Stated succinctly, the foundation of nanoscience is to be able to control matter at the atomic scale in order to produce a material or device with a specific function. Consequently, nanoscience represents, at least in part, a natural progression for Materials Science and Engineering (MSE).

Cal MSE faculty are actively involved in a number of facets of nanoscience research including nanomechanics (Alivisatos, Chrzan, Majumdar, Morris, Ritchie), nano-biomaterials (Chrzan, Healy, Ritchie, Xu), and semiconductor nanostructures (Alivisatos, Banfield, Chrzan, Dubon, Glaeser, Haller, Majumdar, Ramesh, Salmeron, Suzuki, Weber,Wu, Xu and Yang). Select the Research Groups link at the left to explore in detail the research efforts in this area.