Composition, temperature and pressure are the main knobs to turn in synthesizing, characterizing, and using new materials. Though the geologic and planetary science communities have embraced pressure as a natural and necessary variable, it has been underutilized in materials research.  FORCE, the Facility for Open Research in a Compressed Environment, is a new initiative and laboratory at ASU, housing unique multianvil equipment and research. FORCE enables synthesis of relatively large samples over a wide pressure – temperature range   and combines both experimental and computational studies relevant to structure, bonding, and phase transitions. It is a user facility for the broad scientific community. FORCE and its capabilities will be described and several examples of current materials   research linking high pressure, thermochemistry, and important functional materials will be presented. Specifically, rare earth monoxides, metastable at ambient conditions, have been investigated, while current work focuses on sulfides, selenides, tellurides and arsenides.