Materials World Network: Cooperative Activity in Materials Research between US Investigators and their Counterparts in Chile

University Of Chicago, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

A group of materials researchers at the University of Chicago will continue collaborative research with counterparts at the Universidad de Chile and the Universidad de Santiago. The core activity of this ?Chicago-Chile Materials Collaboration" is to provide ten-week internships for six selected Chilean students each year at the U. of Chicago, and for a like number of University of Chicago students at the Chilean universities. The project also sponsors visits by faculty in both directions. The research centers on the consequences of strong deformation in soft materials. This project enhances existing tandem research efforts in granular motion under vibration and collision. It extends collaboration on buckling of liquid-supported molecular films engendered under the previous grant. It further investigates a broad spectrum of problems, including the interaction between foci of curvature in a crumpled sheet, the stochastic nature of abrupt stress relaxation events in crumpled sheets and in magnets, puzzling kinetic growth patterns resembling Laplacian growth in molecular films and in drying suspensions, anomalies in the collective motion in confined colloidal suspensions and in sedimenting suspensions, the storage and transport of magnetization information in disordered magnets, the connection between molecular events and organized crawling motion in eucaryotic cells. Despite the manifest excellence of the Chilean partners' research and the excellent academic preparation and motivation of the Chilean students, these faculty and students are under-represented on the scientific scene. This pool of under-recognized talent represents a major opportunity. The Chicago researchers benefit by tapping this talent pool. Chicago student participants benefit by experiencing the creative scientific culture of the Chilean partners. During the first grant period, these internships made a major impact on many of the students' careers. As in the last funding cycle, the experience of working on current research problems with leaders in this research is expected to trigger a new level of performance and activity in these students. The program is also expected to spawn new collaborations between senior researchers at the partner institutions, as in the past funding cycle.