Science and Innovation Capability Pillars Materials Featured 960 X 500
Eric Bauer heats a metal sample.

Materials for the Future pillar strategy

We pursue the discovery science and engineering for advanced and new materials to intentionally control functionality and predict performance to enable our missions.

  • Predictable performance: the ability to reliably and consistently forecast how a material will perform over its lifetime.
  • Controlled functionality: the actual design and tailoring of a material’s properties that were previously unattainable or not available with traditional techniques.

We predict performance and control functionality through forefront science and engineering that crosscuts three science themes:

  • Defects and Interfaces
  • Extreme Environment
  • Emergent Phenomena

Historical roots of the Materials for the Future pillar

Exploring the physics, chemistry, and metallurgy of materials has been a primary focus of Los Alamos since its founding. Our Laboratory’s proud history of advancing the science of materials includes discoveries instrumental in ending World War II.

Subsequent advances in understanding nuclear materials, developing insensitive high explosives, and creating materials for fusion reactions, radiation casings, and neutron sources have enabled a safe, reliable nuclear weapons deterrent. Los Alamos’s materials science expertise has been instrumental in keeping the world safe for more than 70 years and it will be vital for a future world with evolving and emerging threats.

Materials Organizations

Institute for Materials Science

Explosive Science and Shock Physics

Materials Physics and Applications Division

Materials Science and Technology Division

Sigma Division

Theoretical Division

Los Alamos areas of leadership in Materials for the Future