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Letter from the President

State of the Society The new year is the traditional time for assessments in all types of organizations. For the Materials Research Society, this has frequently been a time to ask where the Society has come from, and what does it want to be when it grows up. As incoming president, I see an exceptionally vibrant and dynamic society that I am extremely proud to represent. It remains a society where the individual volunteers are empowered, and one that increasingly has broad societal impact. MRS has grown to over 13,000 members, becoming a large scientific society without the artery-hardening effects usually associated with such size. It has become international in scope, with over 35% of our members based outside the United States and strong international participation in the Meetings. And it continues to flourish technically. The core of MRS, our Meetings, remains exceptionally strong. The 2003 MRS Fall Meeting broke the all-time record for attendance and the 2004 Fall Meeting last November broke 2003’s record in turn. The Meetings continue to capture exciting new technical areas very rapidly (e.g., the biomaterials/ hybrid materials component of the Meeting that has grown steadily over the last five years). Fall ’04 also showed exceptional innovations in the nontechnical component of the Meeting, with a close coupling to the MRS traveling science exhibition, Strange Matter, and a symposium (PP) for high-school teachers made an integral part of the Meeting. In fact, across the board, the Society is addressing its nontechnical mission with increasing confidence. Strange Matter has become a hugely successful enterprise that other societies are starting to struggle to emulate. It has won numerous awards, most recently Scientific American’s 2004 Science and Technology Web Site Award, and has turned into a springboard for MRS’s outreach, becoming a fabulous asset in our efforts to broaden materials education and bring materials research to the general public. MRS is also increasingly active and visible in helping to set government research funding priorities within the United States, and we hope to broaden this impact in the coming years. The role of the MRS President and the MRS Board of Directors in these successes is largely, quite frankly, to stay out of the way. The technical successes of the Meetings are a consequence of MRS’s longstanding policy (unique among scientific societies) of selecting outstanding Meeting Chairs and empowering them to

MRS BULLETIN • VOLUME 30 • JANUARY 2005

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run their own best possible Meeting. The Meeting Chairs get to set the agenda, pick the technical topics, and choose or solicit symposia. They make decisions on items such as the plenary speaker, but also whether to run tutorials, and recognize achievements. The Meeting Chairs return the favor by, in turn, empowering their Symposium Organizers. This group drives the content and feel of their own piece of the Meeting. Because