Illinois Materials Research Laboratory

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Illinois Materials Research Laboratory

The Materials Research Laboratory (MRL) fosters interdisciplinary research at the forefront of materials science.

MRL brings together world-class faculty and students in condensed matter physics, materials chemistry, and materials science in a highly collaborative research environment.

06/18/2026

⚽ There's a little bit of Illinois engineering at the 2026 World Cup, and it's on the feet of players from England, Germany, and Spain.

Adidas Predator cleats, worn by some of the world's best players, now use microstructure technology developed by Illinois Grainger Engineering Prof. Bill King. The tiny pillar-shaped structures on the shoe's surface change their friction depending on how the player moves, giving them low-friction agility for quick cuts AND high-friction precision for powerful shots. In the same shoe.

Prof. King first developed the underlying technique nearly 20 years ago, originally for microelectronics applications. With funding from DARPA, the DOE, and the NSF, the research matured into a platform technology now used in healthcare and, as of this World Cup, the most advanced soccer cleats ever made.

"Athletes are always looking for advantages from their equipment, and these shoes demonstrate that microstructures can give a big one." — Prof. Bill King

And his pick to win? "I'm obviously rooting for the U.S. Men's, but if they get knocked out, I'm rooting for the shoes."

⬇️ Read the full story through the comment below ⬇️

06/09/2026

🩸 What if one injection could keep a cancer-fighting drug circulating in your body for weeks?

That's the vision behind a new Illinois research initiative led by Prof. Hua Wang of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. His team, which spans materials science, bioengineering, and veterinary medicine, has received an NIH R01 award to develop technology that tags and targets red blood cells inside the body, turning them into long-lasting carriers for drugs and imaging agents.

The applications range from cancer drug delivery to MRI and tumor imaging.

"This is an amazing team effort. I feel fortunate to have many incredible collaborators on campus who share the same passion and vision to develop innovative and impactful technologies — ultimately for the benefit of human health." — Prof. Hua Wang

⬇️ Read more in the comment below. ⬇️

06/08/2026

🖥️ Illinois researchers may have just solved one of AI's biggest hidden problems: keeping data centers cool.

Right now, a typical large data center spends about a third of its total energy, hundreds of megawatts, just on cooling. As AI workloads intensify, that number is only going up.

Illinois MRL Prof. Nenad Miljkovic's team developed a new type of liquid cooling plate made from pure copper, with fin shapes designed by a mathematical optimization algorithm and built using a precision 3D printing process called electrochemical additive manufacturing. The result outperforms commercial cooling standards by 32%, slashes the energy needed to pump coolant by 68%, and could reduce a data center's total cooling energy from 30% down to just 1.1% of total consumption.

"Cooling is the bottleneck in computer-chip design," said graduate student Behnood Bazmi. "By bridging the gap between computational design and manufacturing capability, our approach provides a pathway for more energy-efficient liquid cooling of chips and other electronics."

The study was published in Cell Reports Physical Science and covered by Interesting Engineering. Read more in the comment below. ⬇️

06/07/2026

🔬 We love this profile from the Cancer Center at Illinois! Meet Prof. Cecilia Leal!

A Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Illinois, Prof. Leal develops new materials designed to deliver therapeutic genes directly to cancer cells. Her research is driven by both scientific passion and a deeply personal connection to cancer's impact.

She grew up in rural Portugal, where her parents had access to only a 4th grade education. Today, she leads a thriving research lab and is dedicated to mentoring the next generation because, as she puts it, inspiring students is a professor's most important role.

⬇️ Read her full Q&A through the comment below ⬇️

06/05/2026

Materials PhD students Debashrita Kundu and Samyak Chordia, collaborating with Associate Professor Chris Evans and Professor Cecilia Leal, earned second place honors in the 2026 TE Sustainability Cup. The competition from TE Connectivity required students to build innovative and scalable solutions to real-world sustainability challenges in an industrial setting, focused on circularity and environmental impact.

A global university competition, the program paired university teams of two to seven students with experienced TE mentors who provide guidance throughout the competition. The winning teams received scholarships funded through TE's Sustainability Fund.

Congratulations!

06/04/2026

🌿 Could sunlight replace harsh chemicals in manufacturing? Illinois researchers are working on it.

Prof. Prashant Jain's team has demonstrated a solar-powered method for producing epoxides, chemicals used in everything from plastics to pharmaceuticals, that uses water instead of polluting peroxides. The key? Gold nanoparticle "antennas" that absorb light and use the energy to drive the reaction under mild conditions.

It's a creative, sustainable approach to a major industrial process, and a promising step toward cleaner manufacturing.

⬇️ Learn more through the comment below. ⬇️

06/03/2026

🚀 Illinois materials are orbiting the Earth aboard the International Space Station.

Professors Nancy Sottos and Ioannis Chasiotis are testing specially engineered polymers that can protect themselves from the harsh conditions of low-earth orbit, forming a glassy shield against the atomic oxygen that eats away at spacecraft over time.

Their samples have already logged 82 million miles in space. Several formulations showed dramatic reductions in erosion, and a new batch is currently up there now, due back in September.

The ultimate goal? Materials tough enough to manufacture entire spacecraft components directly in space, no rocket launch required.

⬇️Read the story through the comment below⬇️

05/29/2026

🔬 What's the right material for building a quantum computer? A quantum sensor? The quantum internet?

The answer depends on the job. Now, thanks to Illinois MatSE Assistant Professor Chris Anderson, researchers have a new tool to figure it out: a "periodic table of quantum coherence."

Anderson's research on optically active spin qubits, tiny quantum bits that interact with light, has just landed the cover of MRS Bulletin, the flagship journal of the Materials Research Society. His work maps the full landscape of materials that can host these qubits and introduces guidelines for designing better ones from scratch, including this new periodic table that tells engineers which elements to choose and which to avoid when building robust quantum systems.

It's the kind of foundational work that could shape quantum technology for decades to come.

⬇️ Read more about Anderson's research through the comment below. ⬇️

05/26/2026

🚀 Illinois is working toward a future where we don't just launch structures into space, we build them there.

The Grainger College of Engineering's DARPA-funded NOM4D program, led by Prof. Sameh Tawfick, will send a manufacturing system to the International Space Station this year to produce a carbon fiber structural component on orbit using a self-sustaining chemical process that needs no external power. If it works, it'll be the first true in-space composite manufacturing demonstration in history.

Behind that effort is SpaceMaRS, a center bringing together eight Grainger faculty to develop the materials, structures, and testing infrastructure that in-space manufacturing will ultimately require.

"We believe that Grainger Engineering is uniquely positioned to become the leader of space manufacturing." — Prof. Sameh Tawfick

⬇️Read more on this initiative in the comment below⬇️

05/21/2026

🔭 Calling all puzzle-solvers, science lovers, and anyone who wants to save the planet!

LabEscape's brand-new escape room mission, "Dark Matter Disaster," is now open to the public at the Digital Computer Lab at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign!

Your mission: a rogue asteroid is headed for Earth, knocked loose by a primordial black hole. Use quantum sensing and computing to measure it, map it, and blow it to pieces. The puzzles are challenging, the science is real, and no physics background is needed.

Created by Prof. Paul Kwiat and his students, LabEscape has been captivating and educating audiences for years. This mission is their most ambitious yet.

⬇️Book your experience and learn more in the comment below⬇️

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104 S Goodwin Avenue
Urbana, IL
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https://mrl.illinois.edu/

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