Sustainability, resilience, and climate adaptation motivate a huge amount of
effort in materials research. At Berkeley, MSE researchers have and continue to be world leaders in developing
materials innovations that could help address aspects of sustainability and climate change. For example,
researchers are developing polymer materials (plastics) that can be readily recycled — thinking out the lifecycle
of materials from the start. Others are developing smart coatings that take advantage of metal-to-insulator
transitions in tungsten-doped vanadium dioxide to create window glass and rooftop coatings that respond by
turning off their radiative properties — releasing more heat when it is hotter and retaining more heat when it
is cooler, thus cutting down on energy bills and usage. Others are developing the next-generation of batteries
that are more efficient, can store more energy, are made from earth-abundant, conflict-free materials, and more.
Sustainability, resilience, and adaptation are changing MSE by changing how we think about materials from the
start — it is not good enough to just to have a “good” material, but one that performs the function well, while
being recyclable, made from non-toxic materials, and more.
Visit the Materials Science & Engineering Department website.
