Days 1,2 - Sunday, Monday
The 5th Brazilian Materials Research Society Meeting (SBPMat) is underway in Florianópolis, Brazil, at the Costao do Santinho, a lovely beach resort on the island of Santa Caterina. With over 800 attendees anticipated to participate in the meeting, this is expected to be the largest materials research conference ever in Brazil. "Materials Science & Engineering is more interdisciplinary and more rapidly evolving than at any point in history."
The first event of the meeting was an opening session held on Monday evening. It started with a wonderful rendition of the Brazilian national anthem by a local choral group. Next, several meeting organizers and the Brazilian MRS leadership were introduced. Prof. Aloisio Nelmo Klein (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis), meeting chair, welcomed all the meeting attendees, both in Portuguese and English. The president of the Brazilian MRS, Prof. Fernando Lázaro (PUC-Rio), also welcomed the attendees. Session attendees were then treated to some wonderful classical and semi-classical singing and music by the local choral group.
Prof. Peter Green (University of Michigan), currently president of the Materials Research Society, gave the opening lecture on the "Last 100 years in Materials Research and New Challenges". He first briefly outlined the evolution of the field of materials science and engineering (MS&E). The discipline of has its roots within the field of metallurgy, which developed largely from an "art" to a scientifically based discipline during the first half of the last century. MS&E has evolved rapidly during the last 50 years, initially due to the influence of physics and chemistry, and now increasingly with biology. The field has come a long way in the last 20 years with exciting possibilities for the future, including the possibility of materials by design based on specific functionality. Green described several "Grand Challenges" in the field including among other areas the interface between medicine and materials, biomolecular materials, Moore's law, and nanotechnology. However, science funding patterns have changed the culture of research particularly in the United States. The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has had a significant impact. Funding criteria clearly provide new drivers for the field. Also, there is a tendency towards large multi-investigator programs, which affects the type of interdiciplinary research undertaken.
Green then described the evolution of the Materials Research Society (MRS) and the impact it has had on the field, primarily due to meeting programming, which has truly "pushed the envelope" in several critical and new fields in materials research. Finally, he presented a global view of the challenges in the field. Today in many Universities around the world, significant materials research is conducted not only in materials science and engineering (MSE) departments, but in other areas of engineering, as well as in the natural sciences and medicine. Similar trends exist in corporate laboratories where materials research is conducted in different departments. There are also some indications that undergraduate MS&E enrollment in the U.S. in MS&E is dropping at a time when the field is evolving more rapidly than at any time in history. He concluded by suggesting that this is perhaps the most exciting time to be in the field. However, the community has to be aware of all the associated issues and challenges, and tackle them to ensure the continued health of the field of MS&E.
A reception followed the opening lecture. It included Brazilian dances and music, giving a flavor of Brazilian culture particularly for visitors from outside Brazil.
Ceramics for Biological Applications
Examples of the first type are dental restorations or hip replacement on the base of high performance oxide ceramics. Biocers are a new class of biologically modified ceramics. Some innovative methods to produce these inorganic/bioorganic composites were described by Grathwohl, and new ways to immobilize bioorganisms in ceramic matrices were demonstrated. The properties of Biocers open new technical pathways in biotechnology, process engineering and related fields. The conversion of biological structures into ceramic parts follows two paths; there is interest in preserving the original biological structure and morphology such as observed in fibers, wood and other biological precursors in the new ceramic materials. However, this also allows for the fabrication of large scale components such as panels, tubes and substrates which cannot be produced by more conventional ceramic technologies. Grathwohl also described the structure of Nacre, which no one has been able to replicate in the lab. Finally, biomineralization is a natural process which provides formation of hard components as e.g. bones, teeth and shells in living organisms. Grathwohl concluded by stressing that the target applications of bioceramics interconnect the four different classes, and these materials have significant potential in the future. International Center of Materials Research (UCSB)
Cheetham described the organizational structure of ICMR and its various international activities, including key colloborative institutions, exchange programs for students from both US and non-US institutions, various workshops conducted over the past couple of years, and the highly successful summer schools conducted at UCSB and elsewhere. In 2006, roughly 400 scientists and engineers from ~40 countries will have participated in ICMR programs. He urged the audience to tell colleagues and students about ICMR and its activities, and encouraged people to suggest topics for summer schools, and also apply to programs. He also suggested that Latin American could and should become more involved with ICMR and its international activities. Addition information is available on the ICMR Website.
Designing Bio-Hybrid Materials Using Sol-Gel
Dunn also discussed the use of biohybrid materials for forming biofuel cells, based on enzyme encapsulation, that continuously change the chemical energy of a fuel and oxidant directly to electrical energy by utilizing enzymes to catalyze oxidation and reduction reactions. He described the development of nanostructured electrodes for biofuel cells by integrating a 3-D network of carbon nanotubes acting as 3-D nanowiring in the non-conductive silica matrix. The biofuel cells can be integrated to form a battery by connecting the biofuel cells in series and using fluidic chambers. He also described recent work on the development of a photo-biofuel cell. Sol-gel synthesis thus clearly provides flexible architectures and unique design capabilities. Duplicating the Superhydrophobic Surface of a Lotus Leaf Focused Ion Beam (FIB) Applications in Nanofabrication, Microscopy, and Microanalysis
Ion beam etching can be used to prepare very fine diamond probes, can be used to etch materials such as PMMA (using water in combination with the beam) and can be used to deposit materials in the presence of organometallic gases. Beams can be used to create patterns (such as holes) at the ends of optical fibers and can etch out devices from an array of devices and still maintain the working device. They can also be used to form interconnects. In summary, FIB is versatile for ion imaging, sputtering and gas assisted etching and deposition. Commercial systems are mature and FIB can be used to prepare specimens for SEM, TEM and STEM. Damage can be avoided or removed and the technique is ideal for nanofabrication. Micro-Spectroscopies Extended to the Softer X-ray Domain Scandia-Stabilized Zirconia (SCSZ) obtained by the Polyacrilamide Technique Grain Growth and Impedance Spectroscopy of CeGdO Solid Electrolyte
Shimadzu Biotech introduces high-performance TOF mass spectrometer
McPherson Raman Workstation - A total spectroscopy solution Dilution refrigerator (DR) system from Janis Research
Superior environmental chamber from Ambios Technology
© Materials Research Society, 2006 |
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application and wavelength range. The Raman Workstation, a unique open architectural, single stage Raman instrument, provides high throughput and low scatter. All elements are mounted, aligned and integrated with a research grade 350 nm, f/4.8 spectrometer with CCD and software. The user friendly single stage instrument assures good signal to noise and ease of use for detection of Raman shifted above about 300 wavenumbers from the Raleigh scatter. Used for Raman or PL, it is ideally suited for research, analytical and teaching laboratories. Visit our representative, Instrutecnica Comercio Representaçoes e Serviços, in the exhibit area or contact Erik Schoeffel at McPherson, at erik.schoeffel@mcphersoninc.com or on the Web at 
Ambios Technology offers a superior environmental chamber for isolating high resolution metrology instrumentation from building vibrations, interior acoustic noise, and thermally induced drift. The new Isochamber provides 30dB of acoustic isolation, and features an integral 0.5Hz vibration isolation platform from Minus K Technology. This translates to better than 99% isolation efficiency acoustically and mechanically in key frequency regimes. To learn more, visit our representative, Instrutecnica Comercio Representaçoes e Serviços, in the exhibit area or contact Tim Van Slambrouck at Ambios, at tim@ambiostech.com or on the Web at 
