Making Multidisciplinary Meetings Work
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Making Multidisciplinary Meetings Work Kathleen C. Taylor MRS President The Materials Research Society through its meetings promotes multidisciplinary research and thereby distinguishes itself from the long-standing single-discipline technical societies. Making multidisciplinary meetings work is a continuing challenge to the meeting chairs and Symposium Organizers, who must look beyond the bounds of established areas of study to identify opportunities for scientific progress in materials research through the synthesis of disciplines, techniques, and scientific understanding. MRS symposia are orchestrated with this synthesis clearly in mind. A well-organized Symposium can hasten scientific progress and influence the course of science for years to come through the effective transfer of knowledge and Stimulation of thought among the participants. We see this process at work at MRS meetings. MRS meeting Organizers are told that MRS has few formal requirements for suitable Symposium topics. A Symposium should concentrate on new material, materials properties, preparation, and development, although attention to techniques, devices, and applications can be ancillary issues. A Symposium should have an interdisciplinary t r e a t m e n t . A S y m p o s i u m should bring together people working on various aspects of a selected topic who might not otherwise communicate with each other. Flexibility and responsiveness play a major role in the development of a successful meeting. While some symposia can be planned well in advance of the meeting, others fill a need for immediate dialogue in fast-moving areas which cannot be anticipated early in the planning process. The symposia on high-temperature superconductors at the 1987 Spring and Fall MRS Meetings are the result of requests from the membership and the immediate responsiveness of the meeting chairs, and they are implemented with enthusiasm by a flexible MRS headquarters staff, working within a System that has been nurtured on innovation. The membership has an ongoing role in development of symposia. Symposium topics come to MRS as informal suggestions and also as formal proposals. Helping the MRS Program Committee fulfill their objectives of dynamic, timely program development should be viewed both as an opportunity for members to provide input as well as a responsibility for members to accept in developing their own Society. Jim Roberto, vice-chair of the Program Com-
Making multidisciplinary meetings work is a continuing challenge to the... Organizers, who must look beyond the bounds of established areas of study to identify opportunities for scientific progress
mittee, is chair of the subcommittee on program development. Teil him your ideas for future Symposium topics. Once a Symposium topic is selected, the content of a Symposium is determined by the participants who submit papers to the meeting as well as by the focus provided by the invited papers. You influence this process by your own contributions. We encourage you to influence the content of upcoming MRS sympo
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