The TMS (The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society) Annual meeting for the year 2017 marked the 146th annual meeting of the society, and took place in San Diego, California on February 26–March 2, 2017 http://www.tms.org/meetings/annual-17/AM17home.aspx). The conference was confederated with two co-located international meetings; The Energy Materials 2017 jointly organized by the TMS and the Chinese Society for Metals, and the Third Pan American Materials Congress co-organized by nine professional partner societies from the Americas. This year's annual meeting introduced a new, expansive approach to the annual TMS gathering through extending the technical events to an additional day allowing greater flexibility for the attendees.
The 146th TMS Annual Meeting gathered more than 4000 students, researchers and scientists from nearly 70 nations to not only provide networking opportunities with colleagues from around the world, but to also engage in a technical exchange of innovative ideas and solutions. The theme of this year's meeting was Global Energy 2025, captioned as “The World Comes Here.” A wide range of material-related topics, ranging from nano-electronics to materials involved in energy-generation, were discussed.
The conference week commenced on the eve of Sunday with a plenary session chaired by Jeremy Busby. The plenary session covered perspectives of energy and sustainability in the USA, China, and Europe and was headed by Harriet Kung (US Department of Energy), Zhiliang Tian (China Iron and Steel Research Institute Group), and Fabrice Stassin (Energy Material Industrial Research Initiative), respectively. The plenary session was followed by the first keynote session TMS101: Fundamentals of TMS, which was headed by Jeffery W. Fergus (Auburn University), Clarissa Yablinsky (Los Almos National Laboratory), and Juan Pablo Escobedo-Diaz (University of New South Wales, Canberra).
Monday morning started off with two keynote sessions, the first one on light metals led by Agnello Borim (Smelting VP Technology and Strategy, Brazil), Vincent Christ (Technology and Project Development – Aluminium, Canada) and Moustapha Mbaye (Technology, Engineering and Operational Excellence, USA), and the second keynote session on magnesium technology. These keynote sessions were followed by symposia and student poster competitions. The last keynote session was directed by Acta Materialia Award recipients including the Acta Materialia Gold Medalist John Jonas (McGill University).
Technical sessions and symposia ran throughout the remaining days. Business meetings, exhibitions, students and young professional functions, competitions, and poster sessions together with social events also proceeded throughout the week. Among the various social functions included the TMS-AIME Award Ceremony and Banquet, designed to recognize the achievements of members of the minerals, metals and materials communities. Stanley M. Howard and David H. DeYoung, the current and the future TMS presidents, were invited as featured speakers. A total of 131 accomplished researchers, including students, were honored with these awards in recognition of their outstanding achievements in the divisions of extraction and processing, functional materials, light metals, processing and manufacturing, and structural materials.
Photo 1. (Colour online) Exhibit hall at the TMS 2017 Annual Meeting held at the San Diego Convention Center.
Photo 2. (Colour online) A poster session during the TMS 2017 Annual Meeting held at the San Diego Convention Center.
The conference was undoubtedly a success, with over 93 technical topics and 65 symposia covered merely in a span of 1 week. The symposia were divided into 11 technical tracks, which included a category for student-led symposia. The attendees got the privilege of gaining exposure to the latest technological advancements in the field of material science, while the exhibitors and researchers were bestowed with an opportunity to showcase their latest works.
