After what seemed like a long time to pedestrians in the Infinite Corridor, construction of the Laboratory for Advanced Materials was completed near the end of the fall semester. This lab provides shared facilities for DMSE researchers to pursue joint projects in interdisciplinary areas. The LAM’s characterization and processing equipment complements recent acquisitions in other MIT labs and centers and enables research groups to work together on new materials and processes for cross-cutting applications in challenging areas such as energy and the environment.
At the time of MIT’s move from Boston to Cambridge in 1916, department alumni funded the construction of Building 8, space that has seen many changes but is still used as DMSE labs. When first built, the mining and metallurgy labs in this corridor were equipped with blast furnaces, manually-operated ore crushers, and grinding stones; now this space features some of the most advanced materials experimentation equipment on the MIT campus, including a scanning acoustic microscope, a nearfield scanning optical microscope, a cryogenic probe station, and equipment for photolithographic patterning at the nano- and micro-scale. Architecturally, the open space encourages shared interactions, inside the lab and with the MIT community. The design of the renovated spaces allows for future technical developments, through the use of rolling benches and movable exhaust trunks and by incorporating power into ceiling tracks. The patterns set in the floor tiles depict the seventeen two-dimensional plane symmetry groups.
The LAM is funded by a generous gift from Vasilis, S.M. ’61 (Course X), Ph.D. ’66 (Course III), and Danae Salapatas. The retired managing director of Helliniki Halyvourgia, the first steel plant in Greece (started in 1938 and still one of the largest industrial plants in the country), Dr. Salapatas is an active member of the DMSE alumni community, a member of the DMSE Visiting Committee, and a generous benefactor and supporter of MIT.