As we turn our calendars to the new year, we’re also turning the page to an exciting new chapter for the Materials Research Society (MRS) Spring Meeting.
Since 1990, the MRS Spring Meeting has been held in two locations—San Francisco and Phoenix. The move from San Francisco in 2016 was made primarily in response to a strong desire of most members to experience the meeting in a single venue. The Phoenix Convention Center offers an excellent solution—a state-of-the-art conference infrastructure large enough to allow networking and enable experiments in programming, all under one roof.
Yet, with time, we have learned that change is needed. The Society has spent considerable time and effort over the past two years conducting surveys and initiating strategic planning that will shape our future—planning focused on the evolving needs of members, meeting-date and location assessments (convenience matters!), and Spring and Fall Meeting content differentiation—to name just a few. Based on input from many of you, we have emerged with a renewed emphasis on creating meetings that are vibrant, responsive, and inclusive. We also heard from you that we should more proactively differentiate the content at the MRS Spring and Fall Meetings. While retaining core content, we’re working hard to nimbly capture new, late-breaking topics (e.g., quantum materials, artificial intelligence, and synthetic biology) so that the work most germane to our field is featured in a timely manner. Ultimately, the goal is to engage members of the materials community across all generations to advance their careers and promote materials research and innovation.
As we finalized meeting locations that can contribute to these strategies, we are pleased to announce a rotation of the MRS Spring Meeting among US West Coast venues and feature dates that do not always follow the Easter holiday.
* Meeting dates follow Easter.
Seattle and San Francisco are located in technology corridors with a high concentration of industry and innovation. They provide opportunities to increase international engagement, and Honolulu provides particularly good access for our attendees from Asia. The cities are located in diverse, metropolitan areas—premier destinations for arts, entertainment, and leisure activities. And rotating our meetings among these venues will foster regional attendance and engagement that is broadly inclusive of students.
In the meantime, we are excited to continue our association with Phoenix for the 2019 and 2020 MRS Spring Meetings. The city and convention center have been, and continue to be, excellent partners with MRS. The state-of-the-art Phoenix Convention Center provides a great venue for our technical sessions, posters, exhibits, and other MRS events and resources to coexist. And, of course, you can count on the exceptional weather and climate to enjoy the stunning natural beauty of the Southwest, including great outdoor activities such as biking, hiking, golfing, and more (after the Meeting)!
We hope you’ll plan to join us this year, and every year, for the MRS Spring Meeting. There is no better way to stay connected to your community.
Michael R. Fitzsimmons
