The Materials Research Society (MRS) will hold its 2017 MRS Fall Meeting at the Hynes Convention Center and the Sheraton Boston Hotel in Boston, Mass., November 26–December 1. The Meeting will include technical programming, tutorials, an award ceremony, poster sessions, career fair, and other special activities.
MRS Meetings focus on interdisciplinary materials research worldwide. Symposium organizers from around the world have created a technical program of 54 symposia that address leading-edge research and capture the progress in materials science and technology. The symposia are organized into the following seven clusters.
Symposium clusters
The Biomaterials and Soft Materials cluster includes 12 symposia that cover a diverse range of topics, including bioinspired materials, 2D nanomaterials in health care, and biomaterials for regenerative engineering. The 2D nanomaterials area will include electronic materials and devices; nanosensors in clinical applications; biosensors in clinical applications; nanomaterials as a sensor platform; biomarker sensing; carbon-based nanomaterials in clinical applications; point-of-care devices for medical applications; and specialized sensors for pediatric, cardiology, and other diseases.
The Electronics, Magnetics, and Photonics symposia cover a broad range of advanced materials in electronic and photonic devices and their applications. Ten symposia will cover organic semiconductors, multiferroics and magnetoelectrics, oxide interfaces, diamond electronics, sensors and biotechnology, electronic and ionic dynamics at solid–liquid interfaces, and other materials.
The Energy and Sustainability cluster will focus on perovskite materials and devices, a circular materials economy, sustainable solar fuels, energy storage, nuclear materials, and silicon for photovoltaics.
The Nanomaterials symposia in-clude carbon quantum dots, anisotropic carbon nanomaterials, functional 1D nanostructures, 2D noncarbon materials and systems, and nanostructure-based optical bioprobes.
The Processing and Manufacturing cluster has roots in materials science, where processing is an essential component. The focus lies in the use of ion beams and plasmas in manufacturing, the importance of modeling in the manufacturing process, the development of sensor technology for environmental modeling, and roll-to-roll manufacturing to achieve hybrid and hierarchical structures in device applications.
The Theory, Characterization, and Modeling symposia cover multifunctional and multifrequency scanning probe microscopy, ion-beam technology and applications, mechanical behavior at the micro- and nanoscale, and design, control, and advanced characterization of functional defects in materials.
The Broader Impact cluster includes two symposia regarding materials science education partnerships and materials innovation in sustainable agriculture and industry. A panel discussion will focus on effective partnerships between community college/university/business for a seamless transition of students from lower division programs into upper division degree programs and workforce.
To complement these sessions, 11 tutorials will be offered covering a variety of topics. All tutorial sessions will be held on Sunday, November 26.
Plenary session and awards
The Plenary Session Featuring The Fred Kavli Distinguished Lectureship in Materials Science presentation will be held on Monday, November 27, at 6:30 pm, in the Sheraton Boston Hotel, Grand Ballroom. This year’s plenary speaker, James A. Warren, is the Director of the Materials Genome Program in the Material Measurement Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). NIST has framed its support for the Materials Genome Initiative around the need for a data infrastructure that enables the rapid discovery of existing data and models, the tools to assess and improve the quality of those data, and the development of new methods and metrologies based on those data.
The Awards Ceremony will convene on Wednesday, November 29, at 6:30 pm, in the Sheraton Grand Ballroom. The David Turnbull Lectureship, MRS Medal, Materials Theory Award, MRS Postdoctoral Awards, The Kavli Foundation Early Career Lectureship in Materials Science, Graduate Student Gold and Silver Awards, the Arthur Nowick Graduate Student Award, and Von Hippel Award will be presented. The inaugural MRS Bulletin Postdoctoral Publication Prize will be presented during the ceremony. For up-to-date award recipient information, please visit www.mrs.org/fall2017.
Special sessions and events
Throughout the Meeting week, a range of events and activities will honor Mildred “Millie” Dresselhaus, the “Queen of Carbon,” pioneer of nanoscience and longtime member of MRS. Featured on Monday is the daylong Special Workshop on Nanomaterials and Their Applications—In Honor of Professor Millie Dresselhaus for her life-long contribution and impact to materials research.
Symposium X talks provide Meeting attendees with an overview of leading-edge topics. Margaret Murnane, University of Colorado Boulder, will present “Capturing Nanoscale Materials Properties Using Tabletop Coherent Soft X-Ray Beams” on Monday, November 27; Younan Xia, Georgia Institute of Technology, will present “Toward Affordable and Sustainable Use of Noble-Metal Nanocrystals in Catalysis and Nanomedicine” on Tuesday, November 28; Jennifer A. Lewis, Harvard University, will address “Printing Soft Matter in Three Dimensions” on Wednesday, November 29; and Nam-Gyu Park, Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea, will discuss “History, Progress, and Perspective of Halide Perovskite Photovoltaics” on Thursday, November 30. All talks will take place from 12:15 to 1:15 pm at the Sheraton Boston Hotel.
Poster sessions, an integral feature of MRS Meetings, will be held in the evenings. The Meeting chairs will award prizes of up to $500 for the best posters during each evening session.
The Focus on Sustainability program will run seminars on incorporating sustainability into research in a comprehensive way, while considering real-world applications of these principles to product design and manufacture. The seminars are aimed at materials researchers at all career stages, from students to postdocs to faculty and industry researchers. There will also be a panel discussion “Materials Needs for Energy Sustainability by 2050: The Role of the Circular Economy” on Thursday, November 28, at 7:00 pm.
Throughout the week, Science in Videos (SciVid), a high-impact materials science video competition, will showcase finalists as they compete for recognition and prizes. Members will be asked to vote on their favorite videos from the SciVid competition finalists to determine the People’s Choice winner. A viewing station and instructions will be located at the Public Outreach Center in the The Hub—Hall D, Level 2, Hynes Convention Center, and in several locations throughout the Meeting. The SciVid award ceremony will take place on The Hub Stage, Wednesday, November 29 at 4:30 pm. For more information, visit www.mrs.org/sci-vid.
An ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) Informa-tion and Evaluator Retraining Session will be offered to anyone who wants to learn more about the process, is preparing for an upcoming accreditation visit, or wants to ask questions about how to prepare a materials department for an accreditation visit. The training session will be held on Tuesday, November 28, from 7:15 to 9:30 pm, and can be attended without registering for the Meeting. Remote access will be available if unable to attend in person. New to this Meeting, there will be an ABET Information Booth. The MRS Accreditation Subcommittee and Charles Hickman, Chief Constituent Relations Officer at ABET, will host an informational discussion about the ABET accreditation program on Monday, November 27, from 5:30 to 6:30 pm, on The Hub Stage, and are available for follow-up at the ABET Booth in the Exhibit Hall.
The National Science Foundation will provide speed coaching sessions for Meeting attendees at the Public Outreach Center on Tuesday, November 28 and Wednesday, November 29. The Division of Materials Research will be present to discuss funding opportunities, future program ideas, and sustainability.
iMatSci (Innovation in Materials Science) Innovator Showcase will be held Monday and Tuesday, November 27–28 in the The Hub. Each of the selected innovators will have space in The Hub. These finalists will present their technologies using various forms of media such as videos and prototypes. iMatSci is designed to showcase 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 will generally be early stage and pre-revenue; however, iMatSci will also consider showcasing innovative technologies that are emerging from an existing corporate entity. Visit www.mrs.org/fall-2017-imatsci for more information.
The Women in Materials Science and Engineering Breakfast will be held on Wednesday, November 29, at 7:00 am. The guest speaker will be Linda Sapochak from the National Science Foundation.
Representatives from several government agencies will present overviews of Research Funding Opportunities on Tuesday, November 28 and Thursday, November 30, at 5:30 pm. This event has been reformatted to allow MRS Meeting attendees the opportunity to meet directly with various program officers after an overview from each agency in a small group setting to allow for one-on-one interactions, questions, and comments.
The 2017 MRS Fall Meeting Career Fair will be held in The Hub, Tuesday and Wednesday, from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm. The Career Fair will provide an opportunity for Meeting participants and top employers to discuss career opportunities, and will feature recruiters and on-site interviews, career development sessions, and resume critiques and mock interviews. Students, postdocs, and seasoned professionals are all welcome.
The Research Mentor Training Workshop will be held on Sunday, November 26, from 1:00 to 4:00 pm, with a networking reception to follow, in the Sheraton Boston Hotel. Preregistration is required.
The popular Science as Art competition will be held again at this Meeting. The competition is open to all registered Meeting attendees, with entries to be on display in the Exhibit Hall at the Hynes Convention Center. Multiple first-place and second-place awards of $400 and $200, respectively, will be presented. Guidelines and deadlines for entry will be available on the 2017 MRS Fall Meeting website.
A number of other events will take place throughout the Meeting, including professional development opportunities. To stay up to date with additional events and activities, access www.mrs.org/fall2017.
For more information
Registration for the 2017 MRS Fall Meeting includes a complimentary one-year membership to MRS beginning January 1, 2018, through December 31, 2018. The deadline to preregister for the Meeting is November 10, 2017, 5:00 pm (ET). International travelers are reminded to allow ample time to obtain a visa, if necessary. For additional details about the Meeting, contact MRS Member Services, Materials Research Society, 506 Keystone Drive, Warrendale, PA 15086-7573, USA; email info@mrs.org, tel. 724-779-3003, and fax 724-779-8313. Details of various events and activities will be available via the MRS Meeting App and in the Program & Exhibit Guide available on site. The MRS website can also be accessed for updated information on confirmed talks, details of special events, information on obtaining a visa, and for preregistration: www.mrs.org/fall2017.
