Our Central Facilities play a major role in our Materials Center, providing crucial support to the evolving scientific and technical needs of the IRGs, most notably in our main Materials Preparation and Measurement Laboratory (http://mrsec.uchicago.edu/). Moreover, interactions that take place within these facilities often lead to the collaborative efforts between different research groups which are the hallmark of our program. From the training received, students acquire a broad interdisciplinary outlook on materials research, and this helps us transfer technical know-how from one generation of students to the next. Most of the facilities are headed by a professional staff member, and all are supervised by Materials Center faculty. Our technical staff maintains and improves the equipment, performs measurements or prepares samples, and especially, trains students, research associates, and faculty to use the equipment. Some of the major services and equipment are highlighted below. Additionally, the Materials Center provides access to specialized, affiliated facilities such as the Institute for Biophysical Dynamics nanobiology facility, scanning transmission electron microscopy and magnetic resonance imaging. In response to the needs of several of the IRGs, a number of facilities have been upgraded, reorganized, or newly established (such as the Microfluidics Facility). Additional upgrades are planned as the scientific needs of our Center evolve.