Letter from the President
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MRS Embraces Soft Materials One of the great strengths of the Materials Research Society's meerings has been the ability to program quickly and incisively in emerging areas of interdisciplinary materials research. This is particularly true when the area does not easily find a natural home in a more disciplineoriented Society. For example, MRS was founded in part by unmet needs for active programming on interdisciplinary topics for electronic and optoelectronic applications. We have witnessed this area and m a n y others g r o w into high quality, recurring symposia. Although MRS must nurture the evolution of such areas, it must also seek out other emerging areas of an interdisciplinary nature that involves materials research. One such area is that of soft materials, which will probably remain at the forefront of interdiscipli nary materials research for decades. What is a soft material? Like many terms in our field, the definition depends on the definer. With a structural materials background, I think of a weakly bonded, probably organic-based material with low modulus, yield strength, and hardness, hence also low toughness, even if also characterized by appreciable plasticity. However, such a definition is like the proverbial blind man trying to describe an elephant by having touched only the tail. MRS needs to embrace the whole animal. Even if defining soft materials is a try ing exercise, it is easy to identify topics that must fit within any unified description. A glance at the 1999 MRS Spring Meeting program suggests several: membranes; electro- and magneto-rheological
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Betsy Fleischer MRSBtill&tui Materials teeaich Society S0tf$Cö$StOna]iJ(iv9 Warrendale, $A 15Ö86-7573,
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fluids; gels and colloidal Systems; tissue engineering; and cellular, extracellular, and supramolecular structures. Various issues of MRS Bulletin have theme topics or technical articles on soft materials top ics; for example, the October 1999 issue will feature the materials science of the cell. The recent report of the National Science F o u n d a t i o n / D e p a r t m e n t of Energy Workshop on Interdisciplinary Macromolecular Science and Engineering gives a substantial, but hardly comprehensive, listing of topical areas of soft materials from which MRS should develop symposia. Imagine future symposia on the materials science of h u m a n repair,
Future MRS Meeting Chairs 1999 f a l l M e e t i n g Paul'D. Bristöwe , Cambridge University United JGngdöm 44-1223-334305 Fax:44-1223-334567 [email protected] David'G. Grier UniVErsity Of Chicago 773-702-9176 Fax- 773-702-5$63 [email protected] Fernando A. Ponce Arizona State jShi'versiry 602*965-3561 Fa*: 601-965-9004 pö[email protected]
Ellen p . Williams Unikarsif^ of Maryland
mi^Mw -"** M3«f|p94$ vOTatf^%üJr|eejufAd.edu.
engineered materials from nanobricks, new plastics from plants, and cell /Com puter interfaces and junctions. The MRS Executive Committee has convened a task force
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