Partners & Facilities
Partners
Argonne National Laboratory
The partnership with Argonne National Laboratory dates back to the founding of the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, creating world-class opportunities for students and faculty. Argonne boasts leading scientists, technology, and facilities like the Advanced Photon Source, the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, and the Center for Nanoscale Materials. UChicago PME faculty, many with joint appointments at Argonne, collaborate with the lab’s researchers.
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
Fermilab has worked to answer fundamental questions and enhance our understanding of everything we see around us. As the United States' premier particle physics laboratory, they work on the world's most advanced particle accelerators and dig down to the smallest building blocks of matter. They also probe the farthest reaches of the universe, seeking out the nature of dark matter and dark energy. The University of Chicago and Universities Research Association (URA), along with industrial partners, owns a management and operating contract for Fermilab.
Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth
The Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth prepares tomorrow's leaders and workforce to see the climate challenge from its many angles and develop an understanding of what is required economically, technically, and politically to confront it.
Energy Storage Research Alliance
The Energy Storage Research Alliance (ESRA) is one of two Energy Innovation Hubs created by the U.S. Department of Energy. ESRA unites top researchers from two other national labs and 12 universities to address pressing battery challenges such as safety, high-energy density and long-duration batteries made from inexpensive, abundant materials. The achievement of ESRA’s goals will lead to high-energy batteries that never catch fire, offer days of long-duration storage, have multiple decades of life and are made from inexpensive, abundant materials.
Energy Technologies Initiative (ETI)
The Energy Technologies Initiative (ETI) is one of the pillars of the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth, which, among its efforts, is driving major advancements in energy storage technologies widely regarded as a holy grail of the energy transition. The Initiative originates at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME) as part of its ongoing work in energy and sustainability.
Energy Transition Network (ETN)
The Energy Transition Network (ETN) is a program of ETI which dedicated to the safe, quick and cost-effective transition off fossil fuels around the globe through a collaborative approach.
Facilities
Argonne National User Facilities
Argonne National Laboratory is home to five national user facilities, which enable scientific users from universities, national laboratories, industry and federal agencies to carry out experiments and pursue groundbreaking discoveries that would otherwise not be possible.
ChemMatCARS
ChemMatCARS, supported by a National Science Foundation grant, operates three experimental stations in the areas of advanced small-molecule crystallography, liquid surface and interface scattering, and small to wide-angle scattering. Located at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) on the campus of Argonne National Laboratory, ChemMatCARS’ instrumentation provides information that addresses a broad range of issues in chemistry and materials research.
Midwest Integrated Center for Computational Materials
The Midwest Integrated Center for Computational Materials (MICCoM) develops and disseminates interoperable computational tools - open source software, data, simulation templates, and validation procedures - that enable simulations and predictions of properties of materials for low-power electronics and for quantum technologies.
UChicago Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC)
The University of Chicago Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC), directed by Prof. Stuart Rowan, drives innovation by tackling some of the deepest intellectual challenges of materials research through interdisciplinary and highly collaborative efforts united with a strong commitment to education and outreach. The MRSEC offers, in addition to its intellectual talent, a range of facilities for making, characterizing, measuring, and imaging many types of materials and samples. Most facilities are headed by professional, PhD-level technical staff who maintain and improve the equipment, perform measurements, prepare samples, and train researchers.
Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
The University of Chicago's Polsky Center is a 60-person professional staff responsible for advancing all University of Chicago entrepreneurship and research commercialization innovation activities through the creation of new ventures and partnerships. By igniting a spirit of innovation and fostering connections that extend across the University, city, region and world, the Polsky Center enables more ideas to have a meaningful impact on society.
Pritzker Nanofabrication Facility
The Pritzker Nanofabrication Facility (PNF) is an ISO Class 5 cleanroom that specializes in advanced lithographic processing of hard and soft materials. The PNF is located in the Eckhardt Research Center at the University of Chicago. The PNF is also proud to partner with Northwestern University in the NSF-supported Soft and Hybrid Nanotechnology Experimental (SHyNE) resource.
Soft Matter Characterization Facility (SMCF)
This is a core user facility of the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering. Located in the William Eckhardt Research Center, the SMCF maintains a suite of specialized instruments dedicated to study the structure, properties, and dynamics of soft materials. It is open to both internal (University of Chicago and affiliates) and external users (industry and nonprofits).