Ben Wang

Florida State University is launching construction of the $17-million, 44,000-sq.-ft. building that will house FSU’s High-Performance Materials Institute, with 13 laboratories devoted to design and processing of advanced materials and systems. “Our research will benefit the aerospace, auto, defense, electronics and wind-energy industries by providing lightweight, safe, energy-efficient and cost-effective composite systems,’’ says center director Ben Wang. Meanwhile, two university researchers have received a major National Institutes of Health grant to study ways to prevent the development of scar tissue around biomedical devices such as stents.