Subject Award · Physical Sciences & Engineering · 2026
The ten finalist universities are the ten highest-ranked on the Materials Science collaboration index, listed here alphabetically until the full index publishes on 15 September. Each finalist is represented by an academic whose recent work exemplifies why: a real project, drawn from the open scholarly record, cited so you can check it.
The finalists
Three-dimensional capillary ratchet-induced liquid directional steering
Liquid on a surface is usually thought to spread wherever surface energy dictates, largely regardless of the liquid itself. This work shows that three-dimensional capillary ratchets can steer liquids of differing surface tension in chosen directions by creating an asymmetric spreading profile both along and out of the surface plane, with self-propulsion and high flow velocity as useful accompaniments.
Bioplastics for a circular economy
Plastics made from biological sources promise a way out of a linear take, make and dispose economy. This work considers bioplastics in the context of a circular economy, examining what such materials would need to deliver for that promise to hold and where the idea currently stands.
Nanomaterials are usually made with harsh chemistry, but plants and microbes can do much of the work instead. This review surveys green synthesis, in which microorganisms, plant extracts or proteins act as reducing and capping agents, and covers recent developments alongside applications reported in agrochemicals, food, drug delivery, cosmetics, cellular imaging and biomedicine.
Waste can be a starting material rather than a disposal problem. The work makes tunable fluorescent carbon dots from biowaste and puts them to two uses: as a fluorescence ink, and as a label for imaging both normal and cancerous human cells.
Optical devices that respond differently to left- and right-handed light are useful, but tuning their strength and sharpness at once has been difficult. Using bound states in the continuum and deliberately symmetry-reduced meta-atoms, the team demonstrates chiral metasurfaces with very high quality factors and near-perfect circular dichroism, tunable by changing either the structure's in-plane symmetry or the angle of illumination.
X-ray-activated persistent luminescence nanomaterials for NIR-II imaging
Imaging deep inside the body works best in the near-infrared, where tissue is most transparent. The work develops nanomaterials that store energy from X-rays and then glow persistently in the second near-infrared window, an approach that separates the moment of excitation from the moment of imaging.
As 5G devices multiply, so does the need to keep electromagnetic interference in check. This review gathers recent progress in flexible shielding materials, explains the mechanisms by which they work, considers what a green measure of shielding performance should look like, and summarises strategies for building several functions into one lightweight material.
Ultrahigh energy storage in high-entropy ceramic capacitors with polymorphic relaxor phase
Multilayer ceramic capacitors are critical components in electrical and electronic systems, but combining high energy density with high efficiency has been a major challenge. Applying a high-entropy design to lead-free barium titanate ceramics with a polymorphic relaxor phase, the team achieved an energy density of 20.8 joules per cubic centimetre at 97.5 per cent efficiency, an approach they suggest could apply universally to high-performance dielectrics.
Gaussian Process Regression for Materials and Molecules
Machine learning has changed how atoms are simulated, and Gaussian process regression is one of its workhorses. This review introduces the method for materials science and chemistry, focusing on how interatomic potentials are built within the Gaussian Approximation Potential framework, how reference data are generated and represented, and how such data-driven models should be validated.
Catalysts rarely stay exactly as they were made: their surfaces rearrange while they work. Rather than treating that restructuring as damage to be endured, the work redirects it in a layered transition metal oxide, showing how a catalyst's own transformation can be steered towards markedly better water oxidation.
Exclusive to partners
Partners verify their data, feature their academics, and are eligible for the Subject Awards. Finalists are identified from open data; winners are decided by our editorial team and announced on 15 September 2026.
Explore partnership →The wider slate
Harvesting waste heat with flexible Bi2Te3 thermoelectric thin film
The <i>CCP</i>4 suite: integrative software for macromolecular crystallography
Ultrahigh specific strength in a magnesium alloy strengthened by spinodal decomposition
The <i>CCP</i>4 suite: integrative software for macromolecular crystallography
Graphene oxide for photonics, electronics and optoelectronics
Friction of Ti<sub>3</sub>C<sub>2</sub>T<sub><i>x</i></sub> MXenes
Multi-heterojunctioned plastics with high thermoelectric figure of merit
Developing fibrillated cellulose as a sustainable technological material