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Meeting Chairs

Message from the Chairs

The 2024 MRS Fall Meeting & Exhibit will be held at the Hynes Convention Center and the Sheraton Boston Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts, December 1 – 6, 2024. Many symposium proposals were submitted, out of which 67 exciting symposia were chosen by the Meeting Chairs for the technical program. The symposia are grouped into the following topical clusters:

Broader Impact
This cluster features two symposia. The first focuses on broadening the impact of materials research through the democratization of artificial intelligence and the second focuses on highlighting early career faculty in materials research.

Electronics, Optics and Photonics
This cluster features eight symposia that account for emerging and advanced materials for nanoelectronics, quantum electronics, neuromorphic and brain-like computing, bio-inspired information processing, optoelectronics, photonics, and plasmonics. Also included are symposia on 2D materials beyond graphene on synthesis and multifunctional applications (in two dedicated symposia), low-dimensional perovskites for light-emission devices, phase-change materials, and diamond-related systems. This cluster is intended to touch upon aspects of materials synthesis and bridge the materials to the application stage.

Materials Computing and Data Science
This cluster features four symposia that range from broader symposia that discuss AI in materials research to more focused ones that cover the impact of data science and computing on specific areas. The dynamics of defects under extreme environments and the synthesis of 2D materials have dedicated symposia. In addition, this cluster features one core symposium on how machine learning can be combined with automated and autonomous experiments and another that highlights more general AI-based workflows in materials discovery.

Processing, Manufacturing and Synthesis
This cluster features three symposia that complement the materials-focused symposia in other clusters. There is one symposium dedicated to inorganic crystallization, a symposium on additive manufacturing of multifunctional materials, and a symposium exploring opportunities for plasmas in materials science.

Soft Materials and Biomaterials
This cluster features thirteen symposia that touch on the interfaces between biology, polymers, electronics, and robotics. There are five symposia that explore the electrical properties of biomaterials and how these can be used to interface with biological materials. Four symposia discuss how functional materials can be constructed from bioinspired or bio-derived materials. There are two symposia about materials for medical applications such as regenerative medicine and theranostics. Finally, two symposia cover timely applications of soft matter as sensors/actuators and applications in harsh environments.

Characterization
The Characterization cluster features seven symposia that explore the investigation of battery science and electrochemical systems, insights on scanning probe microscopy beyond imaging, recent advancements in scanning transmission electron microscopy including cryogenic and in situ/operando techniques, and the exploration of light-matter interactions with fast, and ultra-fast optical spectroscopies.

Energy and Sustainability
This cluster features twelve symposia. Starting from more advanced materials, the topics span energy conversion and storage, light harvesting for solar cell production, photovoltaics, nuclear energy applications, electrochemical devices and systems for redox-flow batteries and electro-catalysis, and energy-efficient electronics. Attention is also paid to sustainability issues such as nuclear waste management and handling of critical materials.

Nanomaterials
The Nanomaterials cluster features seven symposia. Consideration is specifically given to the synthesis of nanomaterials, their control at the atomic level, the manipulation and functional engineering of nanomaterials towards target applications. Nanomaterials include graphene-related systems, 2D chalcogenide films, 2D layered materials and van der Waals heterostructures, nanoclusters, nano- and micro-scaled bio-inspired materials, self-assembled systems, and free-standing membranes from the 2D level up to the integration in 3D configurations.

Quantum Materials
This cluster features five symposia. The cluster is intended to touch on specific topics like the relationship between spin and chirality in halide perovskites, the role of interfaces in spintronic systems, the design and production of topological quantum materials and their technology potential (developed in two symposia), and the emerging field of molecular quantum systems.

Structural and Functional Materials
This cluster features six symposia that range from material-focused to application-focused. Specific symposia focus on topical structural materials such as bulk metallic glasses, high entropy alloys, and intermetallics. Additionally, symposia focus on applications in robotics, autonomous materials, and materials for extreme environments.

 

 

Symposium X
This symposium will feature presentations aimed at a broad audience and on topics at the forefront of research in materials science and engineering including 2D materials for frontier nanoelectronics, quantum computing systems, self-assembled materials, and topological matter.

To complement the symposia, we encourage the organization of tutorials as they provide detailed information on particularly exciting areas of research. The Exhibit will showcase products and services of interest to the scientific community.  The Meeting, Exhibit and Poster sessions will be located at the Hynes Convention Center with some technical sessions located in the Sheraton Boston Hotel.

Meeting attendees will find Boston to be a very accessible and attractive host.  A wide array of restaurants, nightlife, cultural, and sporting events are just steps away from the Convention Center and hotels. The region also offers an abundance of pre- and post-meeting touring options. It is a perfect mix of interaction, insights, inspiration, and indulgence!

We look forward to seeing you in Boston!

Sincerely,

Philippe Bergonzo, Ageeth Bol, Keith A. Brown, Alessandro Molle, and Winston Tumps Ireeta
2024 MRS Fall Meeting Chairs

 

 

Philippe BergonzoPhilippe Bergonzo 
SEKI Diamond USA

Philippe Bergonzo obtained a PhD degree from University College London in Electronic Materials in 1994. He joined SEKI Diamond USA in 2018 to promote diamond synthesis and equipment distribution, toward the promotion of diamond technology. He maintains academic visibility as a Visiting Professor at University College London (UCL).

Formerly, Bergonzo was a research director at the Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) where for more than 20 years he led one of the largest teams in Europe on diamond sensing technologies, developing a broad activity on diamond for devices and sensor fabrication, with special extents on radiation detectors as well as on diamond sensors and electrodes for neural interfacing.

Bergonza plays a very active role in the diamond community as co-organizer of many international conferences and symposia and has authored over 300 peer-reviewed journal articles with over 8,000 citations, patents and book chapters. He has proven industrial innovation skills as co-founder of four start-up companies from 2012 to 2016, including PIXIUM-Vision, which fabricates retina implants for blind people.

 

Ageeth BolAgeeth Bol
University of Michigan

Ageeth Bol is both a professor of chemistry and of material science and engineering at the University of Michigan. Her main research interests are in the areas of large-area synthesis and integration of 2D materials for electronics and catalysis. She received her MSc and PhD degrees in Chemistry from Utrecht University. After obtaining her PhD in 2001, she worked for Philips Electronics and the IBM TJ Watson Research Center in the U.S. From 2011 to 2021, she was a professor of applied physics at Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands. In 2014, Bol received a prestigious Consolidator Grant by the European Research Council (ERC), and in 2019 she accepted a vici grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). 


 

Keith Brown

Keith A. Brown
Boston University

Keith A. Brown is an associate professor of Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science & Engineering, and Physics at Boston University. The KABlab studies approaches to accelerate the development of advanced materials and structures with a focus on polymers. The group employs self-driving labs, additive manufacturing, scanning probe techniques, and machine learning to achieve these goals. Brown has co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications and six issued patents. He has received the Frontiers of Materials Award from The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS), been named a “Future Star of the AVS,” and received the Omar Farha Award for Research Leadership from Northwestern University. Brown served on the Nano Letters Early Career Advisory Board, co-organized a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Workshop on AI for Scientific Discovery, and currently leads the Materials Research Society Artificial Intelligence for Materials Development Staging Task Force. 

 

Alessandro MolleAlessandro Molle
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche

Alessandro Molle is a research director at the Institute for Microelectronics and Microsystems in the National Research Council of Italy. He earned an MSc degree in physics and a PhD degree in materials science from the University of Genoa and currently leads MSc and PhD courses at the University of Milan-Bicocca. 

Molle was guest editor of special issues in Elsevier and MDPI journals, co-editor of one book about 2D materials for nanoelectronics published by CRC press (2016) and one book about the Xenes published by Elsevier (2022), and serves as Deputy Editor of Research, an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) partner journal.

He has published more than 130 peer-reviewed publications, five book chapters, and he has given over 40 invited talks. His research interests have included nanomaterials and electronic materials in the field of semiconductor science for complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology, and his main research subject is currently on the synthesis of two-dimensional (2D) materials beyond graphene, like Xenes and transition metal dichalcogenides, and their integration in nanotechnologies with focus on nano and optoelectronics. Molle has been awarded two grants from the European Research Council (ERC) and served as a symposium organizer at Materials Research Society and European Materials Research Society meetings. 

 

Winston Tumps IreetaWinston Tumps Ireeta
Makerere University

Winston Tumps Ireeta is an associate professor of physics at the Department of Physics, School of Physical Sciences, Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. He received his BS degree in physics and mathematics from Makerere University and an MSc  degree in physics from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway. He later  received his PhD degree  in physics from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, graduating cum laude.  His research focus included optoelectics, electromaterials, optical fiber communications and materials science. Currently, Ireeta is working on thin films synthesis, characterization and fabrications with a special focus on materials sourced locally in Uganda.

He has published over 40 peer-reviewed publications and has given over 30 invited, plenary or keynote talks during his career. In December 2018, Ireeta and his colleagues organized the Joint Undertaking for an African Materials Institute in Kampala, Uganda. The school's main focus explored materials for sustainability ranging from perovskite solar cells to flow batteries and challenged a cohort of 62 African and U.S. graduate students. He is a current member of the Institute of Electronic Engineers (IEEE), Optica, and a board member of the African Materials Research Society since August 2019.

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