{"id":223781,"date":"2025-10-16T09:11:36","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T19:11:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=223781"},"modified":"2025-10-16T09:11:36","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T19:11:36","slug":"materials-science-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/10\/16\/materials-science-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawai\u02bbi at the cutting edge: UH<\/abbr> turns up the heat on materials science research"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
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Isabella Kotsol, a mechanical engineering PhD<\/abbr> student, performs air filtration tests to remove sulfur dioxide pollutants from the air using activated carbon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Materials science is the study and design of new materials and their properties, and it plays a crucial role in industries ranging from renewable energy and aerospace to electronics and national defense. Researchers at University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Mānoa\u2019s Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Institute of Geophysics and Planetology<\/a> (HIGP<\/abbr>) are leading new initiatives to advance materials science across the state.<\/p>\n

Materials Science Consortium for Research and Education<\/h2>\n
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Mechanical engineering graduate students Kailer Okura and Duke Vierra of the UH<\/abbr> Nanosystems Lab inspect the construction and operation of a reconfigurable open-source Jubiliee lab robot that was updated by Vierra to improve adaptability to chemical experiments.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

UH<\/abbr> Mānoa launched the Materials Science Consortium for Research and Education (MSCoRE<\/abbr>) in 2017<\/a>, with a goal of bringing together materials experts and infrastructure scattered around several colleges and departments under one group in support of education, innovation and to lay the foundation for a future materials science center at UH<\/abbr> Mānoa.<\/p>\n

Under MSCoRE<\/abbr>, UH<\/abbr> Mānoa developed a popular research experience class for undergraduates and became successful in obtaining grants to bolster its materials science program. One of its early successes was earning a U.S. Department of Energy grant to study hydrogen storage materials.<\/p>\n

Materials Research and Education Consortium<\/h2>\n

Utilizing this momentum, researchers from UH<\/abbr> Mānoa and the University of Washington (UW<\/abbr>) received a seed award from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF<\/abbr>) Partnerships for Research and Education in Materials (PREM<\/abbr>) program in 2021<\/a>. The collaboration, known as the Materials Research and Education Consortium (MRE-C<\/abbr>), is made up of seven UH<\/abbr> Mānoa faculty from HIGP<\/abbr>, Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Natural Energy Institute<\/a>, College of Engineering<\/a> and College of Social Sciences<\/a>, as well as faculty from the UW<\/abbr> Molecular Engineering Materials Center.<\/p>\n

MRE-C<\/abbr> conducts public school visits around the islands to increase student interest and participation in materials science and STEM<\/abbr>, and facilitates student exchanges at the undergraduate and graduate levels between UH<\/abbr> Mānoa and UW<\/abbr>. The grant was recently renewed by NSF<\/abbr> for a full six years at $4.2 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Institute of Materials Research<\/h2>\n
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HIMaR<\/abbr> team, from left, HIGP<\/abbr> Assistant Researcher Godwin Severa, Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Joseph Brown and HIGP<\/abbr> Researcher Przemyslaw Dera<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a testament to UH<\/abbr> Mānoa\u2019s expanding capacity and expertise in this space, the Office of Naval Research just awarded a three-year, $4.5 million grant to conduct innovative, high-risk scientific research with the potential to enhance naval capabilities and national security in the Indo-Pacific region. Together with the NSF PREM grant, UH<\/abbr> Mānoa will now have a formal structure in place with the establishment of the Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Institute of Materials Research (HIMaR<\/abbr>). HIMaR<\/abbr> will be a virtual, interdisciplinary institute of applied and fundamental research in materials science, artificial intelligence, autonomous systems and advanced manufacturing.<\/p>\n

Read more on materials science research at UH<\/abbr> in this Noelo<\/em> story<\/a>. Noelo<\/em> is UH<\/abbr>\u2019s research magazine from the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers at the Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Institute of Geophysics and Planetology are leading new initiatives to advance materials science across the state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":223782,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[179,301,182,173,170,294,1467,1363,1496,92,1026,9,947],"class_list":["post-223781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-college-of-engineering","tag-college-of-social-sciences","tag-engineering","tag-geophysics","tag-hawaii-institute-of-geophysics-and-planetology","tag-hawaii-natural-energy-institute","tag-manoa-excellence-in-research","tag-manoa-research","tag-mechanical-engineering","tag-school-of-ocean-and-earth-science-and-technology","tag-social-science","tag-uh-manoa","tag-uh-system","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t