International Union of Materials Research Societies
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XVI International Materials Research Congress Held in Mexico The XVI International Materials Research Congress (IMRC-2007) was held in Cancún, México, on October 29–November 1, 2007. The conference was rescheduled from August due to the threat from Hurricane Dean. The Congress was conducted by the Mexican Academy of Materials Research Science (MRS-Mexico) in conjunction with the VI Congress of the National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE)-International–Mexico section. With the participation of materials researchers from various countries in the Americas, Europe, and Asia, including four plenary speakers and over 100 invited speakers in addition to contributed talks and poster presentations, attendees were able to discuss new directions being developed in materials science and technology. Also, participants discussed a number of advances being made in corrosion, synthesis, characterization, properties, processes, applications, and trends in basic research and education in materials research. The Congress also included an equipment exhibit and tutorials. In the opening presentation of the Congress, Juan Méndez Nonell, director of CIQA and president of the Materials Science Mexican Academy, emphasized the relevance of the conference to stimulate the development and pursuit of new knowledge connected to Mexico’s technological future. Among the Mexican-based highlights were presentations in the symposium on Archaeological and Arts Issues in Materials Science and on Ecomaterials and Global Warming. Accurate assays of the amount of gold or other precious metals in a sample have always been important in determining its value, which presented a driving force to improve methods for such analysis. The profession of “ensayador,” or “assayist” was a respected one. In the symposium on Archaeological and Arts Issues, Francisca Franco Velasquez of the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana-Azcapotzalco described a “fire assay” method developed in the 17th century and adopted as a standard in 1723. The method was basically an “assay of gold by fire based on experimental oxidation of a metallic oxide.” Heating impure metal samples to 750–850°C with appropriate melting reagents results in two liquid phases: a silica-based slag and a metallic phase containing lead oxide and the gold and silver it “collects.” A series of chemical reactions involving acidic HNO 3 and basic NH4OH separates the lead, silver, and gold so that the precious metals can 706
Meeting Organizers (left to right): Romeo de Coss, Jose Luis Mora, Juan Mendez Nonell, Pedro Hugo Hernandez Tejeda, and Jorge Lopes Cuevas.
Poster session discussions.
be assayed. Velasquez performed this fire assay on artifacts from the Fisherman’s Treasure, a collection of gold objects found in the Gulf of Mexico. A comparison of the fire assays with modern energy dispersive spectroscopy assays on these samples confirms that the ancient technique accurately determined the gold quantities in samples. In the latter symposium, E. CustodioGarcia of Universidad Juarez Autonoma
de Taba
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