|
DAY 4
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
The 2008 Materials Research Society (MRS) Fall Meeting in Boston reached its mid-point on Wednesday, a day packed with activities and events for attendees. The main event of the day was the Awards ceremony in the evening with the Von Hippel award, the Turnbull Lectureship and the MRS Medals awarded to the respective recipients. Graduate student awards were also announced and handed out. Other events included the Turnbull lecture, the Von Hippel lecture and the symposium X talk.The exhibit and poster sessions filled out a very busy day.
CONTENTS
Graduate student gold award winners
Graduate student silver award winners
AWARDS CEREMONY
The awards ceremony was held in the evening. MRS President Cynthia Volkert first invoked the 35th anniversary of MRS and said the MRS has come a long way since its establishment from a small group of researchers who could not find an appropriate forum to discuss their work. The Society has grown now to a membership level of 16,000 with important publications and electronic media.
 
Former MRS Executive Director John Ballance with his family, and Ballance's
portrait at MRS HQ in Warrendale, Pennsylvania
The first Executive Director of MRS, John Ballance, retired on October 31, 2008, after 25 years of outstanding service. He was honored on this occasion. Past-President Alan Hurd described his tremendous achievements for MRS. He specifically mentioned Ballance's role in setting up the MRS headquarters near Pittsburgh, and then working to build the current HQ building in Warrendale, Pennsylvania. He has built up a dedicated staff of 40 with an average tenure of 5+years and with several staff with tenures of 10 years and more. In addition to every aspect of MRS, Ballance was also very active in advocacy and has been to Washington DC numerous times. He was given a commemorative plate made of a special alloy. In addition, a John Ballance undergraduate materials science and engineering scholarship has been set-up at his alma mater North Carolina State University with funds contributed by numerous people.
 
Eric Garfunkel (l) and Gordon Pike (r) with president Cynthia Volkert
Three special awards were announced and these were awarded to Eric Garfunkel (Rutgers Univ.) for his tremedous efforts in organizing the first MRS conference outside the US in Chongqing, China, last June, to V.S. Arunachalam (CSTEP, Bangalore, India) for his efforts in putting together the special MRS Bulletin special issue on Energy published in April, 2008, and to Gordon Pike (retired, Sandia National Lab) for being Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Materials Research for over seven years. In addition, Pike was also awarded the Woody award, named after former MRS President Woody White and given to an MRS volunteer who has contributed significantly. This was Pike's second time receiving this award and was given for his role in leading a team that selected the new Executive Director of MRS, Todd Osman.
The graduate student gold and silver awards were then announced by Beth Stadler, secretary of the Society. Then Vice-President Shefford Baker awarded the MRS medal to James Scott (Cambridge University) and Darrell G. Schlom (Cornell University). The David Turnbull Lectureship was given to David N. Seidman (Northwestern University). Finally, the von Hippel award, the highest honor given by MRS, was presented to Herbert Gleiter (Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe). Gleiter then presented his von Hippel talk.
Awards ceremony audience
VON HIPPEL TALK
Nanoscience and Nanotechnology—The Key to New Materials as well as to New Studies in other Areas of Science
Herbert Gleiter receiving the von Hippel award
Herbert Gleiter (Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe) in his von Hippel talk described his work in nanoscience and nanotechnology. In the past, nanoscience and nanotechnology (NS/NT) have focused primarily on the following two areas: (1) The generation and understanding of nanometer-sized structures and/or devices, and (2) synthesis and understanding of materials with a nanometer-sized microstructures. In recent years, a new branch of NS/NT seems to have emerged. This is characterized by the application of preparation methods and/or diagnostic tools developed in NS/NT, to perform new, decisive experiments or to open the way to novel applications in areas of science that were originally unrelated to NS/NT such as cancer research, cellular imaging or quantum physics. In order to convey a picture of the diversity of the various areas of science in which NS/NT has paved the way to perform new studies, he listed some of these areas:
- Cancer research and therapy by quantum dots
- Nanotribology: understanding the processes involved in friction on an atomic scale
- Tracking viral pathways by nanometer-sized fluorescent markers
- Cellular imaging, labelling and sensing by quantum dots
- Astronomy, condensed matter physics: Structure/phase transitions in complex plasmas containing small, electrically charged particles
- Investigation of the cellular machinery by the application of nanometer-sized crystals as non-viral vectors
- Generation of solid materials with tuneable atomic structures synthesized by NT-methods
- Probing the limits of quantum physics by interferometry with nm-sized clusters
He briefly summarized cancer research and therapy and cellular labelling using quantum dots. Special attention was given in the second part of the presentation to the generation of materials with tuneable atomic structures and to the probing of the limits of quantum physics by interferometry with nanometer-sized clusters.
The way to solid materials with tuneable atomic structures/densities was opened by the idea to generate glasses with a nanometer-sized microstructure. This was done by a similar method (inert gas condensation of an evaporated glass in the form of nanometer-sized glassy spheres followed by high pressure consolidation) that has been applied in the past to generate nanocrystalline materials. Glasses with a nanometer-sized microstructure are called nanoglasses. One of the attractive features of nanoglasses is that their atomic structure/density may be tuned by varying the length-scale of the microstructure of the nanoglass and/or the annealing treatment after the high pressure consolidation. A comparable controlled variation of the atomic structure/density of crystalline materials is not possible. (In fact, in crystals the atomic structure can be varied by introducing defects. However, the resulting structural variation is limited essentially to the cores of these defects, the volume fraction of which is mostly in the order of 1 vol.% or less whereas in nanoglasses the variation applies to the entire volume). As many properties of materials depend on the atomic structure and the density, the properties of nanoglasses may be tuned by varying these two parameters by means of controlling the microstructure and/or the annealing treatment. In other words, nanoglasses seem to represent a separate class of solid materials characterized by a tuneable atomic structure/density.
Probing the limits of quantum physics addresses one of the basic and still open questions of physics: The applicability of quantum physics to systems of macroscopic size (e.g. a size of 50 nm or more). NS/NT may contribute to the solution of this question. In fact, NS/NT seems to enable us to perform interference experiments by using beams consisting of clusters with identical mass and moving in parallel with the same velocity in UHV. By utilizing methods of NS/NT, the mass of these clusters may be varied in a controlled manner from about 103 amu up to about 109 amu. If a cluster beam of this kind is transmitted though a suitable diffraction grid, the intensity pattern produced on a screen behind the grid indicates if the movement of the clusters through the grid can be predicted by the laws of quantum physics even if the clusters have macroscopic sizes. (A spherical cluster with a mass of 109 amu has a diameter of about 50 nm). Alternatively, if quantum physics would apply only to objects up to a certain size, this size would be indicted by a change of the intensity pattern on the screen behind the diffraction grid. This change may not only probe the limits of quantum physics but it may also tell us if a transition to classical physics occurs beyond a certain cluster size and which parameters control this size.
 
DAVID TURNBULL LECTURE
On the Genesis of Nuclei and Phase Decomposition on an Atomic Scale
|
|
Nucleation phenomena are pervasive in nature, from condensation and crystal growth to volcano eruptions and black hole formation. The MRS 2008 David Turnbull Lectureship recipient, David N. Seidman (Walter P. Murphy Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University), elucidated nuclei formation and phase decomposition on an atomic scale, focusing on the precipitation of a second phase from a solid solution. The complementary roles of atom-probe tomography and lattice kinetic Monte Carlo (LKMC) simulation served to follow growth and coarsening of the ternary alloy, Ni-Al-Cr. The atom probe gives a direct lattice picture with atomic position and chemical composition. LKMC can be used to interpret the experimental results and match them to mechanisms involved. Seidman presented an example observing three alloys of Ni-Al-Cr that went through a heat cycle cooled from a high temperature to precipitate a second phase from a single phase, and then heated to cause aging (growth of the precipitates). Short-range order could be determined prior to detecting observable precipitates using partial radial distribution functions, which captures the concentration of atoms at a given distance around another atom. Ordering of a 20-atom cluster could be detected, which then led to precipitates of a critical radius that become visible with atom-probe tomography. Precipitate coalescence in the coarsening regime showed 1-nm “necks” between precipitates, with observable ordering that crosses between the two precipitates and the neck, with two precipitates eventually merging into one. However, if the vacancy-solute binding energy is turned off in the LKMC simulation, one precipitate grows while the other shrinks, with no necks forming. This distinguishes between a coagulation-coalescence mechanism (with necking) and an evaporation-condensation mechanism (no necking), and the role kinetics plays.
David N. Seidman receiving the Turnbull
Lectureship award
Seidman received the Turnbull Lectureship, “for his research that has made major contributions to our understanding of point defects and the role they play in radiation damage and phase transformations; unique studies of interfacial segregation; and especially for the development and fruitful use of atom-probe spectrometry; for numerous seminal publications; and excellence in education/training students and colleague in the laboratory, classroom, and conferences.”
 
SYMPOSIUM X: FRONTIERS OF MATERIALS RESEARCH
Materials Science in Profitable Solutions to Oil, Climate, and Proliferation
To be truly radical is to make hope possible, not despair convincing.
— Raymond Williams
Over the past few days, we have heard about drastic climate change, carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere and concerns regarding keeping up with worldwide energy demand as well as skyrocketing energy costs, all of which painted a very bleak and pessimistic picture. In his symposium X talk, Amory B. Lovins (Rocky Mountain Institute) took a contrary view and suggested "Let’s use energy in a way that saves money, because that will solve the climate, oil, and proliferation problems—not at a cost but at a profit". In other words, according to Lovins, we can not just take care of all of these issues but can do so by making money. He presented several examples making his case. "The incorrect assumption that climate protection will be costly is the biggest obstacle to doing it" he said.
Saving energy costs less than buying it and many companies are starting to buy energy efficiency irrespective of climate change. In a recent report, Winning the Oil Endgame, he has suggested "Over the next few decades, the USA can eliminate its use of oil and revitalize its economy, led by business for profit. So, probably, can China." Just changing certain designs, manufacturing techniques or improving the efficiencies in machines or automobiles or airplanes can significantly reduce energy usage. An example is Boeing's 787 Dreamliner airplane, which is 20% more efficient compared to current aircraft, at the same cost, by using innovative materials, better processes, and better design, which has led to tremendous number of orders. He also suggested that nuclear power costs more and results in more CO2 emission compared even to coal for new construction. He described the tremendous advantages of renewables particularly photovoltaics.
He concluded by laying out ten challenges for materials-based advances that would have a tremendous impact: Ultralight/strong, cheap structures—potentially biomimetic, passive desiccants, cheap superinsulation (nanogels, vacuum panels), better colored-laser and LED materials, cheap high-temperature superconductors and magnets, cheap, TW-volume-suited photovoltaic materials, cheap, dense, durable electric storage and fuel cells, durable non-Nafion® fuel-cell membranes, an elegant way to break down lignin, and carbon-neutral Portland cement substitutes.
POSTER AWARD WINNERS
HH13.3 Targeted In-vitro Delivery of a Chemotherapeutic Agent to Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma via a Bacteriophage Carrier. Mekensey Buley1, Carlee Ashley2, David Peabody3 and C. Jeffrey Brinker2,4; 1Chemical, Biological, and Materials Engineering, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma; 2Chemical Engineering, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico; 3Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico; 4Self-Assembled Materials, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
PP9.1 A Crystallographically-Selective Chemical Transformation in Cadmium Sulfide Nanorods. Bryce Sadtler1,2, Denis O Demchenko3, Haimei Zheng2, Lin-Wang Wang3, Ulrich Dahmen2 and A. Paul Alivisatos1,2; 1Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California; 2Materials Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California; 3Computational Research Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California.
 
TECHNICAL TALKS
Symposium D: Rare-Earth Doping of Advanced Materials for Photonic Applications
In Symposiun D, the morning session was dedicated to rare-earth doping and devices in silicon related materials. B.Mendez (Dept. de Fisica, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain) presented emission ranging from the UV to the IRd from â-Ga2O3 nanowires and nanobelts grown by the vapor-solid mechanism and doped with different rare-earth ions (Gd and Er). SEM images show nanostructures with dimensions ranging from a few tens of nanometer to microns, and TEM analysis shows that they have a high crystalline quality. Regarding silicon-related devices for photonics, J. H. Shin (Kaist, Korea) in his invited talk showed his latest results on single phase erbium-silicide films for compact amplifiers in Si chips. He made the point that key issues for an optical Er doped integrated amplifier are low noise, high energy efficiency and no heat to pumping. Compact devices are mandatorily required the development of high refractive materials. The SiO2-Er2O3 system is a promising alternative to silica. He showed how Er-doped nanowires of this material with excellent crystal quality, and high 1.5 micrometer emission with no upconversion can be obtained. Then he showed how the material can be prepared in thin film configuration for the development of waveguides. The results show that the value of emission cross-section is slightly enhanced over that of silica, which was attributed to the narrower line width of the crystalline material. He finally discussed the gain values that have been achieved so far, and the future routes to improve them.
 
Symposium D/MM joint session
In the afternoon joint session on Er-Doped Si nanostructures, it was shown that there is still some ground to cover towards the understanding of the activation of Er by Si co-doping, but that it is still a promising system for optical amplification. P. Kik (CREOL, Orlando, Florida) showed his recent results that indicate that that erbium excitation in Si-doped SiO2 films occurs predominantly through isolated silicon related luminescence centres, and discussed how this result is not contradictory with reports that show that annealing in hydrogen leads to a significant improvement of the Er3+ photoluminescence intensity. He showed that it can be understood in terms of pasivation of dangling bonds in the Si and to a direct interaction of the Er with the Si dangling bonds. He concluded that it seems to be better to anneal the samples at low temperatures before the Si nanocrystals are formed. The two invited talks by N. Daldoso (University of Trento, Italy) and Richard Rizik (CIMAP, CNRS, France) were important highlights in the session. N. Daldoso after revising the limitation of the Si sensitized Er silica system concluded that there is still hope for efficient optical amplification, and that the main issue now is to increase the Er coupled to Si. R. Rizik showed recent results on how indeed it it is possible to optimize Er- Si nanocrystal coupling by using 3 independent targets for codeposition of the material and using low annealing temperatures. In this conditions up to 50% of the active Er ions can be excited by the Si.
 
Symposium R: Materials for Future Fusion and Fission Technologies
Evolutionary and Revolutionary Development of Structural Materials for Fission and Fusion Energy
Steven J. Zinkle (Oak Ridge National Lab) overview structural materials for fission and fusion energy systems in his talk in symposium R. Structural materials for fission and fusion energy applications must be designed to function in extremely hostile operating conditions under intense neutron and gamma radiation fluxes, high temperatures, corrosive coolants, and high mechanical stresses. The development of structural materials historically has been a long and costly process, particularly for nuclear energy applications due to the long proof testing period to validate the performance of the material in prototypic environments for appropriate licensing authorities. Thus typical materials in present nuclear power plants are based on materials that were originally developed about 50 years ago. For the next generations of fission and proposed fusion power however, advanced materials based on modern materials science principles need to be incorporated so that the power plants can achieve their full potential. Zinkle described crucial materials science tools such as computational thermodynamics and multiscale radiation damage computational models in conjunction with rapid science-guided experimental validation (nonirradiation and irradiation environments) that can achieve this. He presented various examples for evolutionary advances. In one case, the use of a new thermomechanical treatment for 9Cr-1Mo and 12Cr steels tremendously improved the microstructure by inducing much finer precipitate dispersion at dislocations. He also discussed more revolutionary options such as engineered laminate structures for ultra-strong, high toughness steels.
 
Symposium HH: Advances in Material Design for Regenerative Medicine, Drug Delivery, and Targeting/Imagings
New Materials for Imaging and Treating Inflammatory Diseases
Niren Murthy (Georgia Inst. Tech.) described two new materials, polyketals and peroxalate nanoparticles, for treating and diagnosing inflammatory diseases designed to enhance the treatment and diagnosis of inflammatory diseases. The polyketals are acid sensitive polymers that degrade into neutral compounds and generate minimal inflammatory responses in vivo. The polyketal microparticles enhance the treatment of inflammatory diseases by targeting therapeutics to macrophages and by acting as controlled release reservoirs. Murthy showed recent in vivo data indicating that polyketal microparticles loaded with p38 inhibitors improve cardiac function following a myocardial infarction. It was also shown that polyketal microparticles loaded with siRNA targeting TNF-alpha can rescue mice from acute liver failure.
Murthy also described a new family of hydrogen peroxide sensing contrast agents, termed the peroxalate nanoparticles. The overproduction of hydrogen peroxide is implicated in the development of numerous inflammatory diseases and there is currently great interest in developing contrast agents that can image hydrogen peroxide in vivo. Nanoparticles formulated from peroxalate esters and fluorescent dyes were shown to be able to image hydrogen peroxide in vivo with high specificity and sensitivity. The peroxalate nanoparticles have several attractive properties for in vivo imaging, including tunable wavelength emission (460-630 nm), nanomolar sensitivity for hydrogen peroxide and excellent specificity for hydrogen peroxide over other reactive oxygen species.
 
WOMEN IN MS&E BREAKFAST
|
|
““We cannot afford to ‘move’ [forward], we need to race,” said Zakya Kafafi at the Women in Materials Science & Engineering Breakfast on Wednesday morning. Born in Egypt, Kafafi came to the United States as a young adult and was encouraged by her father to pursue her graduate education and career in science. Kafafi, now director of the Division of Materials Research (DMR) within the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) in the National Science Foundation (NSF), said that women have much to offer in the field of materials science and engineering and they have a lot of catching up to do. Looking back, Kafafi referred to studies published by the National Science Board Science and Engineering Indicators that showed how Europe and Asia outpaced the United States which was initially leading in the number of PhD degrees in Science and Engineering by the end of the last century. Continuing with her focus on the United States, Kafafi said that a large proportion of students receiving PhD degrees in science and engineering came from other countries, close to 60% in Engineering (2005). Looking at the past 40 years, the number of women receiving bachelor, masters and doctoral degrees in materials and metallurgy engineering began to climb in the late 1970s, early 1980s reaching about 25% in 2006. The slope was much steeper in other scientific (ex. chemistry) disciplines bringing the percentage of all degrees awarded to women in all fields of science and engineering to >45% in 2006. This increase did not reflect the ratio of male to female faculty positions at research universities, where men outpaced women >2:1, according to studies published for 2003.
To increase the participation of women in the profession, Kafafi explained a number of initiatives were put into place by NSF and her division (DMR). The key to achieving this goal, she said, is to change the culture and climates in academic departments and research divisions in order to obtain gender equity rather than to try to change the "individuals" to suit the department or division. One example is the NSF ADVANCE program. One part of the program is to fund five-year grants to develop “institutional transformation” where science departments are dedicated to change the climate (i.e., work environment) and the hiring process in order to increase the number and the participation of women. While climate changes generally occur slowly, evidence showed significant improvement in the gender balance within faculty in just a very short within the lifetime of the program (5 years). DMR has also held a series of workshops targeting broader participation and education in materials science and engineering. Kafafi distributed to the audience the recently published report based on the Gender Equity Workshop in Materials Science and Engineering. She mentioned that this will be the beginning of a series of workshops that will target increasing diversity and broadening participation in materials science and engineering in academia, national laboratories and industry.
The breakfast event was organized by the MRS Outreach Subcommittee and sponsored by Sigma- Aldrich.
 
 
 
ABOUT THE MEETING SCENE
- The 2008 MRS Fall Meeting is being covered for the Meeting Scene by Dr. Gopal Rao, Web Science Editor, Materials Research Society, with contributions by Betsy Fleischer, Judy Meiksin, Kasia Bruniany and Rosalia Serna.
- The Meeting Scene e-mails are edited by Dr. Gopal Rao, Web Science Editor, MRS
- You have received this as a subscriber to the Meeting Scene.
- To Unsubscribe, please e-mail info@mrs.org.
- Archived Meeting Scene Issues are available online.
- View all free MRS e-newsletters and alerts and subscribe.
© Materials Research Society, 2008 |
Send Us Your Feedback
© 1995-2009, Materials Research Society 506 Keystone Drive, Warrendale, PA, 15086-7573, USA