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Materials Informatics – Structure and Function (MASIF) research group at NOMATEN investigates the connection between the material’s structure and properties. The data produced during the experiment and simulations are being processed with the materials informatics tools. The up to date scientific papers review  has been recently published by the MASIF group: Materials Informatics for Mechanical Deformation: A Review of Applications and Challenges (Materials 2021, 14(19), 5764). This research group is managed by Stefanos Panikolaou PhD

On February 4, 2022, the National Center for Nuclear Research (NCBJ) and Synthos Green Energy SA (SGE) signed a letter of intent on cooperation in the use of nuclear technology in industry and energy. The planned cooperation is related to the implementation by SGE of projects related to the construction of small modular light-water reactors (LW-SMR) for the production of electricity and possibly municipal heat and the construction of small modular high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGR). The latter would be oriented towards cogeneration, i. e. industrial heat generation and hydrogen production.

NOMATEN Centre of Excellence, will perform the scientific expertise in the field of materials research for Mercedes Benz Manufacturing Poland that runs the engines and batteries plant in Jawor. This research will be focused on materials issues concerning the tools for engine’s mechanical processing. Director Thomas Kaiser - production,  maintenance and facility manager at Mercedes Benz Manufacturing Poland - joined NOMATEN’s Industrial Advisors Network.

The Center of Excellence has now become an actual center, with 5 research groups in action. The second year of our existence has been one of quick growth in spite of the global pandemic crisis, which has affected research very much. The lack of international mobility and exchanges has so to speak been substituted with hard work in the offices and laboratories. For NOMATEN, this is a well-working recipe as the steps to build up a real research environment do depend on the individual and joint effort of our staff.

We should also acknowledge the institutional support of the National Center for Nuclear Research, hosting us as an operationally independent department. Likewise, the Teaming partners CEA (France) and VTT (Finland) have been – however virtual – supportive and encouraging external “team members”. The CoE is firmly backed by the funding of the Foundation for Polish Science and is under the umbrella of an International Scientific Committee headed by prof. Sergio Bertolucci.

About 50 scientists from Poland, Finland and France attended NOMATEN Winter School hosted by CEA in Paris on November 16-19. While sessions have been hosted at the venue in the centre of Paris, School's attendees visited CEA-Saclay Nuclear Centre infrastructure at the last day of the event. The topic of this year's school was "Modelling of the materials behaviour under irradiation".

NOMATEN received two crucial research devices in 2021 – the X-Ray Diffractometer and Scanning Electron Microscope that help Materials Characterization and Functional Properties of Materials groups perform their research. 

Large Data is common across materials science. Cross-correlating and understanding data from material surfaces is very important since there is typically a direct connection to physical properties. Also, it is very important to use this data to reconstruct the actual microstructure and perform simulations in a computer at the molecular or larger scale. However, understanding of Large Data requires the application of statistical and machine learning techniques. Further, simulations require efficient microstructural reconstruction techniques. Stefanos Papanikolaou's group at NOMATEN investigates such issues.

The NOMATEN group of scien­ti­sts is looking for con­fi­gu­ra­tio­nal entropy and glass trans­i­tion rela­tion­ships in high-entropy alloys (HEA) using dyna­mic simu­la­tions at the mole­cu­lar level. Dr. Rene Alva­rez-Donado pre­sen­ted some of his team’s results in Janu­ary at the web con­fe­rence „Recent advan­ces on the glass pro­blem” orga­ni­zed by the Cen­ter Euro­péen de Cal­cul Ato­mi­que et Molécu­la­ire (CECAM).