The boundaries between the present performance of materials and the requirements of device designers have for centuries been moving forward. The steps taken to draw these two together are sometimes large; more often they are small. As they occur, we find materials that are stronger, have larger magnetic moments, have higher electron mobilities, etc. Each time the property profile improves, understanding of the physical and chemical properties advances, and new engineering devices based on the improved profile are invented and developed.

The purpose of the Center for Advanced Materials (CAM) at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL) is to enhance the inter-play between advances in the property profiles of materials and advances in the chemical and physical understanding of them. For this purpose, the location of CAM can be described as ideal. The proximity of this national laboratory to the campus of the University of California at Berkeley provides an unusually rich intellectual setting for the Center. It also provides unique opportunities for the University students and faculty who conduct materials-related research. Indeed, the arrangement should be a model for similar organizations, and it represents a solid method for strengthening materials science and technology throughout the nation.

National policy in critical materials has given the national laboratories—including LBL—strong direction and incentive to collaborate with industry and the research universities. This incentive led to the establishment of CAM in order to build on the symbiosis between LBL and the University of California at Berkeley. It strives to extend this symbiosis by bringing industry into the ongoing educational process and by making its special facilities more readily available to industrial researchers.