The science of materials is a specialized world and tends to be shut away from the general reader in grim-looking scientific papers. This is a pity because materials retain the attraction and wonder they have in their functionality and appearance. Nowadays materials science has matured as an academic discipline because of exciting new discoveries in condensed-matter sciences and the importance of materials to society. It is an interdisciplinary area of research, embracing, but not replacing, important parts of physics, chemistry and engineering. Indeed, traditionally chemists and physicists each have their own way of approaching a particular scientific question, emphasizing different aspects in their research on a common problem, often to their mutual advantage. Since 1970 the Materials Science Centre (MSC) of the University of Groningen has made a realistic effort to forge interdisciplinary grouping and to bring together materials research from different directions within the condensed-matter community spread over the departments of physics and chemistry. The aim was, and still is, to retain and respect the expertise in various disciplines in physics, chemistry and engineering, but at the same time to set the stage for making optimum use of the expertise at hand without sacrificing high quality. The Royal Academy of Art and Sciences (KNAW) of the Netherlands recognized the MSC as a leading research institute in the field of materials science.
Quite recently the MSC took another major step, which looks almost like a quantum leap, by linking our materials efforts in condensed-matter sciences with research groups in the areas of biochemistry and organic chemistry.