The National Science Foundation established the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to carry out research in the formation, characterization, and exploitation of materials at the nanoscale - the scale of individual atoms. It aims at the fundamental understanding of topics of substantial technological importance, and at the communication of this understanding to the public.

The Interdisciplinary Research Groups (IRGs) and SEED projects are built on the existing strong base of expertise at UW-Madison and collaborating industries and national laboratories. The research extends the Center's work to investigations at the crossroads of advanced inorganic materials, polymers, and biological systems, areas of rapidly increasing technological significance. A common feature of all our research is the investigation of heterogeneous interfacial phenomena from the near-atomic through macroscopic scales.