Princeton Center for Complex Materials

Princeton Center for Complex Materials
Name	Princeton Center for Complex Materials
Established	1985
Location	Princeton, New Jersey, United States
Affiliation	Princeton University
Director	Andrea Young

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Princeton Center for Complex Materials

The Princeton Center for Complex Materials is a research center at Princeton University that coordinates experimental and theoretical studies of emergent phenomena in synthetic and natural materials. The center interfaces with national facilities such as the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, and National Institute of Standards and Technology while collaborating with institutions including Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and Bell Labs. Its programs span condensed matter topics linked to discoveries at laboratories like Los Alamos National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, and Brookhaven National Laboratory.

History

Founded in the mid-1980s, the center grew out of cross-disciplinary initiatives led by faculty from Princeton University departments and programs including Princeton Materials Institute, Department of Physics, and Department of Chemistry. Early partnerships involved investigators associated with awards such as the National Medal of Science and prizes won by researchers connected to centers at Rutgers University and Columbia University. The center expanded through cooperative grants from the National Science Foundation and programmatic links to user facilities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and synchrotron sources like Advanced Photon Source. Over decades the center hosted symposia featuring scholars from California Institute of Technology, University of California, Berkeley, Yale University, University of Chicago, and ETH Zurich.

The center’s mission emphasizes discovery of novel phases and control of complex matter, aligning with priorities of funding agencies including the Office of Science and Technology Policy and initiatives modeled on programs at Simons Foundation and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Research focuses include correlated electron systems explored in contexts similar to work at IBM Research, topological materials paralleling studies at Microsoft Research and Tokyo Institute of Technology, and quantum materials connected to efforts at Quantum Information Science Centers and Perimeter Institute. The agenda integrates experimental techniques developed at National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, theory frameworks from Institute for Advanced Study, and computational approaches associated with Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory collaborations.

Governance is provided through a director, an executive committee, and faculty associates drawn from Princeton University schools such as School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Graduate School. Leadership historically includes investigators with appointments tied to lab groups recognized by awards from American Physical Society, Materials Research Society, and American Chemical Society. Advisory roles involve external scientists from Cornell University, Imperial College London, University of Oxford, ETH Zurich, and national laboratories including Sandia National Laboratories.

The center coordinates access to instrumentation housed in campus facilities and linked user labs, drawing on technologies similar to those at Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, Diamond Light Source, and European Synchrotron Radiation Facility. Core capabilities include transmission electron microscopes comparable to models used at National Center for Electron Microscopy, scanning probe microscopes akin to those at IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, and cleanrooms following standards implemented at MIT.nano. Specialized equipment supports spectroscopy methods developed in collaboration with groups at University of California, Santa Barbara, Columbia University, and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Ongoing projects investigate moiré heterostructures inspired by discoveries from teams at University of Manchester and University of California, Berkeley, unconventional superconductivity with ties to studies at Saclay Nuclear Research Centre and Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, and spintronic systems building on work at Seagate Technology and Hitachi. Multidisciplinary collaborations include partnerships with industrial labs such as Intel, Samsung, and Toyota Research Institute, and academic consortia with Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Flatiron Institute, and the Kavli Institute. Grant partnerships have been awarded by programs operated by National Institutes of Health, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the National Science Foundation.

The center organizes graduate and postdoctoral training programs coordinated with Princeton University departments and professional development activities modeled on workshops held at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Outreach includes public lectures and seminar series featuring speakers affiliated with Nobel Prize laureates, recipients of the Buckley Prize, and fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Student engagement spans undergraduate research experiences linked to programs at REU sites and summer internships coordinated with companies like Google and Microsoft.

Faculty and researchers associated with the center have received honors from societies such as the National Academy of Sciences, American Physical Society, Royal Society, and the European Research Council. Scientific outcomes have influenced technologies commercialized by startups related to spintronics and quantum computing startups and informed policy discussions at agencies including the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy. The center’s work is cited in high-impact journals that include Nature, Science, Physical Review Letters, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Category:Princeton University research centers