responses from individuals and groups in all research and education domains including researchers, educators, students, post-docs and others involved in the public and private U.S. research enterprise. Direct link to the survey.

Initial NAIRR pilot call for allocations to high performance computing resources 

NSF and the Department of Energy are collaborating to provide a first NAIRR pilot opportunity for allocations to a set of advanced computing GPU systems and testbeds. This initial call emphasizes interest in computational research projects from US-based researchers focused on Safe, Secure and Trustworthy AI, and will secondarily consider proposals in areas aligned with the NAIRR pilot goals including healthcare, environment and infrastructure sustainability, and AI education as well as projects in other areas of AI research and domain applications. The deadline for the first round of requests for computation resources is March 1, 2024. Learn more and apply.

Available NAIRR pilot resources 

The NAIRR pilot is making available AI-related resources contributed by our partners, such as AI-ready datasets, pre-trained models, analytic platforms, and software. An initial set of these resources is available as of the January launch of the pilot, with many more to be added in the coming weeks and months. See the list of resources.

Additional Information

• NAIRR pilot webpage
• NAIRR pilot portal

Questions about the NAIRR pilot can be sent to nairr_pilot@nsf.gov.

💡 Funding opportunities

🧩 DMR staff changes

DMR wishes to thank Sylvio May, Professor and Chair of the North Dakota State University Department of Physics, for his outstanding service as a rotator in the Condensed Matter and Materials Theory Program. CMMT Program Director Daryl Hess says, “I will miss Sylvio now that he is back at NDSU. Through his dedicated service to NSF and the community and his teamwork, Sylvio strengthened CMMT, particularly in soft matter and polymeric materials.” Program Director Serdar Ogut adds, “Sylvio exemplifies the two most important characteristics of a great program director: Integrity and hard work. But he also has the greatest gift of combining them with a most pleasant and warm personality. He is already being missed.” Thank you, Sylvio!

The Division also wishes to welcome Robert Hoy of the University of South Florida Department of Physics. Rob will be keeping up the fine tradition of rotator service with the CMMT team. Welcome, Rob!

DMR Programs

Biomaterials (BMAT)

Nitsa Rosenzweig
Dan Savin

Ceramics (CER)

Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb

Condensed Matter and Materials Theory (CMMT)

Daryl Hess
Robert Hoy
Serdar Ogut

Condensed Matter Physics (CMP)

Mun Chan
Tomasz Durakiewicz
Elizabeth Mann

Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF)

Mohsen Asle Zaeem
Eugenia Kharlampieva
John Schlueter

Electronic and Photonic Materials (EPM)

Yaroslav Koshka
Paul Lane

Metal and Metallic Nanostructures (MMN)

Jonathan Madison

Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSEC)

Cosima Boswell-Koller
Miriam Deutsch

National Facilities (NaFI)

Cosima Boswell-Koller
Souleymane Omar Diallo
Leonard Spinu
Guebre X Tessema
Charles Ying

Polymers (POL)

Andrew Lovinger

Partnerships for Research and Education in Materials (PREM)

Debasis Majumdar
Shadi Mamaghani

Solid-State and Materials Chemistry (SSMC)

Robert Meulenberg
Birgit Schwenzer

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