Day 2: Monday, November 26

DAY 2
Monday, November 26, 2007

PLENARY SESSION

The plenary session in the evening was the most important event of the day at the conference. Current MRS President Dr. Alan Hurd (Los Alamos National Lab) welcomed all attendees to the session and to the 2007 Fall Meeting. He presented a brief overview of the Society and indicated the stated goal of 25,000 members by 2015. He suggested that MRS is growing into a medium-sized Society from a small one. He also mentioned the advocacy activities in Washington D.C. and the search for a new Executive Director.

Hurd then introduced the MRS officers and members of the governing committee. Prof. Peter Green (Univ. Michigan), past MRS president, recognized the meeting chairs of the present meeting, Duane Dimos (Sandia National Laboratories), Mary Galvin (Air Products and Chemicals Inc.), David Mooney (Harvard University) and Konrad Samwer (University of Göttingen, Germany), who were present plaques by President Hurd. Next, Green recognized the 2007 Volume Organizers of the MRS Bulletin, Thomas F. Keuch (University of Cambridge), Thomas E. Mallouk (Pennsylvania State University), Julia A. Nucci (Cornell University) and Richard A. Register (Princeton University).

  
  2007 MRS Fall Meeting Chairs

The vice-preseident and 2008 president of MRS, Prof. Cynthia Volkert, introduced the current MRS/OSA congressional fellow, Alicia Jackson, who is currently associated with the United States Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Dr. Dave Ginley, secretary of MRS, announced the newest University MRS Chapters at the University of Connecticut and the University of Maryland. Their representative came on stage and accepted the charters.

  
  2007-2008 MRS/OSA Congressional Fellow,
  Alicia Jackson (r)

Hurd then announced the winner of the 2007 MRS Woody Award, Prof. Ron Gibala of the University of Michigan. He described Gibala's significant contributions to MRS activities and his involvement in a range of volunteer activities.

  
  Ron Gibala (l) receiving the Woody award

Finally, Hurd introduced the plenary speaker Prof. Steven Chu, Nobel Laureate in Physics and currently Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Chu then presented his lecture to a completely packed room on "The World's Energy Problem and What We Can Do About It". Energy is a one of the major focus topics at the current MRS Fall Meeting and this presentation was very appropriate in that context. There is no doubt we have an energy crisis on our hands, said Chu. The potential effects of this could be devastating, including water shortages, population displacements due to rising sea levels, reduced productivity of farms, forests and fisheries etc. One example that this is already a problem is indicated by the Tibetan glacier in the Himalayas that serves the water needs of 1/3rd the population of the world, which is shrinking by ~1.2 m/yr. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which was recently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize had several tipping points that were not included in the projections, including the release of vast quantities of trapped methane and carbon dioxide in frozen tundra due to warming of polar regions, resulting in greatly accelerated melting of the Greenland ice sheet and a 7 m rise in sea levels if the entire ice sheet were to melt. This could displace 140 million people from Bangladesh alone due to flooding of coastal areas.

  
  Plenary speaker Nobelist
  Steven Chu

Chu discussed the energy consumptions of countries today as well as CO₂ emissions. He suggested a two-pronged strategy to solve the energy problem, maximize energy efficiency and minimizeenergy use as well as develop new sources of clean energy. He suggested that government regulations would be better in this case rather than the free market. In particular, a world-wide pricing on carbon must be established. He ran through various options for energy sources available now and indicated which are relevant from a materials view-point and amenable to solutions by the materials research community. An interesting example is the use of high voltage DC for long range electricity transmissions which will be more efficient and most robust. This requires better solid-state high-power electronics and better insulating materials for cables. He also presented examples of work being conducted at the Lawrence Berkeley Lab in this context of better energy materials. Finally, Chu indicated that US federal R&D is critical and we need a boost in funding similar to that seen for the Apollo program. He attempted to predict future energy trends via different fuels and methods. He said that he was optimistic at humankind's future and "..the world can and will prevail over this great energy challenge."

KAVLI LECTURE

   
   Sir Harold Kroto (right) receiving the
   Fred Kavli Distinguished Lectureship in
   Nanoscience from MRS President Al Hurd

The Kavli Foundation has established the Fred Kavli Distinguished Lectureship in Nanoscience and has chosen the MRS Fall Meeting as the venue for the first lectureship. Sir Harold Kroto, winner of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, was recognized as the inaugural Fred Kavli Distinguished Lectureship in Nanoscience. Kroto of the Florida State University gave an outstanding talk covering a broad swath of topics but with a central message. He devoted his lecture on “Nanoscience, Society and Sustainability” to remind scientists of the responsibility to think and question. Kroto described, again and again, the scientific methodology based on doubt and questioning in order to emphasize improvements made in the developed world based on this philosophy against the backdrop of various societies trying to return to a mystical belief system. Kroto pointed out the fact that 26,000 nuclear weapons exist in the world. To counter global division based on religion and nationality, he endeavors to create “global citizenship” by educating children together, across the world, with help of the Internet. Kroto is engaged in the Global Educational Outreach for Science Engineering and Technology initiative (www.geoset.info) based at Florida State University, which is a project in which developers are further extending the capability of the Internet to help teachers in any part of the world. At a time when science, engineering, and technology have advanced to the extent that children require a microscope to observe the workings of, for example, a digital watch, GEOSET offers teachers access to teaching materials packaged for direct use in the classroom. Kroto presented a video demonstration of one of the modules as well as a film of his participation in a buckyball workshop for children in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. (The Kavli Foundation supports scientific research, honors scientific achievement, and promotes public understanding of scientists and their work. Its particular focuses are astrophysics, nanoscience, and neuroscience.

POSTER AWARD WINNERS

  
C5.1 In situ TEM Study on the Formation Process of Iron Silicide Nanoparticles on Si Substrate. Jonghan Won , Andras Kovacs, Manabu Ishimaru and Yoshihiko Hirotsu; The Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research (ISIR), Osaka University, Ibaraki, Osaka, Japan.

  
II5.8 Alcohol CVD Synthesis of Flow-Aligned SWCNTs. Limin Huang, Zhang Jia and Stephen O'Brien ; Applied Physics, Columbia University, New York, New York.

  
PP3.19 Synthesis of Cu-In-S Fluorescent Nanocrystals. Kousuke Watanabe 1, Masato Uehara 2, Hiroyuki Nakamura 2 and Hideaki Maeda 1,2,3 ; 1 Department of Molecular and Material Sciences, Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Engineering Sciences, Kyushu University, Kasuga, Fukuoka Pref., Japan; 2 National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tosu, Saga, Japan; 3 JST, CREST, 4-1-8 Hon-chou, Kawaguchi, Saitama, Japan.

TECHNICAL TALKS

Symposium B: Nanoscale Phenomena in Functional Materials by Scanning Probe Microscopy
Tracing Forces Between Individual Atoms by Atomic Force Microscopy
The first paper describing the development of an atomic force microscope, published in 1986 by Quate, Binnig and Gerber, is one of the most cited papers currently. Franz J. Giessibl of the University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany, started with this and then described the tracing of forces between individual atoms by atomic force microscopy (AFM) in his talk in symposium B. He described how frequency modulation results in a small amplitude of the AFM tip yielding subatomic resolution and the use of quartz to develop a stiff cantilever. The qPlus sensor is an implementation of a self-sensing cantilever based on a quartz tuning fork and can be used at room and low temperatures. The tip is clearly very important for AFM. In order to use force to move an adsorbed atom on the surface, it turns out that the lateral force is the most important parameter, unlike on the macroscale. Tip preparation is a major challenge in AFM, more so than in the scanning tunneling microscope (STM). Giessibl described in situ tip preparation by inducing cleaving of the tip material.

Molecular Manipulation and Energy Transfer by STM
For molecules adsorbed on substrates such as metals or semiconductors, vibrational excitation is possible using the STM allowing for single molecule vibrational spectroscopy. Inelastic electron tunneling is used allowing for manipulation of the molecules. The vibrational spectrum of a single molecule provides useful information not only for the chemical identification of the molecule but also for investigating how molecular vibration can couple with the relevant dynamical processes. Kawai described the example of an isolated acetylene molecule on a surface as well as electrode bridging two atoms. Action spectroscopy is the method to clarify vibrational modes of single molecules at surfaces, which can in turn be used to identify unknown species on surfaces. She described the process of molecular hopping. When the tip is at the center of the molecule, the hopping direction is random. If the tip is off center, depending on whether this is repulsive or attractive, the hopping direction can be controlled.

Symposium T: Materials Innovations for Next-Generation Nuclear Energy
Introduction
Symposium T will focus on the development of materials for extreme radiation and high temperature environments. Clearly, the materials science challenges associated with development of fusion and Gen IV fission reactors are daunting, but given recent advances in materials science and the computational tools now available, it is realistic to anticipate that new materials can be developed to perform reliably and safely in these extreme environments. After all, many materials used in current reactor systems were developed before the advent of materials science!

From Bytes to Ingots: Design of Structural Materials for Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems
“Science isn’t an enemy of fast,” said Steven J. Zinkle of Oak Ridge National Labs in his talk in Symposium T on nuclear energy. It is possible to have “fast” and “good.” Modern materials science now has the tools to develop and optimize materials in a way that wasn’t possible when nuclear reactors were first coming on line decades ago, and computer modeling gives the power to accelerate the process. And this is going to be needed. The temperatures and radiation doses in nuclear reactors require materials resistant to radiation hardening and embrittlement, phase instability, irradiation, creep, volumetric swelling, and high temperature helium embrittlement. A goal is to widen the temperature operating window. While it took 40 years to achieve a 55°C improvement, “we have to do better than that now", he said. The combination of modeling through molecular dynamics simulations and an understanding of materials structure and properties is making it possible to design optimal materials in a couple of years rather than decades. Two strategies for radiation resistance are starting with amorphous materials or introducing a high density of nanoscale recombination centers. Also face-centered cubic materials can develop large sessile clusters from the radiation displacement cascade, while base-centered cubic materials generally have smaller, more mobile clusters. While introduction of nanoscale features can double radiation resistance in some stainless steels, going to a bcc chromium steel does much better. Zinkle gave several examples of how improved steels for fission and fusion reactors can be developed by such techniques.

Symposium OO: Solids at the Biological Interface
Neuroscience on a Chip
Albert Folch of the University of Washington, Seattle, described the use of micrifluidics for modulating the microenvironment of single cells, and obtaining cellular data at high throughput for a small cost. Microwells can be formed on substrates and these can be used to culture cells for further growth and study. Folch's focus is neuroscience for which such microfluidic devices are ideally suited. He described the study of neuromuscular synaptogenesis (formation of synapses) on a chip. Myotubes were formed within channels and the presence of agrin was investigated. The role of agrin is under investigation currently. Studies showed that agrin stabilizes acetylcholine receptors (AChR) clusters. Folch also discussed axon growth in embryonic neurons and the study of this phenomenon using microfluidics. Folch concluded by indicating that microfluidics techniques have an important role to play in neuroscience studies.

   
  Student mixer held in the evening

IPOD WINNERS

The winners of Sunday's MyMRS iPod drawing are:

The winners are instructed to go to the MyMRS booth to claim your iPod.

ENERGY DAY ACTIVITIES

On Monday, November 26, at the Fall 2007 meeting, MRS hosted Energy Day, a day-long event for 19 high-school teams from the Boston area. In the morning session, the student teams raced their fuel cell model cars against each other. The teams started with the same fuel cell model car kit, but each team optimized the performance of its team according to their own design. Norwell High School successfully defended their championship status. In the afternoon session, the teams participated in a Materials Science Fair, which consisted of ten interactive, table-top activities about materials science that were designed by designed by several MRSECs and the Museum of Science-Boston. During the fair, students created polymers, learned about liquid crystals, made lip gloss, toured the Strange Matters web-site, explored hydrophilic and hydrophobic materials, and engaged in several other activities. Energy Day concluded with an informational presentation by Dr. Sandra DeVincent Wolf, Director of Planning at MRS, about education and careers in materials science and engineering.

    
  First, second and third place winners of the fuel cell model car race challenge

     
   Scenes from the fuel cell model car race challenge

© Materials Research Society, 2007