What Kind of Society is MRS, Anyway?
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Letter from the President
What Kind of Society is MRS, Anyway? Wrapping up my year as MRS President, I find myself with an odd feeling. I enjoyed the year very much. I interacted with far more MRS members than in the 20 years I have been a member, and the MRS staff is like family to me now. I was able to partake in many aspects of our profession that would not otherwise be part of my day job, such as lobbying for materials science in Washington. The odd part is that I am conflicted about the role and identity of MRS. Perhaps this is the inevitable result of addressing those issues for a year. I spoke to many other members, and I know some of them have strong feelings as well. Other societies, I am told, are grappling with the same issues. What is the nature of MRS? I suspect being a member of the Materials Research Society is not the same as being a member of the American Physical Society (APS) or the American Chemical Society, for example. About half of our members view MRS as their second home; they vacation with us for the meetings, but don’t join if they attend neither the Spring nor Fall meeting. Many of us have a primary professional residence elsewhere. Societies representing pure disciplines may enjoy more member loyalty than we do. A physicist must belong to APS to be part of the physics community, and is therefore likely to be a permanent member of APS; it is her conduit to the physics world. However, a materials scientist (many of whom are not formally trained in the field, but rather possess, for example, EE or chemistry degrees) needn’t be a permanent member
“A strong MRS will provide a strong identity for our field.”
of MRS. This is partly because we allow him to become an MRS member just by attending one MRS meeting a year. But also, perhaps the MRS doesn’t offer her much beyond the meetings and the MRS Bulletin, to merit her permanent commitment. To many of our members, MRS is relevant only once or twice a year. MRS has evolved significantly since its inception in 1973. I’d like to share two MRS membership trends that jump off the page at me. Figure 1 shows a breakdown
Figure 1. MRS membership, by workplace, over time.
MRS BULLETIN/DECEMBER 2001
of MRS membership with respect to workplace, over time. Since 1988, industrial membership has been flat and then slightly declining, whereas academic membership has increased. Student and government memberships have slightly increased. Thus, total MRS membership has increased, but almost entirely due to academics. Figure 2 shows similar trends with respect to U.S.- and non-U.S.-based members. Since 1990, U.S. membership has been absolutely flat, whereas non-U.S.based membership has increased steadily. Combining Figures 1 and 2, one comes to the conclusion that all MRS growth since 1990 can be attributed to non-U.S.-based academics. Given that the United States just enjoyed a decade of unprecedented economic growth, largely driven by our high technology expertise, this is an astounding conclusion. Although it is a tribute to the globalization of science
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