About MRS

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• MRS Mission, Vision and Values
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• Governance
• Elections
  • 2011 MRS Elections
    • Orlando Auciello (Argonne National Laboratory)
    • Lynn A. Boatner (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
    • Shenda M. Baker (Synedgen, Inc. and Harvey Mudd College)
    • Li-Chyong Chen (National Taiwan University)
    • Chang-Beom Eom (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
    • Eric Garfunkel (Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey)
    • Young-Chang Joo (Seoul National University)
    • Kalpana S. Katti (North Dakota State University (NDSU))
    • David P. Norton (University of Florida)
    • Francesco Priolo (University of Catania, Italy)
    • Ainissa G. Ramirez (Yale University)
    • Stephen K. Streiffer (Argonne National Laboratory)
• Annual Reports

Francesco Priolo (University of Catania, Italy)

Francesco Priolo - University of Catania, Italy

Francesco Priolo is a Professor of Semiconductor Physics at the University of Catania (Italy) and the Director of the Center of Materials & Technologies for Information, Communication and Solar Energy (MATIS) within CNR-IMM, Italy. He received his master’s degree in physics in 1985 and a PhD in physics of materials in 1989. In this period he performed research at Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill (NJ) (1987-1988) and worked as a consultant for STMicroelectronics before joining the University of Catania, where he is currently Rector’s Delegate for International Relationships and a member of the Academic Senate. He is a Co-Editor of Applied Physics A: Materials Science and Processing (Springer), a member of the Editorial Board of Applied Physics Reviews (American Institute of Physics) and a member of the Materials Science and Engineering Expert Committee (MatSEEC) of the European Science Foundation.

His involvement with MRS started early in his career. In 1988 he was awarded the MRS Graduate Student Award during the Fall Meeting in Boston for his contributions to ion-beam-induced phase transitions in silicon. Francesco has organized various MRS Symposia (Nanocrystalline Semiconductor Materials and Devices, Boston 2002 - New Materials for Microphotonics, San Francisco 2004), has been an author for an MRS Bulletin issue dedicated to silicon-based optoelectronics (1998) and has served on the MRS Materials News Task Force in 2009. He has been deeply involved with the European Materials Research Society (E-MRS), having organized several symposia over the years in Strasbourg (1996, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2004), and having served as Meeting Chair, member of the Executive Committee and most recently as President of E-MRS for the period 2009-2011.

Francesco’s main research interests include electronic materials, ion-beam and laser processing, photonics, nanostructures and nanotechnologies in semiconductors. He is an author of over 300 papers in international journals, author of several reviews, author of one book, and editor of ten books. He holds three patents and is a frequent invited speaker at international conferences (over 80 invited talks). He holds a Hirsch h-index of 41 and his publications count overall more than 8,000 citations.

Candidate’s Statement  

“Since its foundation, the Materials Research Society has steadily grown to its current size with the exciting and stimulating Fall and Spring Meetings, which represent the worldwide scene of the state-of-the-art in materials science and engineering. Indeed, since my first MRS meeting 25 years ago, it has always been a great pleasure to come back to Boston or to San Francisco, and one of the highlights in my professional life. I always return home full of strength and new ideas! Communication with the international materials science community has been crucial for MRS, creating a huge impact by means of several different communication platforms comprised of the well-established and authoritative MRS Bulletin, the Journal of Materials Research, Proceedings, Materials360, and the new MRS Communications.

In my opinion the success of MRS is particularly linked to the strong involvement and dedication of high quality volunteers from different parts of the world bringing in their expertise. In addition the interdisciplinary and global aspects of materials science have induced MRS to strongly interact and partner with several different societies in joint projects. These partnerships have brought important results for the materials science community at large. Among others, I’d like to cite the Materials World Summit series held in Europe (2007), China
(2009) and USA (2011), which is setting the reference point for the materials role in our energy future.

Within this exciting scenario I think I can bring to the Board my personal experience as a scientist, my international perspective from overseas, and my enthusiasm towards new challenges. I think that collaboration and respect throughout the world is the key to solve technological as well as socio-economical problems. Renewable energy, human health, communication technologies, sustainable environmental practises, sustainable development, just to cite a few examples, all need solutions with new materials at the core. As MRS we can play a crucial role in promoting solutions towards many of the global Grand Challenges that our world is facing today. I think that collaborating at the international level towards common goals in materials science and engineering is the key to enhance our impact as a scientific community through proper international advocacy. I would be extremely honoured to serve on the MRS Board of Directors and help in the challenges we have ahead.”