2019 MRS Spring Meeting & Exhibit

Meeting Events

Advocacy

Congressional Science and Engineering Fellowship Program Information Session
Attendees learned more about the MRS/OSA and MRS/TMS Congressional Fellowships and heard from current and former Fellows about their experiences as scientists in the Senate and House of Representatives.

Materials Voice
At the Materials Voice Booth, attendees sent convenient, personalized letters to their representatives on Capitol Hill.

Research Funding Opportunities
The Research Funding Opportunities sessions provided interaction between government agency presenters and MRS Membership. Invited talks were followed by roundtable Q&A sessions with the individual program managers.

Awards

2018 JMR Paper of the Year Award
The 2018 JMR Paper of the Year Award was presented immediately preceding the MRS Communications Lecture.

Graduate Student Award Finalists' Special Talk Sessions

These awards honored graduate students whose academic achievements and current materials research display a high level of excellence and distinction.

Mid-Career Researcher Award Talk
The Mid-Career Researcher Award recognizes exceptional achievements in materials research made by mid-career professionals. Hongyou Fan presented Self-Assembly of Functional Nanoscale Materials.

MRS Awards Ceremony & Innovation in Materials Characterization Award Talk
We honored our distinguished award recipients at the 2019 MRS Spring Meeting Awards Ceremony.

Open Data Challenge Awards Presentation
This session provided a celebration of the winning teams and the opportunity to learn how they built their materials data sets and approached their analysis through poster and visual presentations.

Outstanding Young Investigator Award Talk
The MRS Outstanding Young Investigator Award recognizes outstanding, interdisciplinary scientific work in materials research by a young scientist or engineer. We celebrated our 2019 recipient, Sheng Xu.

Education and Outreach

Designing Sustainability into Materials Research Workshop
Many sustainability initiatives focus on technologies that minimize carbon footprint and energy use. This workshop expanded upon sustainability to include limiting sustainable materials development, as opposed to sustainable technology development.

Materials Needs for Energy Sustainability by 2050—Incentivizing a Zero-Waste Future
This panel session will convene top experts to discuss the challenges and complexities associated with zero waste and the role of zero waste in enabling energy sustainability by 2050.

MRS Frontiers Reception: Building Communities
An evening of beverages and hors d'oeuvres that helped forge new communities on topics at the frontier of materials research—artificial intelligence, bio, quantum, sustainability and emerging areas of your interest.

PowerPoint Karaoke
What kind of slide is that? PowerPoint Karaoke asked the presenter to explain a slide without prior knowledge of its content or author. Prizes went to the best presenter and slide author.

Public Outreach Center
We discussed how you can participate as we partner to bring the science of materials to the general public, explore the topics of sustainable practices and the impact of society on materials science, education and outreach.

Real-Life Challenges and Opportunities in Sustainable Product Design Seminar
Alan Rae discussed how to incorporate sustainability principles into your research in a more comprehensive way while considering the real-world application of these principles to product design and manufacture.

Other

Materials Science Research Aboard the International Space Station
R&D onboard the International Space Station (ISS) U.S. National Laboratory offers an unparalleled opportunity to investigate how gravity and the extreme environment of space influence observations in materials science to advance human knowledge and commercial pursuits.

MRS Communications Lecture
Novel combinations of stimuli-responsive liquid crystals with other materials like nanoparticles or polymers can be designed to collectively interact with light. Examples explored will include the use of photo-induced heating of metal nanoparticles to change the color of a helically arranged liquid.

MRS/Sociedad Mexicana de Materiales Student Poster Award Exchange Program
Best Poster awardees from the XXVII International Materials Research Congress (IMRC) 2018 presented their posters as part of the MRS/SMM student exchange program.

MRS University Chapter Representatives Meeting
This brief meeting discussed the MRS University Chapters Program.

Plenary Session Featuring The Fred Kavli Distinguished Lectureship in Materials Science
Helena Van Swygenhoven-Moens, Paul Scherrer Institute and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, presented Synchrotron Light to Investigate Materials In Operando.

Poster Session—Author Presentations 

Poster Session Award Winners Announcement
Poster winners were announced.

Science as Art—Winners Announcement

Symposium Assistant Training
MRS staff conducted training for Symposium Assistants.

Professional Development

Career Paths in Materials Science and Engineering
Our panel of scientists shared their insight about the role of materials science and engineering in their organizations and addressed existing career paths to explore.

Career Planning and Job Searching in Entrepreneurship
Participants learned about the basics of entrepreneurship, developing their brand, and finding and solidifying customers. The basic elements of marketing, and understanding and selling services and products were also addressed.

Communicating Science to Public Audiences—Science Communication Workshop
This session was designed to increase confidence in scientists as they communicate their work and become part of a community of researchers who share an interest in science outreach and engagement.

Essentials of Getting Your Work Published
This interactive "how to" session highlighted the fundamentals of successful scientific publishing from MRS journal Editors-in-Chief.

Green Cards for Scientific Researchers: How to Win Your EB-1/NIW Case!
Getson & Schatz discussed everything you need to know to understand the U.S. immigration system and maximize your chances of winning a green card.

How to Prepare for Your ABET Accreditation
This session provided information to help you understand the accreditation process and any updates to the criteria so your materials department is prepared.

MRS Career Fair—Resume Critiques, Mock Interviews, Professional Photos
Does your resume need a little sprucing up? Have you ever walked away from a job interview wondering what you could or should have done differently? Are you at a crossroads in your academic or professional career and seeking advice on how to figure out what to do next?

MRS Career Fair—Visit the Recruiters!
Recruitment Booth allowed attendees to discuss their qualifications directly with recruiters for a potential interview.

National Laboratory User Facilities—How to Get Access for Your Research
This workshop brought participants in direct contact with cutting-edge characterization facilities in the United States and Germany.

Networking for Nerds—Become a Networking Rock Star
The secrets of being a master networker—how to cultivate strategic, mutually beneficial relationships, find people to add to your networks, “work a room,” start conversations with people you have never met before, and obtain information that can set you on a path to career victory were shared.

Preparing for Your Next Job Interview
This session offered tips on how to prepare in advance to make the most of your next opportunity to meet with a potential employer.

Student Mixer
Various interactive science activities provided an atmosphere for networking.

Women in Materials Science & Engineering Breakfast
The MRS Women in Materials Science & Engineering Breakfast event promoted interaction across various ethnic, cultural and gender boundaries and facilitated dialog among those working in or pursuing education toward a profession in materials science or engineering.

Symposium X

Jonathan Arenberg, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, presented The James Webb Space Telescope—Its Mission, Design and Development.

Sunita Satyapal, U.S. Department of Energy, presented Hydrogen and Fuel-Cell Technology Perspectives, and Bart Biebuyck, The Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking, presented Development of Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Technologies in Europe Toward Commercialization from 2020 Onward.

Molly M. Stevens, Imperial College London, presented Bio-Responsive Hybrid Materials.

Tutorials

Tutorial CP03—Mini X-Ray and Neutron School on In Situ Materials Research
Leading researchers from the U.S. DOE presented lectures on the neutron and x-ray facilities, characteristics of the sources and related beamlines, principles of scattering and spectroscopy, data processing and modeling, and topics on applications to a variety of scientific subjects.

Tutorial EP12—Plasmonics, Metamaterials and Metasurfaces for Manipulating Light at Nanoscale
The tutorial highlighted strategies that address challenges in plasmonics and metamaterials, spanning novel synthetic methods, advanced nanostructure characterization, and ultimate integration into diverse areas such as energy conversion, flat optical components and nanoscale optoelectronic devices.

Tutorial ES06—Simulating Electrochemical Systems from First Principles with Quantum-Espresso

The session covered Fundamentals of Density-Functional Theory and Quantum Chemistry in Continuum Environments.

Tutorial ES20—Young Scientist Tutorial on Characterization Techniques for Thin-Film Solar Cells
This tutorial was designed for young researchers who are active in the field of thin-film solar cells and wanted to learn the fundamentals of characterization methods that are being used in research and development of these materials and devices.

Tutorial ES21—Nanogenerators and Piezotronics—Principles, Materials, Devices and Nanosystems
The tutorial included two sections: Nanogenerators—From Sustainable Power Source to Self-Powered Systems and Piezotronics, Piezo-Photonics and Piezo-Phototronics—From Electrochemical Catalyst to 2D Materials.

Tutorial QN04—Outstanding Challenges in Nanoscale Heat Transport
The tutorial provided an overview of some unresolved theoretical and experimental problems in the field of nanoscale thermal transport.

Tutorial QN07—Quantum Phenomena in Oxide Materials
This tutorial covered various aspects of quantum behavior of oxides. It focused on the transport properties and electronic structures of quantum oxide materials, and novel imaging techniques and theoretical approaches for characterization of the materials.

Tutorial EP01—Fundamentals of Liquid-Crystalline Semiconductors
This tutorial provided a comprehensive overview of molecular self-assembly and liquid crystallinity in organic electronics.

Tutorial ES03—Advanced Soft X-Ray Spectroscopy and Cryo-TEM in Studies of Batteries and Electrocatalysts
This tutorial focused on the fundamentals and applications of several advanced characterization techniques to understand the atomic and electronic structures of energy materials, especially batteries and electrocatalysts.

Tutorial ES13—Data-Driven Design of Sustainable Materials with Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Assessment

This tutorial introduced approaches and tools for quantifying not only the technological performance impacts of selecting specific materials and processes, but also their economic, environmental, societal and human health impacts.

Tutorial QN02—Defects and Magnetic Properties of Two-Dimensional Materials
This tutorial reviewed the recent developments in the rapidly growing field of defects and magnetic properties of a broad spectrum of 2D materials through a combination of theoretical and sensitive experimental approaches, and will immensely benefit scientists at all levels.

Tutorial QN05—Building Understanding of Phonon Transport—Calculations and Experiment
This two-part (theoretical and experimental) tutorial dove into topics related to (1) lattice dynamics and phonon thermal transport calculations and (2) measurements of thermal transport that inform our understanding of underlying phonon behaviors.

Publishing Alliance

MRS publishes with Springer Nature