| NIST's
Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory
helps hundreds of companies in a thousand ways to improve existing
engineering materials or to develop new, more capable materials
that enable entirely new technologies. |
It is a truism that everything is made of materials. It follows
that if you improve the performance of materials, you will improve
the things made out of them. This is part of the vision of the
National Institute of Standards and Technology's Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory
(MSEL). The laboratory's researchers work in five different
divisions:
The scope of work in these divisions runs the gamut from dental
and medical materials to new steel alloys to ceramic
coatings for next-generation jet engines to new composite
materials that combine the best qualities of different materials
to the development of intelligent processing
methods whereby the interim condition of a material-in-the-making
is continually evaluated to enable real-time process adjustments.
And that list just scratches the surface of what is going on
within MSEL.
Moreover, the lab has ongoing collaborations with virtually
every major industry including automotive, aerospace, metals,
polymers, ceramics, glass, power, medical, biotechnology, and
electronics.
Browse through a more extensive and informative account of
the research taking place
at MSEL to get a better feel for the lab's intricate connection
to the nation's industrial sector.
In addition to the materials research and development going
on in MSEL, materials are a major research focus in NIST's Building
and Fire Research Laboratory. The development of better,
new, and advanced materials also is well represented in the
diverse research portfolio supported by the Advanced Technology Program. In fact,
two of the ATP's focused programs
are centered on materials:
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