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Mensagem de Marrilea Mayo, presidente da MRS
Meeting Report 2nd Meeting of the Brazil-MRS, Rio de Janeiro, October 26-29, 2003. The second meeting of the Brazilian Materials Research Society (SBPMat, where the P stands for Pesquisa, or “research”) was remarkable in several ways. First, there were no vacant talks, no no-shows. That reflected a remarkably intensive planning process that was evident well into the meeting, as the meeting’s chair, Guillermo Solarzano, managed to accommodate the personal and professional needs of almost every individual at the conference. Some of those needs – like my 6 year old demanding a Halloween celebration even though Halloween is not a Brazilian tradition – were pretty far off the beaten trail. But, guess who ended up with a basket of Brazilian candy on Halloween? Secondly, there was an intriguing mixture of ethereal and practical topics. On the ethereal side, I was fascinated by talks from Brazil’s Laboratório Nacional de Luz Síncrotron: I hadn’t realized it was possible to follow the transfer of electrons from one orbital to another along the different atoms of a crystal structure, as an atom alights upon a substrate. Georgeous AFM pictures of gold substrates and remarkable FIB work locating and isolating incredibly tiny (<20 nm) features in large-scale devices made for pleasing eye candy. Extracting nanoparticles from soil using plants certainly seemed a novel approach. And, on the practical side, there were a number of talks aimed towards utilizing Brazil’s vast natural resources. One poster presentation showed how milling large-grained SiC made it densify more completely and at much lower temperatures. This effect of particle size on sintering temperature was so well known, that I had to ask the presenter why one even bothered with the experiment. The response – that Brazil had very large amounts of SiC that it could not sell on the world market because no one could demonstrate it could sinter – put me in my place. I can’t recall the last time a work of mine generated a global market, as this young man’s had done. There were further interesting efforts – for example, fabrication of clay-rubber nanocomposites that were translucent and highly birefringent, or use of bamboo to make paper (one researcher handed out business cards that doubled as samples of this latest research of his). Though the 300 person conference overflowed – almost obscenely -- with “big names” from North America and Europe, as well as hot topics (e.g., writing with atom probes and molecular inks), it was the Brazilian-specific topics which left me most entranced. They were not only sprinkled throughout the “Current Trends in Nanostructures” session, where I spent most of my time, but also in the other sessions – “Advances in the Development of Biomaterials II,” “Materials of Energy Conversion and Environmental Protection,” “Structural Alloys for Transport Systems,” “Processing/Properties of Structural Composites,” “Supramolecular Materials for Optics and Electronics.” There was additionally a workshop on “Growth, Characterization and Device Applications of Semiconductor Nanostructures Based on Group III Nitrides,” which I was not able to attend, but which I heard people talking about with anticipation several days before it started. I had known before arriving in Rio de Janeiro that Brazil was by far the leading producer of scientific papers in Latin and South America. I also knew it was about 6th in the world with respect to the number of materials degree programs it offered at its universities. I was therefore gratified that this second meeting of the Brazil-MRS was such an unqualified success. It paves the way for Brazil’s entry into IUMRS (the International Union of Materials Research Societies), and puts Brazil on the world map for materials research. The next Brazil MRS will convene in approximately one year, at either Foz do Iguacu (south-east Brazil) or Natal (north-east Brazil). In 2005, the meeting will return to Rio de Janeiro, on Copacabana beach, with perfect weather, swimsuits so small the locals call them “dental floss,” and the inevitable strains of “The Girl from Ipanema” emanating equally from muzaked conference rooms and small bands at outdoor cafes. Marrilea Mayo
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