A potentially huge class of similar chemical activities remains to be investigated. Manipulating and inventing chemical processes is a science whose time has come, says Kochi. This is materials science. When you get down to the fundamental level of understanding, then you can build up. Today's scientists have computers that can make the immense calculations needed to evaluate millions of bits of data.
Lasers can measure unimaginably small things and incredibly brief events.
The ranks include much-awarded physicists, chemists, and engineers who conduct interdisciplinary materials science research. Wayne Rabalais of chemistry studies surface structure and properties of materials. Dan Luss of chemical engineering works on processing ceramic materials, and Su-Su Wang directs the Composites Engineering and Applications Center. It's a multidisciplinary center, created to provide focused research and educational opportunities in advanced oxides. Currently it includes 14 faculty members from physics, chemistry, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and chemical engineering.