More than 6500 people attended the 2017 Materials Research Society (MRS) Fall Meeting and Exhibit held in Boston from November 26 through December 1. The Meeting Chairs, Ilke Arslan (Argonne National Laboratory), Jason A. Burdick (University of Pennsylvania), Tao Deng (Shanghai Jiao Tong University), James B. Hannon (IBM T.J. Watson Research Center), and Sanjay Mathur (University of Cologne), organized 54 symposia and organized them into seven topical areas: Broader Impact; Biomaterials and Soft Materials; Electronics, Magnetics, and Photonics; Energy and Sustainability; Nanomaterials; Processing and Manufacturing; and Theory, Characterization, and Modeling.
To complement these sessions, tutorials were offered in several technical areas, more than 240 exhibitors were on-site, and poster sessions were held during the evenings. An international exhibit showcased products and services of interest to the materials community. In addition, several special events highlighted science outreach.
A special workshop was held on nanomaterials and their applications in honor of Professor Millie Dresselhaus for her lifelong contribution and impact to materials research. Four sessions featured carbon nanotubes, thermoelectrics, graphene and two-dimensional materials, and frontier topics.
Gold Graduate Student Awards. Top row, left to right: Longji Cui, University of Michigan; John Sypek, University of Connecticut; Susan Trolier-McKinstry, 2017 MRS President; Judith Driscoll, incoming 2018 MRS Awards Committee Co-chair; Naveen Mahenderkar, Missouri University of Science and Technology; Sirimuvva Tadepalli, Washington University in St. Louis. Bottom row, left to right: Ryan Truby, Harvard University; Yuzhang Li, Stanford University; Patrick Pietsch, ETH Zürich. Missing from photo: Michelle Sherrott, California Institute of Technology; Birgitt Stogin, The Pennsylvania State University (Arthur Nowick Award winner).
A Quantum Materials Special Session was held in conjunction with Symposium EM08—Emerging Materials for Quantum Information. It featured a panel of experts who discussed and defined quantum materials and their growing interest in regards to materials research. The panelists also discussed the tools for analysis of quantum materials and the super low temperatures required for quantum information systems. A list of sample articles in all MRS publications is posted at www.mrs.org/quantum.
Silver Graduate Student Awards. Top row, left to right: Maher Damak, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Yiping Wang, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Albert Liu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; David Frazer, University of California, Berkeley; Akinola Oyedele, University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Alex Ganose, University College London. Middle row, left to right: Yongping Fu, University of Wisconsin–Madison; Yuanwen Jiang, The University of Chicago; Wennie Wang, University of California, Santa Barbara; Grace Gu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Susan Trolier-McKinstry, 2017 MRS President; Judith Driscoll, incoming 2018 MRS Awards Committee Co-chair; Shuya Wei, Cornell University; Chen Wang, University of California, Los Angeles; Arif Abdullah, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Prashant Kumar, University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Bottom row, left to right: Hyojin Yoon, Pohang University of Science and Technology; Yu Tian, University of Delaware; Akanksha Menon, Georgia Institute of Technology; Kang Hee Ku, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology; Dennis Christensen, Technical University of Denmark; Rong Ye, University of California, Berkeley. Missing from photo: Jessica Swallow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Elizabeth Tennyson, University of Maryland.
The Public Outreach Committee featured a program on “Materials Needs for Energy Sustainability by 2050—The Role of the Circular Materials Economy.” The MRS Energy & Sustainability journal and the MRS Focus on Sustainability Subcommittee convened top experts to discuss the role of the circular economy in bringing about this vision, including related materials science challenges and socioeconomic and policy factors. The Public Outreach Committee also held an “International Summit of the MRS University Chapters on Sustainability and Nanotechnology.” It included two days of invited talks, panel discussions, and a poster session, which focused on biomedicine, catalysis, sensors, and energy harvesting, and emphasized the concept of sustainability and materials criticality.
The iMatSci Innovation Showcase exhibited technologies that have not yet been productized, but where there is a working prototype or evidence of a repeatable process. The entities behind these innovations are generally early stage and pre-revenue. Two featured panels were “Raising Capital as an Early-Stage Innovator” and “Corporate and Institutional Innovation.” Three other presentations featured “Bringing Products to Market—Intellectual Property Considerations and Strategies,” “The Engine: Venture Capital for Tough Tech,” and “Turning Stuff into Money.”
2017 Materials Research Society Fall Meeting Symposium Support
The Career Fair provided an opportunity for Meeting participants and top employers to discuss career opportunities and featured recruiters and on-site interviews, career development, resume critique and mock interviews, professional photos, and job seeker/employer networking. All services are free of charge to MRS members.
Attendees learned about MRS/OSA and MRS/TMS Congressional Fellowships during a Congressional Science and Engineering Fellowship Program Information Session. Current and former Fellows shared their experiences as scientists in the Senate and House of Representatives. Materials Voice was available on-site to gather support for sustained federal research funding through personalized letters addressed to representatives on Capitol Hill.
Award recipients at the Fall Meeting were Monica Jung de Andrade, who received the MRS 2017 Woody White Service Award, Andy Tay, who received the inaugural MRS Bulletin Postdoctoral Publication Prize, and the team of Fabien Debrot, Jean Cattin, Esteban Rucavado, and Elliot Morgan, who won first place in the Science in Video Competition.
These highlights and more from the 2017 MRS Fall Meeting are available through news coverage of the Meeting in Meeting Scene ® and on MRS TV. Further information can be accessed at www.mrs.org/fall2017.
