“From cutting-edge computer chips to new alloys for engines, technological advances in materials shape our current lives and drive economic growth. Our work in innovating modeling, advancing fundamental research from the perspective of computational science, and predicting materials properties by design is essential to the progress in national security, energy, nanotechnology, and biotechnology applications.”
Estela Blaisten-Barojas, PhD, director of the Computational Materials Science Center
Researchers in the Computational Materials Science Center (CMaSC) focus on the discovery, interpretation, simulation, and organization of the microscopic interactions between atoms and molecules in condensed phases of materials including biomaterials. The Center also houses the Mason Nanotechnology Initiative , which is developing new academic programs relating to technologies that affect the future of health care (especially drug delivery and in vivo imaging), quantum science, and biotechnology.
Because the ability to invent and design novel materials is important for industrial development and transformation, CMaSC scientists are working to develop new capabilities for simulating materials with innovative algorithmic methods and high-performance computing. Materials research and processing cut across almost every sector of industry, from microelectronics to polymers, from pharmaceuticals to gels, from smart materials such as thermoelectrics to nanostructures, from metals to ceramics, and from magnetic clusters to applications in the recording industry.
CMaSC’s emphasis is the development of the next generation of atomistic and quantum mechanical modeling tools for material simulation. Some subjects under study include:
For more information about CMaSC research opportunities and graduate courses , contact the director, Estela Blaisten-Barojas, and visit http://cmasc.gmu.edu/ .
Think back to your class trips to the planetarium. Remember the awe-inspiring view of all those stars and heavenly bodies projected onto the ceiling? Now imagine charting stars and celestial gases in about 40,000 nearby galaxies. That’s the responsibility facing Mason astronomer Jessica Rosenberg. She’s been creating an enormous dataset — a huge extragalactic survey — which she and her colleagues will use to help answer fundamental questions facing astronomers today. One the major...
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Shukla was one of the lead authors of the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which shared the Nobel Peace Prize with former vice president Al Gore.
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The nuclear power industry is trying to sell itself as the solution to climate change. Nuclear energy doesn’t emit carbon dioxide and produces a lot of electricity, and is therefore a fairly clean and efficient energy source.
But nuclear power plants are extremely expensive to build, and the ones currently operating are old. The waste from a nuclear reaction is highly toxic and in need of special, safe storage. Not to mention, many people shudder when they hear the term...
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