MRS Grows with its Members
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As the Presidents See It...
MRS Grows with its Members Kathleen C. Taylor, 1987 MRS President While 1987 was the year of my MRS presidency, my tenure on various committees and in other elected positions with the Materials Research Society spans more than 16 years, dating back to my first MRS meeting in 1976. Following that, I went on to be a symposium organizer and meeting chair, then held every elected office except secretary before assuming the presidency. Over the course of those 11 years, I experienced the transformation of the Materials Research Society from a small annual "meeting in Boston" to a well-respected technical society. Everything we did during that period was always the first or the largest ever for MRS—the largest meeting to date, the largest equipment show, the first short-course program, the first MRS Spring Meeting.... The rapid growth in the size of our meetings (including the nuclear waste "mega" symposia), the popularity of the MRS Proceedings volumes, and the tireless assistance of Ernie Hawk at the Penn State Materials Research Lab gave MRS the strength to hire a full-time executive director Qohn Ballance) and secretary (Anne Wagner). Support from the funding agencies and corporate sponsors contributed to the high quality of meeting symposia. My strongest memory as MRS President is the tremendous dedication and effort of MRS volunteers—the community of researchers who worked for MRS. Running MRS is a team effort. My team was made up of Gordon Pike, Past President; John Baglin, First Vice President; Bob Chang, Second Vice President; Julia Phillips, Secretary; and Sue Kelso, Treasurer. Our mode of operation was a monthly conference call with MRS Executive Director John Ballance. These calls were our mechanism for executing the operational aspects of the Society. Close communication among the officers and staff allowed us to make quick decisions, as needed, during this period of tremendous growth. The major events for MRS, then as now, were the annual MRS Spring and Fall Meetings. Our 1987 Spring Meeting was held in Anaheim, organized by Meeting Chairs Russ Chianelli, Graham Hubler, and Greg Olson. The 1987 Fall MRS Meeting was organized by Tom Picraux, Barry Scheetz, and Murray Gibson. All details of on-site meeting arrangements were handled by The Complete Conference under
the direction of Marilyn Hauck and Merry Geil. (Merry has since joined the staff of MRS.) Our equipment exhibit was put on by the American Institute of Physics under the direction of Ed Greeley and Bob Finnegan. The MRS Short Course Program was organized by Vivienne Harwood Mattox under the oversight of Short Course Committee Co-Chair Al Romig. Our philosophy was that the nontechnical meeting operations should be run by experienced professionals. Dave Campbell co-chaired the MRS Publications Committee. During 1987 the MRS Bulletin grew from six to eight issues per year under the continuing direction of MRS Bulletin Chair Elton Kaufmann. Frank Gambino, MRS Journals Chair and Editor-in-Chief Walter Brown saw JMR through i
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