Materials Education for the 21 ST Century Workforce a Report on the 18 th Biennial Conference on National Materials Poli
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MATERIALS EDUCATION FOR THE 21ST CENTURY WORKFORCE A Report on the 18th Biennial Conference on National Materials Policy, Washington D.C. Aris Christou University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA ABSTRACT This article presents a summary report of the 18th biennial conference on National Materials Policy, held May 24- 25, 2004 at National Academies Keck Center, Washington DC. This conference addressed the educational needs in materials science for the 21st century through a series of presentations which focused on all aspects of materials education including elementary (K-12), undergraduate as well as graduate education and continuing education. The conference therefore contributed to the definition of the educational needs for the 21st century workforce. INTRODUCTION This meeting is a follow up of the 2002 meeting sponsored by the Federation of Materials Societies, FMS3 , and supported by the National Science Foundation and the Defense Department (DOD) on Materials Education for the 21st Century. A number of key recommendations resulted from the 2002 meeting including the emphasis on K-12 educational activities among the professional societies. The educational committee of FMS has spent the last two years organizing these outreach activities, especially with respect to secondary school science teachers. We have sought to make teachers aware of the broad range of educational tools involving materials which are now available from the professional societes. Key to achieving this objective has been the establishment of collaborations with the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). Other related conferences have included the 2000 National Materials Advisory Board (NMAB) Forum on “Materials in the New Millenium, Responding to Society’s Needs”. This meeting addressed four key themes: the critical role of materials in advancing technology, the industrial and societal needs that require materials development, materials research areas with the greatest potential in meeting these needs, and federal and industrial initiatives that can help the materials community. The Metals, Minerals Society, TMS, in March of 2004 held a mini symposium on materials education related topics. The TMS Public and Governmental Affairs Committee and the TMS Education Committee are co-sponsors of this symposium, as part of the Annual Meeting dedicated to building Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) synergies. It was with this background that a steering committee was formed, drawing from the membership of the FMS education committee and other individuals who were motivated to action by our 2002 FMS Symposium. The Steering Committee was chaired by the Vice President of the Federation of Materials Societies and included: Iver Anderson
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(President of FMS), Betsy Houston, Executive Director of FMS, Slade Cargill, Carolyn Garvey, Charles Hayes, Alan Hurd, Ernest Levert, Toni Marechaux, Eric Packenham, David Richerson, Jud Ready, Alex Scott, and Dan Steinberg. The planning for the meeting followed the model for the 2002
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