Heterogeneities, The Mesoscale and Multifunctional Materials Codesign: Insights and Challenges

Predicting materials performance, as well as designing and discovering new multifunctional and structural materials, demand a greater understanding of how heterogeneities and novel properties emerge at the mesoscale. Similarly, advances in computation and temporal and spatially resolved in situ measurements at light sources delivering coherent X-rays using XFELs, will allow us to probe the underlying physics of collective behavior. We review broadly some of the outstanding challenges that lay ahead in bringing together theory, experiments and computation in understanding and designing multifunctional and structural materials. Exascale computation and the development of innovative information theoretic tools, within the paradigm of codesign, promise exciting developments as we bridge the gap in our understanding of the mesoscale under extreme conditions and learn to design materials with targeted properties.