The Materials Science & Technology 2019 Conference & Exhibition took place in the Portland Oregon Convention Center (Figure 1), from September 29 to October 3. The Oregon Convention Center is located on the east side of the Willamette River in the Lloyd District neighborhood. The building was designed by the architectural firm of Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects. It is the largest convention center in Oregon at nearly 1,000,000 square feet. It features the largest ballroom in the City of Portland. It is best known for the twin spire towers, which provide light into the building's interior and for housing the world's largest Foucault Pendulum.
Figure 1. Oregon Convention Center, Portland, Oregon, USA, by Jeremy Jeziorski, 2017.
The MS&T19 Conference & Exhibition was a great success. It was co-sponsored by five leading materials engineering societies: the American Ceramic Society (ACerS); the Association for Iron and Steel Technology (AIST); the American Society of Metals (ASM); The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (TMS); and the National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE). More than 3000 people attended the conference, with over 2000 presentations and many special events. The meeting committee did a superb job of assembling the program and bringing together the world's leading experts in materials science and technology. The committee included chair Monica Ferraris from Politecnico Di Torino, Konstatin Redkin from Whemco Inc., Andrzej Wojcieszynski from ATI Specialty Materials, Carl Cady from Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Ajit Mishra from Haynes International.
The MS&T19 Conference is the leading forum addressing the structure, properties, processing, and performance across the materials community. These organizing societies provided the conference with 84 symposia organized into 12 themes: Additive manufacturing (10 symposia); Biomaterials (3 symposia); Ceramic and Glass Materials (7 symposia), Electronic and Magnetic Materials (3 symposia); Energy (4 symposia); Failure Analysis (3); Fundamentals and Characterization (10 symposia); Iron and Steel (Ferrous Alloys) (8 symposia); Materials-Environment Interactions (8 symposia); Modeling (3 symposia); Nanomaterials (3 symposia); Processing and Manufacturing (16 symposia); and special topics (6 symposia). The five short courses that were offered at the conference included “Sintering of Ceramics”, “Introduction to Machine Learning for Materials Science”, “Metallography for Failure Analysis”, “Additive Manufacturing Materials and Processes”, and “Design for Advanced Manufacturing for Lightweight Certificate”.
A number of memorable plenary talks took place at the meeting. The MS&T Plenary Session which featured ASM/TMS Distinguished lectureship in Materials and Society took place on Tuesday morning. Carolyn Hansson of the University of Waterloo, Canada, presented her talk on “The challenge of 100 year service-life requirement”. For the ACerS Edward Orton Jr. Memorial lecture, Minoru Tomozawa of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute presented his talk on “Glass and Water: Fast Surface Relaxation”. The AIST Adolf Martens Memorial Steel Lecture was given by Wolfgang Bleck, IEHK Steel Institute, RWTH Aachen University, Germany. The title of his lecture was “The Fascinating Variety of new manganese alloyed steels”.
The keynote and lectures included the Frontiers of Science and Society: Rustum Roy Lecture (“Printing Architected Matter in Three Dimensions” by Jennifer Lewis of Harvard University); ACerS Navrotsky Award for Experimental Thermodynamics of Solids (“A Novel apparatus for Coulomteric Titration in Lithium Containing Systems” by Alexander Beuti of the University of Vienna, Austria); ACerS/EPDC Arthur L. Friedberg Ceramic Engineering Tutorial and Lecture (“Redefining Materials/Design Paradigms for next Generation Optical Materials” by Kathleen Richardson of the University of Central Florida); ACerS Richard M. Fulrath Award Session (featured five talks); Alpha Sigma Mu Lecture (“The role of additive manufacturing in industry 4.0: From integrated design and fabrication to structural performance and qualification” by Diana Lados of Worcester Polytechnic Institute); ASM Edward Demille Campbell Memorial Lecture (“Breaking old barriers: new opportunities in brittle fracture” by Katherine Faber of the California Institute of Technology); ASM-IMS Henry Clifton Sorby Lecture ("Development and Characterization of High-performance Materials by Means of Cross-scale Metallography and Complementary Methods" by Helmut Clemens of Montanuniversitaet Leoben, Austria); ACerS GOMD Alfred R. Cooper Distinguished Lecture (“Function-tailoring strategies for broadband infrared glasses” by Kathleen Richardson of the University of Central Florida); Alfred R. Cooper Young Scholar Award Presentation (“Topological Constraint Model of High Lithium Content Borate Glasses” by Wataru Takeda of Coe College); ACerS Basic Science Division Robert B. Sosman Lecture (“Nanomaterials Born from Ceramics: Transformative Synthesis of Carbons, Carbides and Nitrides” by Yury Gogotsi of Drexel University).
MS&T19 scheduled a series of student activities to ensure that the students have opportunities to mingle with each other, and with other well-established scientists, to learn leadership skills, to be recognized among their peers, and to learn about career development. These activities included Chapter Officer Workshop, Emerging Professional Symposium, Undergraduate Student Speaking Contest, Undergraduate and Graduate Students Poster Contest, Student Networking Mixer, MS&T Partners' Welcome Reception, ACerS PCSA Humanitarian Pitch Competition, ACerS Lunch with a Pro, AIST Student Plant Tour, Ceramic Mug Drop Contest, Ceramic Disc Golf Contest, ASM Geodesic Dome Design Competition “DomesDay”, Student Awards Ceremony, and ACerS Student Tour (Pacific Northern National Laboratory (PNNL)).
A large-scale exhibit was again an important part of the MS&T19 Conference that compliments the scientific program (Figure 2). There were 78 exhibitors displaying their latest services and products. International exhibitors included analytical equipment manufacturers, book and journal publishers, database and software producers, scientific societies, scientific consultants, sponsor companies, and materials producers. The exhibit hall was a popular place to meet up with old colleagues, old friends, and meet new people. Members often strolled along different aisles to chat with manufactures, learn about new products, pick up souvenirs, obtain information, browse through new publications, and participate in new product demonstrations. This year, ICDD also had an exhibit booth showcasing their latest database products (Figure 3).
Figure 2. A scene from the Exhibit Hall in the Oregon Convention Center, Portland, Oregon.
Figure 3. ICDD booth manned by Vesna Bosnic.
Other memorable events included the ASM Leadership Awards Luncheon, the ACerS Annual Membership Meeting, the ACerS 121st Honors and Awards Banquet and Afterglow, ASM 106th Annual Business Meeting and Leadership ASM Awards Dinner/Reception, ASM Women in Materials Engineering Breakfast, AIST Steel to Students Reception, TMS LGBTQ+ and Allies Networking Mixer, TMS Young Professional Tutorial Luncheon/Lecture, and MS&T19 Exhibit Happy Hour Reception. There were refreshment breaks during morning and afternoon technical session breaks throughout the week. Member lounges were also available for ACerS, AIST, ASM, and TMS societies in the Convention Center. Various universities also held alumni receptions during the conference.
The weather during the meeting was mostly sunny and relatively warm for an October week. Many attendees had an opportunity for an enjoyable stroll outside the conference center. In the future, the attendees can look forward to the next MS&T Conference and Exhibit, which will take place at the Pittsburgh Conference Center, Pittsburgh, PA, from October 4–8, 2020.
