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Call for Papers—2016 MRS Spring Meeting
The abstract submission period for the 2016 MRS Spring Meeting has been extended! Don’t miss your chance to submit your abstract. Visit www.mrs.org/spring-2016-technical-sessions today for details.
NEW Abstract Deadline: 11:59 pm (ET), Tomorrow, October 30 |
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Preregister and Save—2015 MRS Fall Meeting
Planning to attend the 2015 MRS Fall Meeting & Exhibit in Boston? Preregister now for discounted rates! After 5:00 pm (ET), November 13, registration rates will increase. Visit www.mrs.org/fall-2015-registration to preregister and save.
Preregistration Deadline: November 13, 2015 |
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Call for Nominations—New MRS Communications Lecture
The new MRS Communications Lecture recognizes excellence in materials research through work published in MRS Communications. The lead author of the chosen outstanding paper will be invited to present a lecture about the related research at the 2016 MRS Spring Meeting. Visit www.mrs.org/mrc-lecture for more information.
Nomination Deadline: November 15, 2015 |
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Online Registration Now Open—8th International Conference of the African MRS
Online registration for the 8th International Conference of the African MRS in Accra, Ghana is now open at www.mrs.org/amrs-2015-registration. Register by 5:00 pm (ET), November 20 to ensure preregistration rates!
Online Registration Deadline: November 20, 2015 |
MATERIALS NEWS
Keep up with materials research news through MRS!
Materials360 Online | RSS feed | Twitter feed
Materials in Focus
Telechelic polymers suppress jet fuel explosions
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A new polymer additive for jet fuel could make it less likely for airplanes to burst into flames after a crash, reducing fatalities. The new additive is based on telechelic polymers, which can undergo reactions through its reactive end groups, allowing them to reversibly link together. A very low concentration of the polymer added to jet fuel prevented fuel explosion in tests without affecting normal performance of the fuel, according to researchers at the California Institute of Technology. |
Stable, non-corrosive halogen-free electrolytes used in Mg batteries
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Batteries that use magnesium promise to be safer, cheaper, and have more energy-storage capacity than the lithium batteries that power today’s electric vehicles. But scientists have so far been unable to design a battery system with compatible anode, cathode, and electrolyte materials. Researchers at the Toyota Research Institute of North America have now made a practical boron-hydrogen electrolyte for magnesium batteries that does not corrode metallic components.
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Nano Focus: Quantum model predicts thermoelectric figure of merit for superlattices
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Thermoelectric devices could provide a new means for power generation by converting small thermal gradients into electricity. A proven method to increase the performance of bulk thermoelectric materials is through the incorporation of nanostructured superlattices, that is, periodic layers of two or more materials. Because layer composition, thickness, and doping affect the thermoelectric properties, a variety of parameters can be tuned to optimize device performance. |
Engineered stacks of thin films enable control of crack propagation at interfaces
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Thin films integral to semiconductor devices are becoming ever thinner as device sizes shrink in accordance with Moore’s law. With material interfaces now accounting for large fractions of device structures, understanding and characterizing interfacial properties is increasingly critical to technology development and quality control. |
Protein-mimetic polymer exhibits unique structure not seen in nature |
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Discovered five years ago, peptoid nanosheets are a type of engineered material that has the flexibility of proteins and the stability of polymers. But just what structure made these materials possible has eluded scientists—until now. |
Molecular dynamics simulations explain low ductility of magnesium
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Lighter than aluminum and titanium as well as abundant and relatively inexpensive, magnesium would seem to have a leg up in the search for new structural materials in an age where energy efficiency is increasingly important. But its low ductility limits magnesium’s formability and renders it brittle under some loading conditions. |
Bio Focus: Wound healing: Mind the gap, pull strings
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Biological tissues are marvelous examples of adaptive, self-healing materials. However, such tissues exhibit complex biochemical and mechanical behaviors that are often challenging to understand and predict. Wound healing in epithelial tissue is a multicellular remodeling process particularly relevant to health and disease states. In a recent study by an interdisciplinary team of scientists (representing 10 research institutions across six countries), key mechanistic features of epithelial wound healing have been elucidated.
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People in Focus
Goodenough and Keasling share $1 million Global Prize for Alternative Fuels
John B. Goodenough, professor at The University of Texas at Austin and inventor of the lithium-ion battery, and Jay Keasling, of the University of California, Berkeley, have been selected to share Israel’s Eric and Sheila Samson Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation in Alternative Fuels for Transportation.
Industry Focus
Can VW catch up with electric-car technology?
Why did Volkswagen resist EV technology for so long? For one thing, the engineers there have publicly questioned the EV’s green credentials on the grounds that it merely shunts emissions from the tailpipe of a car to the smokestack of a generating plant. But big companies don’t like to leave stones unturned, and VW has in fact been working on EVs. In Europe it sells the e-Golf.
 CORPORATE PARTNER—News
| Fully integrated THz system for material characterization |
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The Lake Shore Model 8501 THz system is a fully integrated platform that uses non-contact THz-frequency energy to explore phenomena in emerging electronic and magnetic materials for high-speed computing, storage, imaging and communications applications. The system includes a high-field cryostat and superconducting magnet, so spectroscopic responses of material properties can be measured across a range of temperatures and field strengths. |
The system uses uniquely designed continuous wave THz (CW-THz) emitter and detector components for measuring at 200 GHz to 1.5 THz frequencies and spectral resolution of better than 500 MHz. All THz components have been calibrated, and no special optics knowledge is required. The system’s software features an intuitive GUI and tools for automated measurement runs and real-time visualization of data. Visit MRS Fall Meeting Booth 501 or www.lakeshore.com to learn more.
Policy Focus
US initiative on high performance computing opens opportunities for materials researchers
High performance computing (HPC) is both dependent on and crucial for the advancement of materials science. The quest for ever faster and more powerful computers has been a national priority for the US since the first supercomputer was developed in the 1960s. In an effort to drive the development of the next generation of HPC in the US, the Obama Administration has just launched the National Strategic Computing Initiative (NSCI).
20 years of US nuclear stockpile stewardship fuels materials research
Twenty years ago the US National Nuclear Safety Administration (NNSA) established the Stockpile Stewardship Program (SSP) to keep the country’s few thousand nuclear weapons stockpile safe and reliable. With the end of the Cold War, President George H.W. Bush had announced that the United States would stop developing new nuclear weapons and conducting nuclear explosive tests.
China details next-gen nuclear reactor program
China, in partnership with the US Department of Energy, says it will deploy advanced nuclear reactors commercially by 2030.
For more science policy news, follow @MaterialsSciPol
OF INTEREST TO THE MATERIALS COMMUNITY
Profiles in Materials Science: Ivan K. Schuller
Through his production company Not Too Serious Labs—founded with television producer Rich Wargo—Ivan K. Schuller of the University of California, San Diego introduced his Smart Puppies series, a project supported by the Materials Research Society Foundation. In this series, a floppy-eared Labrador pup explains materials science concepts to his kitten friends, introducing supplementary animated scenes along the way. More
Solving the stiletto
Dolly Singh, a former recruiter for the private space technology company SpaceX, founded the company Thesis Couture, where she assembled an impressive team of scientists to create what many thought to be impossible: a comfortable, stylish stiletto. More
Efforts to expose students to STEM fields early help girls, minorities see their potential
When Clinique Brundidge was growing up, she didn’t need to be introduced to the fields of engineering and math. She was born into them. Ms. Brundidge’s father was an engineer at the General Motors Institute, so she grew up visiting the GM plant in Detroit. Now Tour Your Future—a program for girls ages 11 to 17—does what Ms. Brundidge’s father did for her during her childhood: It takes girls into environments where people are working in science, tech and related fields so that world becomes more familiar. More
MEETINGS UPDATE
Featured Events at the 2015 MRS Fall Meeting
Several special events will be featured at the upcoming MRS Meeting in Boston. Below are just a few highlights. For a list of all Meeting activities, visit www.mrs.org/fall-2015-activities-events. To receive daily news from the Meeting, subscribe to the Meeting Scene.
Broader Impact Tutorial BI-T1: 21st Century Tools for Accelerating Scientific Research
Sunday, November 30 | 1:30 – 5:00 pm
New to the MRS Meeting, this tutorial will present novel computational analytic methods capable of unlocking the human knowledge that’s been documented and archived in the unstructured text of hundreds of millions of scientific publications to extend scientific discovery beyond human capacity. Attendance for this and all tutorial sessions is free. Tutorial notes are available for purchase with your Meeting registration.
Materials Hackathon (MatHack)
Monday, November 30 – Tuesday, December 1
In just 24 hours, pitch your idea for new materials-related software, form a team around that idea, bring the concept to life with working code, and present the results to an esteemed panel of judges from across the materials field. Sign up by November 13 to secure a spot.
Technology Innovation Forum IX
Wednesday, December 2 | 8:30 am – 1:30 pm
Keynote Speaker: Colin Humphreys, University of Cambridge
The ninth Technology Innovation Forum, Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the International Year of Light---Approaches in Europe and America, features innovation and investor topics around materials for light emission and instrumentation. There is no charge to attend the Forum. However, non-meeting attendees are asked to first stop by Exhibit Registration to pick up a badge.
Critical Meeting Deadlines
2015 MRS Fall Meeting & Exhibit
November 29 - December 4, 2015
Boston, Massachusetts
exhibit opportunities available |
PREREGISTRATION NOW OPEN
Preregistration Deadline—November 13
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8th International Conference of the African MRS
December 7-10, 2015
Accra, Ghana
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ONLINE REGISTRATION
NOW OPEN
Online Registration Deadline
—November 20
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2016 MRS Spring Meeting & Exhibit
March 28-April 1, 2016
Phoenix, Arizona
exhibit opportunities available |
CALL FOR PAPERS
Abstract Submission Extended Deadline
—11:59 pm (ET), October 30
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74th Device Research Conference (DRC 2016)
June 19-22, 2016
Newark, Delaware
exhibit opportunities available |
SAVE THE DATE
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58th Electronic Materials Conference
(58th EMC)
June 22-24, 2016
Newark, Delaware
exhibit opportunities available |
SAVE THE DATE
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American Conference on Neutron Scattering
(ACNS 2016)
July 10-14, 2016
Long Beach, California
exhibit opportunities available |
SAVE THE DATE
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18th International Conference on Metal Organic Vapor Phase Epitaxy
(ICMOVPE-XVIII)
July 10-15, 2016
San Diego, California
exhibit opportunities available |
CALL FOR PAPERS
Abstract Submission
Deadline
—February 29, 2016
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5th International Conference on Metal-Organic Frameworks & Open Framework Compounds
(MOF 2016)
September 11-15, 2016
Long Beach, California
exhibit opportunities available |
SAVE THE DATE
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International Workshop on Nitride Semiconductors
(IWN 2016)
October 2-7, 2016
Orlando, Florida
exhibit opportunities available |
SAVE THE DATE
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PUBLICATIONS UPDATE
Critical Publications Deadlines
JUST PUBLISHED
Call for Nominations! — New MRS Communications Lecture
Nomination Deadline—November 15, 2015
Get your free Android App or iOS App for MRS Communications for full mobile access to this journal.
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Selected Theme Articles
Nanomaterials for radiation shielding
Sheila A. Thibeault, Jin Ho Kang, Godfrey Sauti, Cheol Park, Catharine C. Fay, and Glen C. King
Nanoengineered thrusters for the next giant leap in space exploration
Paulo C. Lozano, Brian L. Wardle, Padraig Moloney, and Suraj Rawal
Shape-controlled carbon nanotube architectures for thermal management in aerospace applications
Pooja Puneet, Apparao M. Rao, and Ramakrishna Podila
Society News
Preview: 2015 Materials Research Society Fall Meeting & Exhibit
Chad A. Mirkin of Northwestern University to give plenary address at 2015 MRS Fall Meeting
Book Reviews
Metals in Past Societies: A Global Perspective on Indigenous African Metallurgy
Shadreck Chirikure Reviewed by Ram Devanathan
Nanostructured Carbon Materials for Catalysis
Philippe Serp and Bruno Machado Reviewed by Walid M. Daoush
Micro and Nano Fabrication: Tools and Processes
Hans H. Gatzen, Volker Saile, and Jürg Leuthold Reviewed by Rosaria A. Puglisi
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Get your free Android App or iOS App for MRS Bulletin for full mobile access to this journal.
MRS Bulletin will present a free webinar on Engineered Nanomaterials in Aerospace Applications on Wednesday, November 4.
Advertise in MRS Bulletin.
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A selection of papers:
Optical properties of defects in nitride semiconductors
Ingo Tischer, Matthias Hocker, Benjamin Neuschl, Manfred Madel, Martin Feneberg, Martin Schirra, Manuel Frey, Manuel Knab, Pascal Maier, Thomas Wunderer, Robert A.R. Leute, Junjun Wang, Ferdinand Scholza, Johannes Biskupek, Jörg Bernhard, Ute Kaiser, Ulrich Simon, Levin Dieterle, Heiko Groiss, Erich Müller, Dagmar Gerthsen and Klaus Thonke
Grain growth resistant nanocrystalline zirconia by targeting
zero grain boundary energies
Sanchita Dey, Chi-Hsiu Chang, Mingming Gong, Feng Liu and Ricardo H.R. Castro
Cation and vacancy disorder in U1−yNd y O2.00−x alloys
Rozaliya I. Barabash, Stewart L. Voit, Dilpuneet S. Aidhy, Seung Min Lee, Travis W. Knight, David J. Sprouster and Lynne E. Ecker
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From Volume 1712 , 2014 MRS Spring Meeting, Symposium ZZ/AAA/BBB – Recent Advances in the Structural Characterization of Materials
Fabrication of Coaxial and Triaxial Atomic Force Microscope Imaging Probes
Keith A. Brown and Robert M. Westervelt
In situ coupling of atomic force microscopy and sub-micrometer focused X-ray techniques
Thomas W. Cornelius, Zhe Ren, Francesca Mastropietro, Simon Langlais, Anton Davydok, Marie-Ingrid Richard, Maxime Dupraz, Marc Verdier, Guillaume Beutier, Peter Boesecke and Olivier Thomas
From Volume 1717, 2014 MRS Fall Meeting, Symposium A – Organic Bioelectronics
Artificial Physical and Chemical Awareness (Proprioception) from Polymeric Motors
T.F. Otero and J.G. Martínez |
SCIENCE AS ART
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Magic Ball
by Guangjie Zhang, University of Science and Technology Beijing.
Scanning electron microscopy image of a vanadium-doped ZnO microsphere in situ grown in the bacterial cellulose nanofiber networks.
A finalist in the Science as Art competition at the 2015 MRS Spring Meeting
Copyright for all Science as Art images belongs to the Materials Research Society. To request permission to re-use the images, please contact Anita Miller. |
EDITOR'S CHOICE VIDEO
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Artificial skin sends pressure sensation to brain cell
A plastic skin-like material has been created that can detect pressure and deliver a Morse code-like signal directly to a living brain cell. The work takes a big step toward adding a sense of touch to prosthetic limbs.
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CAREER CENTRAL
Partial listing of classified ads from the upcoming November 2015 issue of MRS Bulletin
Auburn University
Faculty Position, Experimental Condensed Matter Physics
Iowa State University
Assistant Professor, Materials Science & Engineering
National Taiwan University
Faculty Positions, Center for Condensed Matter Sciences
North Carolina State University
Faculty Positions, Materials Science & Engineering
Pennsylvania State University
Tenure-Track Professor, Polymer Science & Engineering
Texas A&M University
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Materials Science & Engineering
U.S. Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration
Stewardship Science Graduate Fellowship
University at Buffalo, SUNY
Faculty Positions, Department of Materials Design & Innovation
University of Central Florida
Faculty Position, Nanoscience Technology Center
University of Florida
Tenure-Track Position, Department of Materials Science & Engineering
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
Faculty Positions, Materials Science & Engineering
University of Michigan
Faculty Positions, Materials Science & Engineering
University of Michigan
Center Manager and Instrument Scientist, Center for Materials Characterization
University of Minnesota
Faculty Position, Chemical Engineering & Materials Science
University of Pennsylvania
Faculty Positions, Materials Science & Engineering
Virginia Tech
Faculty Search, Materials Science & Engineering
NEW PRODUCTS FOCUS
Temperature Profile Tool for Automated Temperature Mapping
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k-Space Associates, Inc. recently announced the release of the kSA Scanning Pyro, an in-situ tool designed to measure temperature variations across Veeco K465i wafer carriers. MOCVD fabs generally perform spot temperature measurements on wafer carriers to help tune the heater zones in an attempt to achieve uniform temperature profiles. Making use of the K465i’s slit viewport, the kSA Scanning Pyro utilizes a custom dual pyrometer to acquire a complete, high resolution carrier temperature map in a single scan. The tool can easily be adapted to other MOCVD tools, including the Aixtron G4 and G5, and the Veeco EPIK700.
Contact: [email protected] or 734-426-7977 |
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New Software Feature for AFMs |
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Oxford Instruments Asylum Instruments has released a new GetStarted™ feature on Asylum Research AFMs which makes imaging easier and more productive while maintaining all the benefits of tapping mode. Researchers sometimes struggle to get good images using atomic force microscopy (AFM) because of the complexity of optimizing imaging parameters. The new GetStarted feature on Oxford Instruments Asylum Research AFMs eliminates this challenge, making AFM operation much simpler and more productive, ensuring high quality data from the very first scan line.
[email protected] or 888-472-2795 |
To suggest items for inclusion in Industry News and New Products Focus, please contact
Mary Kaufold at 724-779-2755.
ABOUT MATERIALS360®
Materials360 is edited by Judy Meiksin, News Editor, and produced by Joe Yzquierdo, Electronic Communications Assistant, Materials Research Society.
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This e-mail may be forwarded to anyone interested. We welcome reproduction of the content of this e-mail electronically or in print with
credit and acknowledgement of MRS as follows:
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© Materials Research Society, 2015. All rights reserved. |
