The modern field of materials science evolved from a humble beginning, nearly three million years ago, when humans first fashioned rough implements of stone, wood, and bone.

In the millennia since, an ever-accelerating process of discovery has advanced the field of materials science from its modest origins to the modern emergence of highly specialized substances born from our deepening understanding of material properties at the level of molecules and atoms.

Equipped with sophisticated imaging technologies that allow construction and synthesis on the minute scale of the nanometer, today’s materials scientists are at work devising increasingly smaller tools and devices, faster micro processors, stronger and lighter materials, and more-efficient and less-polluting energy systems.

The results of this research have influenced nearly every aspect of our lives, from the clothes we wear to the cars we drive, from the sporting goods we use to the technologies that enable space exploration, from our computers and other digital devices to the materials used to build our homes and roadways. All have benefitted directly and substantially from the work of materials scientists.

JIAM Research Areas

JIAM Research Affiliates focus their efforts on three broad classes of materials:

• Advanced Structural Materials
• Soft and Hybrid Materials
• Functional Materials and Devices

Within each of these material classes, there three cross-cutting research themes:

• Advanced Materials Characterization
• Materials for Energy Applications
• Theory, Simulation and Modeling