1997 MRS Spring Meeting Stretches Across Disciplines
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ul S. Peercy, President of SEMI/SEMATECH, gave the plenary presentation on "Materials Research and the Semiconductor Industry in the Twenty-First Century" at the 1997 MRS Spring Meeting in San Francisco.
improvements, such as yield improvements, reach their limits. Peercy also addressed how the method of getting research done is likely to change. Instead of R&D and all of the development work done in one institution, the research environment has become stratified, with different institutions or sectors involved in complementary parts of the technology development cycle as companies opt to outsource work instead of doing it all inhouse. Substantial and delicate interaction among the various institutions is essential to optimize use of knowledge and resources and to generate effective results. An article based on Peercy's presentation is scheduled to appear in a future issue of MRS Bulletin.
Prior to the plenary presentation, graduate student awards were given to four of nine graduate student award finalists. (See photo on page 56.) The 1997 MRS Outstanding Young Investigator Christopher N. Bowman of the University of Colorado gave a presen-
tation on "Polymerization and Properties of Polymer-Stabilized Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals." To overcome the limited switching speeds of twisted nematics liquid crystals, ferroelectric liquid crystals have been considered, but they are susceptible to mechanical shock. Bowman's presentation addressed how polymers can be used to stabilize the ferroelectric liquid crystals, and how various factors affect the electrooptic behavior. The polymers can be introduced into the liquid crystals as monomers which are then photopolymerized. Bowman found that the temperature and ferroelectric-liquid-crystal phase of polymerization affects both polymerization behavior and electro-optic properties. The normalized polymerization rate increases for monomers as the order of the liquid crystal phase increases. Also, segregation is dramatically different depending on chemical structure. Bowman explained that if diffusional limitations of the growing polymer chains in the liquid crystal are significant, then the polymerization rate increase is driven by termination rate suppression. If diffusional limitations are not significant, the rate increase is driven by segregation phenomena. The material behavior can be modeled by knowing the segregation characteristics. An article based on Bowman's presentation is scheduled to appear in a future issue of MRS Bulletin.
Presented at noontime, Symposium X, Frontiers of Materials Research: Authoritative Reviews for Nonspecialists, included a clever array of topics geared toward a broad technical audience. Monday covered life on Mars with one talk on a Martian meteorite and another on robots for Mars. Tuesday started with "What's New in the Sausage Factory," focusing on how the government works, with a second talk on university and industry research. Wednesday covered novel materials with negative aspect ratios (thermal expansion and Poisson's ratio). The Thurs
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