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Each year, nearly 8,000 school-age kids watch PREM researchers at the University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) deliver awe-inspiring performances: a race between two people to lift a one-ton weight, gummy bears that burst loudly into flames, giant pendulums or wrecking balls swinging dangerously close to the face, and dance—so much dance.

On April 5, TXST PREM took part in the 2025 San Marcos S.T.E.A.M. Fair. The PREM team of 13 student volunteers hosted interactive STEM activities that brought hands-on science to life for hundreds of kids and families at San Marcos High School.

In early March, Texas State University PREM CIMA took part in the 2025 MRSEC Annual Meeting & Industry Day. Fourteen TXST PREM CIMA students delivered exciting research in one-minute pitches and poster presentations—a valuable opportunity for center researchers to share their work and connect with students, postdocs, and industry professionals from both UT Austin and the Northern Arizona University PREM.

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.