2002 MRS Fall Meeting Features Innovations in Materials Research

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2002 MRS Fall Meeting Features Innovations in Materials Research The 2002 Materials Research Society Fall Meeting saw the convergence of disparate fields and technologies such as semiconductor quantum dots, MEMS and NEMS, nanocrystalline semiconductor materials and devices, and 3D nanoengineered assemblies under the umbrella of “Nanomaterials and Technology.” Held December 2–6 at the Hynes Convention Center and Sheraton Boston Hotel and Towers in Boston, Massachusetts, the Meeting also ran the thread of molecular electronics, as a virtual symposium, through a number of symposia, as designed by the Meeting Chairs, Marie-Isabelle Baraton (University of Limoges), Eric L. Garfunkel (Rutgers University), David C. Martin (University of Michigan), and Stuart S.P. Parkin (IBM Almaden Research Center). Along with the technical component, the chairs held special events with an emphasis on international collaboration and review presentations that stretched the boundaries of interdisciplinary materials research. The 38 technical symposia were categorized into clusters, with 2234 oral presentations and 1544 posters. Special events included a series of talks on international research collaboration policy, representing opportunities in the United States, China, Europe, Japan, and South America. Plenary speaker Steven Vogel of Duke University brought out the materials aspects of his work in biological design. An awards ceremony honored Howard K. Birnbaum (University of Illinois) with the Von Hippel Award; Robert W. Cahn (Cambridge University), Turnbull Lecturer; MRS Medalists Uzi Landman (Georgia Institute of Technology) and Charles M. Lieber (Harvard University); and Graduate Student Award recipients. Awards were also given for best poster presentations. Symposium X presented overviews on the “Frontiers of Materials Research,” for the nonspecialist, which bridged various disciplines with materials research. MTS Systems Corporation participated in a Research Tool Seminar. See sidebars 216

covering these and other events. The equipment exhibit featured 220 exhibitors from around the world, displaying a range of equipment, services, products, publications, and software. Technical Talks On Sunday, one day before technical sessions began, tutorials were held to introduce a new or breaking area of research, highlight new developments in an established field, or provide an overview for meeting attendees who are unfamiliar with the topic. J.D. Joannopoulos (MIT) introduced the topic of nanophotonics in the tutorial for Symposium O. He said that, in theory, “defects are good things,” and proceeded, with instructor D.J. Norris (Univ. of Minnesota) to present the fundamentals of photonic structures and the opportunities they yield through their ability to control the flow of light. The proper choices of materials and architectures are needed to control light, just as doping of semiconductors controls the flow of electrons, they said. Photonic bandgaps can be created by making a lattice of one material in a sea of another material