PREM: Cal. State Univ. Long Beach and Ohio State University Partnership for Education and Research in Hard and Soft Materials

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). Non-Technical Summary

California State University Long Beach (CSULB) is a comprehensive urban university with various terminal Master’s (MS) degrees in STEM fields and a Hispanic-serving institution with underrepresented minority students making up 47% of the student body. CSULB Physics & Astronomy is one of the largest terminal MS granting departments nationally with about 50 active MS students.

The PREM partnership with Ohio State University (OSU) and OSU’s NSF MRSEC: Center for Emergent Materials will impact the matriculation of these students into PhD programs at OSU, and elsewhere, by providing structured and sustained research, mentoring, and professional development opportunities. PREM students will participate in frontier areas of materials research in magnetic, thin film, and biomaterials—the research will form the basis for MS and undergraduate thesis work.

During the award period, up to 4 CSULB students (MS and undergraduate) will be directly funded per year, with another 6-10 students at CSULB and OSU impacted indirectly through increased research and collaborative activity. Building on the track records of post-baccalaureate Bridge programs at both partner institutions, there are several pathways for CSULB PREM students to transition to graduate studies depending on their preparation and research interests.

The CSULB-OSU PREM will also provide professional development opportunities for CSULB and OSU junior faculty and postdoctoral researchers, including networking, seminar/colloquia and instructional development. The results of the PREM partnership will be disseminated in peer-reviewed journals and conferences, and to the general public via a dedicated web portal and outreach presentations to local K-12 students.

Technical Summary

Collaborative and interdisciplinary PREM research is organized around three Partnership Research Groups (PRGs) focused on cooperative phenomena in solid state, organic/inorganic, and biomaterials, with strong interdisciplinary cross-over between materials science, chemistry, mathematics, physics and aspects of biophysics in living systems. PRG-1 is focused on topological aspects of magnetism where the interplay between magnetism and geometric properties of materials supports non-trivial magnetic phases.

PRG-2 is focused on tuning magnetic properties in thin film magnetic heterostructures, comprising 2D materials with intrinsic magnetic order and molecular magnets. PRG-3 is focused on aspects of topology in biomaterials with a focus on translating mathematical theories on, e.g., knot formation to molecular structures realized utilizing DNA origami techniques.

OSU’s NSF MRSEC: Center for Emergent Materials will enhance PRG activities by directly supporting student exchange and subsidizing access to state-of-the-art OSU research facilities. PREM efforts will be guided by formative evaluation providing feedback on project implementation, and summative evaluation to assess the overall impact of the project on PREM participants.

In this way the PREM will provide, and continuously strengthen, a scaffold for students from diverse backgrounds to contribute to STEM fields of national priority and take leadership roles in the sciences.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.