The Advanced Concepts Laboratory’s research in materials is focused on the enhancement of transport and mechanical properties through the synthesis of hierarchical, often biologically inspired materials systems, with a focus on manufacturing. These efforts have led to wide array of applications, including high temperature acoustically absorptive microchanneled structures, reticulated metal foams with tailored permeability for microscale evaporative cooling, diamond-metal matrix composite thermal shims, glass-matrix nanocomposite scintillators for gamma-ray spectroscopy, magnetic nanocomposite, micropatterned dielectrics and biologically inspired reversible attachment systems. In support of these activities, ACL maintains versatile and extensive materials processing, fabrication and characterization capabilities.