The Science and Technology Center has a focus on high temperature superconductivity and has an Illinois component and a component that involves the activities at Northwestern University, University of Chicago , and Argonne National Laboratory. The MRL Director, Howard K. Birnbaum oversees the general operation of the MRL, its programs and the facilities in which it operates. Along with supporting research of the faculty, students and Research Associates the MRL also operates and develops major Central Instrumentation Facilities used for materials research. These facilities are widely used by the MRL supported research programs, by research efforts supported outside the scope of the MRL throughout the University of Illinois campus, by researchers from other universities, National Laboratories and from industry. Actual costs of using the facilities by university and National Laboratory users are subsidized by the MRL while industrial users pay for the actual operating costs.
All users pay the fees from the research funds which support their research program.
Although the MRL does not hire faculty members, the laboratory does have an excellent group of professional scientists who work in the Central Facilities. These individuals have the responsibilities of teaching the instrumentation techniques to the various users of the facilities, of maintaining and improving the instruments, and of working with the research community to facilitate the carrying out and interpretation of the research in the facilities. In addition some of them carry out their own research programs generally centered on developing new instrumentation techniques. Interactions between faculty, and students are enabled and encouraged by this contiguous location of programs.