Communication, Collaboration, and Competition
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Communication, Collaboration, and Competition Kathleen C. Taylor MRS President An excitement has spread throughout the materials research community following the discovery of new high temperature superconducting materials. These fascinating developments have caught the attention of the public and have stimulated materials researchers worldwide to a race for the discovery of even higher temperature materials. Some researchers are engaged in research related to the detailed characterization of these materials. Work is under way to fabricate these materials in forms which can take full advantage of the superconducting property. The 1986 Fall Meeting of the Materials Research Society marked the explosive start of the current search for new high Tc superconductors. Presentations and discussions at that meeting during the sympos i u m on S u p e r c o n d u c t i n g M a t e r i a l s organized by J. Bevk (AT&T Bell Laboratories) and A.I. Braginski (Westinghouse Research and Development Center) resulted in researchers returning to their laboratories, stimulated to fabricate the new class of materials they had learned about at this meeting. Early in January the organizers of the 1987 S p r i n g MRS M e e t i n g ( G r a h a m Hubler, Russ Chianelli, and Greg Olson) decided to hold a late news symposium on superconductivity at the MRS Spring Meeting in April to provide a forum for discussion and exchange of the latest technical information coming from laboratories worldwide. This symposium was quickly organized by M. Schluter (AT&T Bell Laboratories) and D.U. Gubser (Naval Research Laboratory) in the midst of daily news releases which outpaced the usual channels of scientific communication. This symposium, the largest at the meeting, was truly a scientific event, characterized by an intensity which the MRS has developed the flexibility to accommodate. The visible sense of urgency and excitement which currently pervades the research c o m m u n i t y working on high T c superconductors is revealing of the way we organize ourselves and interact with one another in the pursuit of R&D goals. The pace set by this community allows us to examine: (1) the rate limiting step which characterizes our own approach to materials research, (2) the limitations and possibilities present in our working environments for organizing team efforts and for assembling the needed resources and leadership, (3) the responsiveness and flexibility of our national organizations which
How collaboration contributes to progress is closely linked to the complementary talents of the team members....
fund materials research, (4) the contradiction of scientific reward systems which aim to stimulate accomplishments t h r o u g h example and competition but may discourage wide collaboration because of the need to identify individual contributions, and (5) our national culture (which I view as a polite way of saying we have little control over our priorities). The competition among laboratories certainly contributes to the excitement in high Tc superconductors
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