PREM researchers at North Carolina A&T State University (NCAT) and the University of California at San Diego recently created thin films of titanium oxynitride (TiNO)—a material with excellent optical and light-manipulating (plasmonic) properties—using a method where a laser pulses to deposit the material in a vacuum.

2024 marked the 20^th anniversary of NSF’s PREM program. The PREM community celebrated this milestone at the NSF PREM Research Scholars Summit, held at the recent Materials Research Society meeting in Boston, Massachusetts.

Texas State University welcomed elementary and high school students for a STEM-focused field trip filled with hands-on experiments, lab tours, and campus exploration. The event aimed to inspire curiosity and a passion for science in the next generation. Image: Atkins CAST High School 12th grade group attends STEM Field Trip at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas. Photo courtesy of Tania Betancourt.

UTA research teams have recently created a new type of pH-sensitive peptide material that includes artificial amino acids with different chemical structures in their side chains. By varying the hydrophobic and ionic properties of these amino acids, these materials can be engineered to leverage pH variations across different bodily environments, spanning organ, tissue, and cellular levels. By harnessing these pH gradients, the pH-responsive peptides are expected to efficiently deliver therapeutic agents to specific tissues or even cellular compartments.

The PREM team at the University of Texas Arlington recently created a special layered material that uses different quantum states to control how electrons move. By stopping the flow of high-energy (hot) electrons and only letting low-energy (cold) electrons pass through, they achieved an electron flow with a temperature as low as 0.8 K (-272 °C). This ultra-cold electron flow can help develop new, energy-saving transistors. More details are available in the paper, "Sub-1K Cold-Electron Switching at Room Temperature," published in Nano Letters.

The PREM PEAQS center recently published a paper, “Real-time optical thickness determination for producing ultra-thin silicon membranes using anisotropic potassium hydroxide etching” in MRS Advances.

At the ongoing 2024 PREM Scholars Summit, Karen Lozano, keynote speaker at the event discussed her work as PREM PI at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

Clark Atlanta University PhD candidate Allea Campbell was looking for a place where she could network job opportunities, meet peers, and brainstorm possible applications for her research into covalent organic frameworks. So she went to CAMPS. “This seemed like a place where I can connect with other people who have different ideas that I can bring to my research,” she said. The student-led Conference Across MRSEC-PREM Schools (CAMPS) is held each year at a different university affiliated with two National Science Foundation (NSF) programs – Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSEC), which supports interdisciplinary research on materials science, and Partnerships for Research and Education in Materials (PREM), which is designed to enhance diversity in materials research and education. The NSF funds the yearly event.

Texas State University PREM Student, Dillon Gee, was recently awarded the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) Award for his presentation “Leveraging Valence of Star-like PEGs to Tune Rheology and Gelation Pathways of Dynamic Hydrogels,” based on his UT REU research. With over 6,000 attendees at the ABRCMS and 3,000 presentations, only 300 participants received awards—and Gee was one of them.

Tania Betancourt, Texas State University Director of PREM CIMA, has been selected as one of AIMBE’s 17 Inaugural Emerging Leaders for her exceptional contributions to medical and biological engineering. This recognition by the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) highlights Betancourt’s remarkable contributions to biomedical engineering and her dedication to innovation and mentorship.