Grant: Major Resources Support Program - Infrastructure

The Brockhouse Institute for Materials Research - named in honour of McMaster Professor and 1994 Nobel laureate Bertram Brockhouse - supports interdisciplinary materials-based research. The Institute was one of the first materials research centers in North America and is the largest such institute in Canada. This year it is celebrating its 40th anniversary. With over 120 faculty members from across the country, Insitute researchers are widely recognized as leaders in electron microscopy, crystal growth, polymer synthesis, processing and characterization, X-ray characterization, and materials discovery and refinement. The Institute is home to the Canadian Centre for Electron Microcsopy; home of the world's most advanced analytical electron microscopes. These are instruments not only capable of resolving physical structures down to the atomic scale, they are also capable of extracting electronic and chemical information with the same high resolution. This information is augmented by the capabilities of the McMaster Analytical X-Ray Facility, one of the most comprehensive X-Ray laboratories in North America. The Institute contributes most of the large pristine single crystals grown in Canada, and has recently invested in a new diffractometer to use the McMaster Nuclear Reactor as part of the crystal refinement process. The vision behind the Brockhouse Institute is that the very best research is always driven by the imagination of the best researchers. The objective of this Institute is to develop versatile tools at the highest level and provide the infrastructure, access and expertise that researchers from across Canada require to take full advantage of them in the pursuit of their ideas. The Institute is highly focused on student training with the perspective that the best training is direct involvement in the high-impact research at the cutting-edge of science and engineering. (see http://www.brockhouse.mcmaster.ca/)