The following timeline has been constructed to show the importance of the LRSM in academic, interdisciplinary, materials research over more than half a century. It’s genesis is to be found in the USSR’s launch of the first space vehicle, Sputnick, in 1957, which put the USA behind in the race into space. Essential to this race was the development and understanding of new materials and so the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, DARPA, an arm of the Department of Defense, issued an RFP for interdisciplinary materials research early in 1960. The University was one of three successful grant recipients, along with Cornell and Northwestern, and thus the LRSM was created in 1960. This timeline illustrates some of the most important advances made in materials research at Penn over the last 60 years of continuous funding, first by DARPA and, after 1973. by the NSF. Foremost among these has been the award of 5 Nobel prizes to our faculty and former students with, hopefully, more to come. Research within the LRSM has led to advances in many areas of materials, ranging from amorphous metals to quasicrystals, conducting polymers, nanomaterials, and, more recently, the unique field of topological insulators.
LRSM Directors
Under ARPA Funding, designated a Materials Research Laboratory, MRL.
1960 July 1-Sept. 15, Norman Hixon, Engineering, Temporary Director (Deceased)
1960-66, John N. Hobstetter, MSE
1966-69, Louis A. Girifalco, MSE
1969-71, Eugene R. Nixon, Chemistry
1971-2, Charles D. Graham, Interim, MSE
NSF Funding
1972-77, Donald N. Langenberg, Physics
1977-82, Alan J. Heeger, Physics
1982-6, David White, Chemistry
1986-89, Gregory C. Farrington, MSE
1989-92, E. Ward Plummer, Physics
1992-2009, Michael L. Klein, Chemistry
2009-, Arjun Yodh, Physics
LRSM members elected to the National Academies
Materials Science and Engineering (originally Metallurgy)
Charles McMahon, NAE 1980
Doris Kuhlmann Wilsdorf, NAE 1994
Vaclev Vitek, NAE 2006
Dawn Bonnell, NAE 2013
David Srolovitz, NAE 2015
Christopher Murray, NAE 2018
Physics
Robert Schrieffer, Nobel Prize, 1972
Eli Burstein, NAS 1979
Doug Scalapino, NAS 1991
Paul Steinhardt, NAS 1998
Alan Heeger, NAE 2002, Nobel Prize, 2000
Tom Lubensky, NAS 2002
Paul Chaiken, NAS, 2004
Ward Plummer, NAS 2006
David Weitz, NAS 2010, NAE, 2016
Charles Kane, NAS 2014
Andrea Liu, NAS 2016
Gene Mele, NAS, 2019
Chemistry
David Chandler, NAS 1995
Ahmed Zewail (student of Robin Hochstrasser) Nobel Prize 1999
Alan MacDiarmid, Nobel Prize 2000, FRS 2003
Hideki Shirakawa, Nobel Prize 2000Michael Klein, FRS 2003, NAS 2009
Timothy Swager, NAS 2008
Marsha Lester, NAS, 2016
Christopher Murray, NAE 2018
Chemical Engineering
Eduardo Glandt NAE 1996
Ray Gorte, NAE 2018
John A. Quinn, NAE 1978
Bioengineering
Dennis Discher, NAE 2012
Biochemistry and Biophysics
Bill DeGrado, NAS 1999
Timeline
Sputnik launched
USSR launches Sputnik, first vehicle in space. USA lags in Space research requiring advances in materials.
DARPA (DoD)
Call for proposals for Materials Research Laboratories.
Profs. Burstein, Physics, Maddin, Metallurgy, Hughes, Chemistry, Hixson, Engineering, chair, win grant; one of only 3 awarded (others to Cornell and Northwestern) and the Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter, LRSM, for interdisciplinary materials research was established.
Advances in Chemistry
John Bockris, Studies in electrochemistry e.g. ‘On structure of charged interfaces ‘Proc. Roy. Soc. 274 1359 55 (1963)
1962-64 LRSM Building Erected
Delaware Valley Announcer Article
Advances in Metallurgy
Charles McMahon, MSE, Embrittlement studies in iron e.g. ‘Initiation of cleavage in polycrystalline iron, Acta Met. 13, 6 591 (1965)
Advances in Physics
Robert Schrieffer, Physics, Superconductivity e.g. Relation Between Anderson and Kondo Hamiltonians By: Schrieffer, Jr; Wolff, Pa Physical Review Volume: 149 Issue: 2 Pages: 491-+ Published: 1966
Advances in Chemistry
Robin Hochstrasser, Chemistry, studies in electronic spectroscopy e.g. ‘Electronic spectrum of single crystals of ferricytochrome-C’ J. Chem. Phys.46 7 2533 (1967)
Advances in Metallurgy
Campbell Laird, MSE, Fatigue studies in metals, e.g. ‘Cyclic stress-strain response of fcc metals and alloys Acta Met. 25, 10 1621 (1967)
Advances in Physics
Alan Heeger, Physics, phase transitions e.g. ‘Mechanism for first-order magnetic transition in Fehr system’ J. Appl. Phys. 40 3 1368 (1969)
Advances in Metallurgy
Robert Maddin, MSE, studies on metallic glasses, e.g. “A Method of Producing Solidified Filamentary Castings,” Transactions of the Metallurgical Society of AIME, 245 (1969), pp. 2475–2476.
Advances in Physics
Don Langenberg, Physics, Superconductivity e.g. Determination Of E/H, Using Macroscopic Quantum Phase Coherence in Superconductors – Implications for Quantum Electrodynamics and Fundamental Physical Constants Reviews Of Modern Physics Volume: 41 Issue: 3 Pages: 375-+ Published: 1969
Advances in Chemistry
Jerry Donohue, Chemistry, studies in x-ray diffraction e.g. ‘On N-H…S Hydrogen Bonds Journal of Molecular Biology Volume: 45 Issue: 2 Pages: 231-& Published: 1969
Advances in Physics
Eli Burstein, Physics, Raman scattering e.g. ‘Theory of first-order Raman Scattering in Insulators’ PHYSICAL REVIEW Volume: 188 Issue: 3 Pages: 1465-& Published: 1969
Seminal Work on Conducting Polymers
1970s
Seminal work by Alan Heeger, Physics, and Alan MacDiarmid, Chemistry, on conducting polymers: polyacetylene, polyaniline, etc..
Bob Schrieffer, Nobel Prize in Physics
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1972 was awarded jointly to John Bardeen, Leon Neil Cooper and John Robert Schrieffer “for their jointly developed theory of superconductivity“.
National Science Foundation
Funding of Materials Research Labs (MRL) taken over by the National Science Foundation
MSE
The Department of Metallurgy became Materials Science and Engineering.
Liebermann and Graham
Howard Liebermann and Charles Graham, MSE, developed a new method of manufacturing thin ribbons of amorphous metal on a supercooled fast-spinning wheel.[4] This was an alloy of iron, nickel, phosphorus and boron. The material, known as Metglas, was commercialized in the early 1980s and is used for low-loss power distribution transformers (Amorphous metal transformer). Metglas-2605 is composed of 80% iron and 20% boron, has Curie temperature of 373 °C and a room temperature saturation magnetization of 1.56 teslas.[5]
‘Giant’ Discovery
Eli Burstein, Physics, Discovery of ‘Giant’ Raman Scattering at Surfaces
Advances in Metallurgy
Solomon Pollack and Edward Korostoff, MSE pioneering bioengineering studies on dental materials leading to the establishment of the department of Bioengineering.
Quasicrystals: A New Class of Ordered Structures
Paul Steinhardt, Physics, identifies and patents ‘quasicrystals’
paper: “Quasicrystals: A New Class of Ordered Structures“
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Steinhardt#/media/File:Icosahedrite_Diffraction_Pattern.jpg
1990’s C60 & Carbon Nanotubes
Jack Fischer, MSE, Amos Smith, Chemistry, Charlie Johnson, Physics, Gene Mele, Charles Kane, et al, extensive interdisciplinary studies on C60 (Fullerenes) and carbon nanotubes.
MRLs End, MRSECs Begin
MRLs designated Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers, NSF-MRSECs
Ahmed Zewail, Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Ahmed Zewail was awarded the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for his studies of the transition states of chemical reactions using femtosecond spectroscopy”.
He was a graduate student in chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. His adviser was Robin M. Hochstrasser, and was a student member of the LRSM from 1970-75.
Alan Heeger, Alan MacDiarmid, & Hideki Shirakawa win Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Alan Jay Heeger, Professor of Physics, University of Pennsylvania, 1962-82, Director of the LRSM.
Alan Graham MacDiarmid, Professor of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, 1956-2007, Member of the LRSM
Hideki Shirakawa, Post-doctoral Fellow, Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania , with Alan MacDiarmid, 1976-79. Member of the LRSM.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2000 was awarded jointly to Alan J. Heeger, Alan G. MacDiarmid and Hideki Shirakawa “for the discovery and development of conductive polymers”.
Topological Insulators
Gene Mele and Charles Kane, Physics, predicted the ‘Quantum Spin Hall Effect’ and established the field of ‘Topological Insulators.’
The Krishna P. Singh Center for Nanotechnology
Continued Funding
The Penn MRSEC is funded for another 6 years (2017-2023, $22.6 Million), marking continuous funding of the LRSM for 63 years – starting in 1960!
Breakthrough Prize in Physics
Gene Mele and Charles Kane, Physics, win the Breakthrough Prize in Physics for their pioneering work on ‘Topological Insulators.’