Center History

A Tradition of Research and Education

by
Ashley Rindsberg, CCMR Archive Project Leader
Helene R. Schember, CCMR Associate Director

The origins of the Cornell Center for Materials Research are deeply rooted in the Interdisciplinary Laboratory (IDL) Program initiated by the U.S. government through the Defense Department in the late 1950s. The intent of the IDLs was to foster materials research and education nationwide. Because of breakthroughs in physical theories and experimental techniques, the newly emerging, cross-disciplinary field of materials science held great potential for innovative progress. In the Spring of 1959, Cornell's physics and engineering departments were contacted by the Federal Council for Science and Technology, which asked them to put together an assessment of the resources required, among other enhancement activities, to double the output of Ph.D.'s in materials-related disciplines. The assessment was the first step the U.S. government would take towards establishing the IDL Program, which was assigned to the Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) for development. Between 1959 and 1960, Profs. Robert Sproull, James Krumhansl, Henri Sack and Dale Corson in Physics and Engineering, and many others, coordinated faculty from various departments and began raising support from the Cornell administration, in hope of establishing an interdisciplinary materials science center on Cornell's campus.

On June 27, 1960, the Cornell Materials Science Center, as it was then called, became one of only three grant recipients selected in the first year of IDL funding, despite the high caliber of the other 35 candidate proposals. In the years immediately following, six more IDLs were set up by ARPA, along with several funded by the Atomic Energy Commission and NASA. Since then, the Cornell Center has undergone myriad changes, as it has constantly adapted to the changing needs of the scientific and engineering communities.

In 1970, Congress passed the Defense Appropriations Act, which banned the use of Pentagon-sourced money from funding "non-mission" related research. At this point, responsibility for the decade-long ARPA program (including the Materials Science Center at Cornell) was smoothly transferred to the National Science Foundation, which had expressed strong interest in the then-titled Materials Research Laboratories program. The relationship between Cornell's Materials Science Center and the NSF became official on July 1, 1972, and has been a long and fruitful one.

In addition to the changes of the 1970s, several key programmatic changes happened in the 1990s: First, in 1996, the NSF definition of the entire Materials Research Laboratory program was refined and renamed as the Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSEC) program; second, the total number of Centers nationwide was expanded to 29; and, finally, in 1998 order to eliminate confusion between MSC and the MS&E department while acknowledging the broadening outlook for the Center itself, current Director Emeritus Neil Ashcroft led the Materials Science Center to change its name to the Cornell Center for Materials Research.

From the early 1970s until today, the materials research center at Cornell has been a lively, growing center which is linked tightly to Cornell's departmental programs in Physics, Chemistry, Applied and Engineering Physics, Materials Science and Engineering, and other Engineering departments. Over the years, the Center has continually transformed in order to maintain itself as a robust seat of innovation and learning, not only training Ph.D.s, providing vital shared experimental facilities and conducting important research, but also educating kindergarten through undergraduate students with its educational programs. These flexible and interactive programs offer the regional community the opportunity to experience, appreciate and understand key aspects of materials research and to recognize how their lives are affected by advances in materials science. This "attractive approach" to outreach has allowed CCMR to be an incredibly effective and much sought-out resource for community learning. In parallel, the Center has also maintained and strengthened ties to industry through programs, symposia and bench-to-bench faculty collaborations.

Today, CCMR, led by Director Melissa Hines and Associate Director Helene Schember, continues to be a strong leader in materials research and education. Since 1996, CCMR has focused on investigating materials at the atomic, near-atomic and microscopic scales and is on the frontier of nanoscience research. Administratively housed in Clark Hall, but with laboratories and researchers across the campus, CCMR supports five Interdisciplinary Research Groups and eight shared experimental facilities, where faculty, postdoctoral associates, graduate students, and undergraduates continue to engage in research and training. Coupled with active programs of outreach to the community and partnerships with industry, CCMR represents a tremendous success story and remains an outstanding force in materials education and research for the future.

Acknowledgement: This summary was compiled from CCMR records and notes including key correspondence and documents written by Paul Hartman, Dale Corson and Robert Sproull. The authors wish to thank former directors Robert Silsbee, John Silcox and Neil Ashcroft as well as current director Frank DiSalvo for their contributions. Special thanks to Ivan Johnson for his many significant contributions to the archiving project and to Arne Hessenbruch of the Dibner Institute for inspiring and partially funding the archiving activity.