The solutions to many of today’s challenges will be found at the frontier of advanced materials research and will require collaboration across synthesis, characterization, fabrication and theory. While good ideas can be generated anywhere by anyone, scientific opportunities are often concentrated among select groups. National user facilities democratize access to world-class expertise and instrumentation, acting as innovation multipliers on the scientific enterprise.

The possibility to see, understand and manipulate materials atom by atom is transforming our ability to access frontiers in every field of science. In the early 2000s, the US Department of Energy (DOE) created the five Nanoscale Science Research Centers (NSRCs) at national laboratories across the country, including the Molecular Foundry, located at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Science at the NSRCs is driven by synergistic activities in synthesis, characterization, fabrication and theory. These centres continue to lead as major hubs of innovation and discovery thanks to collaborations with leading experts through the centres’ user programmes and access to state-of-the-art, often one-of-a-kind instrumentation.