How It All Evolved
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We grew on the back of the rising tide of U.S. technology and science of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.
Rustunt Roy is Evan Pugh Professor of the Solid State at Pennsylvania State University.
of Materials Research is devoted to poly-
mers.) Nor has MRS yet been able to
How It All Evolved Harry C. Gatos, 1973-1976 MRS President The founding and operation of MRS was the culmination of my ten years of frustrated effort in searching for a professional home (old, renovated, or new) for the young, homeless materials science. The leaders of the existing materials societies strenuously resisted accepting that materials science existed outside the materials they dealt with, be they metals, ceramics, or polymers. The founders of MRS were just a small but "driven" minority with a vision of a "materialsblind" materials society. With due respect for all the founders, I must say that among all of us, Rustum Roy had the greatest vision. He was the most vocal, the most energetic, the most convincing, and the greatest doer. The early years of MRS have been highlighted in the MRS Bulletin by other former presidents. I need not elaborate further. I would like, instead, to trace the roots and shaping of our discipline. I will also comment on my experiences with professional societies prior to the founding of MRS. It all began with the discovery of the transistor in the late 1940s, which led to the transformation from the vacuum tube to solid-state electronics. This transformation cannot, however, be referred to as a development, an improvement, or a change. Going from the vacuum tube (or radio tube) to the silicon chip, which can contain many millions of vacuum-tubeequivalent devices, cannot be called an improvement. A hand-held computer cannot be referred to as an improvement of ENIAC (the first advanced computer built in the 1940s) which had 18,000 vacuum tubes and, when it was turned on, allegedly dimmed the lights of the city of Philadelphia.
bring in pre-existing, specialized societies such as Carbon, EMSA, etc. The focus on all three dimensions of interdisciplinarity has been fuzzed up, not sharpened. Remarkably, MRS is the least active among many societies in engaging its members in societal matters. So be it. Let these be the challenges which the Society will tackle for the next 20 years.
The transformation to solid-state electronics resulted in the birth of a new and different era for science and technology. That birth took place in 1948, the first infant steps were taken in the early 1950s, and from then on there has been runaway growth. Let us look at the heart of this transformation. Vacuum tube electronics is based on the generation and control of electrons in vacuum. In semiconductor electronics, the current carriers (electrons and holes) originate in the atoms within the solid, and their characteristics depend on the atomic-scale structure and composition of the solid. It is instructive to go back to about 1950. The understanding of the conduction of carriers in semiconductors and their manipulation to achieve devic
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