About MRS

• History
• MRS Mission, Vision and Values
• Contact Us
• 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

Ainissa G. Ramirez (Yale University)

Ainissa G. Ramirez, Yale University

Ainissa Ramirez is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Yale University. Prior to joining the faculty at Yale, she was a member of technical staff at Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies in Murray Hill, NJ. At Bell Labs, she developed a universal solder (a reactive solder that bonds to oxides) for which she was awarded MIT’s Technology Review TR100 award in 2003. She later founded a company, Adhera Technologies, based on this invention. She received her PhD and MS from Stanford University and her ScB from Brown University, all in materials science and engineering.

Ramirez became active in MRS while a graduate student. A Graduate Student Award Finalist in 1998, she organized a workshop on “MEMS Materials Issues” in 2002. She joined the MRS’s Public Outreach Committee in 2001 and advised the development of the Strange Matter museum exhibit and the Making Stuff television series. She has served as a science advisor for both projects and has written the popular Demoworks, a materials science classroom demonstration guide, which has been downloaded over 100,000 times since 2005. At Yale, she is the founding director of an award-winning science lecture series for kids called, Science Saturdays (www.sciencesaturdays.org).  She has also served as a lead science advisor to NSF’s Nanoscience Informal Science Education Network (NISE Net) since 2005. Her informal activities within MRS also include working in science policy, science outreach, and with groups to increase diversity.

Her future projects within MRS include the development of a symposium that increases the professional development of researchers to increase their skills as communicators, science educators, science policy advocates, grant writers, and entrepreneurs. She is also exploring how Web 2.0 tools and mobile technology can be applied to communicate research and teach material science concepts to students.
Ramirez’s current research focuses on the crystallization and phase transformations of shape memory thin films, which are actuation materials for MEMS. Additionally, her research group has developed a formalism to advance crystallization theory to predict grain size. She has also developed a magnetically-responsive solder to help promote 3D manufacturing. Her prior research pursuits include: the characterization of amorphous materials, in situ heating transmission electron microscopy studies, carbon nanotube synthesis, nanoindentation of thin films, and combinatorial methods for thin film alloy discovery. She has authored more than 45 technical papers and holds nine patents. Her research has been awarded the Sloan Research Fellowship, the NSF CAREER award, and the MIT MLK visiting professorship.
Candidate’s Statement  

“The Materials Research Society has been extremely important to my professional growth; as such I would be honored to serve on the Board of Directors to help it enrich the lives of others.

For nearly 40 years, the Materials Research Society has served as a vehicle to exchange ideas for the materials community. The world has changed significantly from its modest founding days in 1973, however. Ideas can spread as fast as the speed of light. Our world problems (of energy, water, and health) have grown in complexity and are global. Additionally, the US science literacy rate has dropped and the inclusion of under-represented groups in the sciences has not grown as we had hoped. Fortunately, many of these global issues can be solved by materials research and its forward-thinking
community. Our planet is at a critical tipping point and MRS has the tools and expertise to make our world a better place.

MRS has a great opportunity to lead in this most interesting of times. The mission of the Materials Research Society is ‘to improve the quality of life by providing venues of communication which promote the advancement of interdisciplinary materials research.’ My role on the board is to help the society achieve its mission. I would be humbled to help MRS grow into a society that will be unmatched to its first 40 years.

As a board member, I would work to:

• Support activities to promote membership recruitment and retention; design a portfolio of activities tailored to our varied and diverse members; and develop professional development activities for all career stages.
• Enhance scientific communication; create programs and adopt new tools to promote better engagement with other scientific colleagues, policymakers, government agencies, private funders, the media, and the general public.
• Support K-12 education initiatives to support and nurture future materials researchers as well as develop programs to increase the science literacy of the general public.
• Promote entrepreneurial education for all members at various career stages and occupations.
• Promote communication and collaboration between scientists and researchers by employing social networking and web technologies.

These are very exciting times where we—the MRS community—can make significant change. Let’s make the world a better place together.”