This year marked the milestone of the 50th anniversary of the Materials Research Society foundation. Throughout the years, the MRS has remained true to the founding vision and values and have broadened activities to capture contemporary needs and interests of members. Today, MRS has become an essential vehicle for the materials community, as well as other disciplines, to disseminate and learn about new discoveries, embrace new collaborations, and support the training of a new generation of materials scientists. I have been involved with MRS for the past 27 years and have witnessed consistent, positive progress in the MRS offering portfolio. As we embrace new challenges, I believe that we must also establish new goals for how we disseminate materials concepts, embrace diversity, and engage more effectively with the societies of other disciplines.
The strength and visibility of MRS has certainly benefitted from the quality of our biannual society meetings, which have set the standard for interdisciplinary materials research. I believe that for the MRS to remain successful we must continue to promote them. During the COVID-19 pandemic, and the near aftermath, virtual meetings have been instrumental in maintaining communication with other members, particularly those located in Asia. Now we need to ask ourselves if virtual meetings should continue as a resource tool and how best to use them to complement regular on-site attendance. Furthermore, I am among several members questioning where more specialized meetings could be organized during the year, preferably involving other societies, to strengthen specific topics of the main meetings.
MRS is at the forefront in outreach activities, promoting DEI principles and fostering global interactions with regional materials organizations. These efforts must continue. From the early days of engaging with the broader public via television to more recent MRS website activities, the society should maximize use of social media to promote materials concepts to younger scientists. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are rooted values in MRS. Recent programs such as the newly launched the Inclusive Graduate Education Network alliance could add activities involving the undergraduate communities in the U.S., passionate for the subject but lacking resources for developing programs in this direction. We must also continue to make progress in creating programs and activities with regional materials organizations of developing countries, particularly in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Africa. This road will be paved by the upcoming first workshop jointly organized by MRS with the African Materials Research Society. Finally, MRS has successfully attracted members from academia, national labs, and industry - particularly through the biannual meetings linking them together. However, to maximize the success rate in materials evolution, I believe that MRS should create the conditions so that real needs of industry are conveyed to academic researchers and entrepreneurs.
In conclusion, the 50th anniversary of MRS serves as an important occasion to reflect on our achievements and set a course for the future, particularly in challenging fields of healthcare, semiconductor, energy, and sustainability. By doing so we can propel MRS into an even more impactful future.