The U.S. National Science Foundation is pushing materials science beyond the state-of-the-art with an investment of $108 million in six advanced research centers. Each center will receive $18 million over six years from the NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers program. NSF has supported such centers since the 1970s when they were called the Materials Research Labs. Renamed as the Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers in the 1990s, they are a discovery powerhouse for the U.S. “For more than fifty years, NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers have helped put America at the forefront of advanced materials discovery,” says NSF Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate Head Tie Luo.