Materials
The discovery and development of new and improved materials at Georgia Tech – those that revolutionize consumer electronics, for instance – leads to wide-ranging technological advances.
Supported by both undergraduate and graduate student researchers, more than 180 Georgia Tech faculty members conduct basic and applied research to understand and develop innovative electronic and optical functional materials, high-performance aerospace and automotive materials that improve fuel economy, sustainable infrastructure materials, nanomaterials, biomaterials, materials for energy storage and harvesting, and a host of other cutting-edge materials that hold great promise for improving daily living conditions – on both a local and global scale.
Materials research at Georgia Tech attracts approximately $100 million in annual sponsored support, and interdisciplinary research teams across Georgia Tech balance synthesis and processing, materials theory and simulation, characterization, and property measurement to create, design, explore, advance, and exploit materials to address 21st century grand challenges.
A team of Georgia Tech researchers led by
Professor Walt de Heer has pioneered
techniques for fabricating electronic devices
from epitaxial graphene. The material can be
patterned using standard microelectronics
techniques. Full Story >
These interdisciplinary research teams include faculty members drawn primarily from Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering and College of Sciences. They bring diverse experience from a range of disciplines such as materials science, chemistry, chemical and biomolecular engineering, mechanical engineering, physics, electrical engineering, biology, aerospace engineering, biomedical engineering, civil and environmental engineering, industrial and systems engineering, and mathematics. Georgia Tech’s ability to combine its strengths in engineering and the sciences has solidified its reputation as a leader in materials research. Faculty from the Georgia Tech Research Institute and the College of Computing are also key contributors to Georgia Tech’s materials-driven interdisciplinary research.
Building on and enhancing its basic research strengths in the materials domain, Georgia Tech’s vision is to establish productive and mutually beneficial relationships with government and industry within the context of an innovation ecosystem that serves to translate transformative technologies into real-world applications. This vision, which aligns with federal efforts such as the Materials Genome Initiative and the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, will be further pursued with the August 2013 launch of a new Institute for Materials – an entity designed specifically to jump-start the initiatives of a materials innovation ecosystem.
