Meeting chairs for the 2017 Materials Research Society (MRS) Spring Meeting are Christopher J. Bettinger (Carnegie Mellon University, USA), Stefan A. Maier (Imperial College London, United Kingdom), Alfonso H.W. Ngan (The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong), W. Jud Ready (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA), and Eli A. Sutter (University of Nebraska–Lincoln, USA). The Meeting will be held April 17–21, 2017, in Phoenix, Ariz.
Christopher J. Bettinger is an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in the Departments of Materials Science and Engineering and Biomedical Engineering. He directs CMU’s Laboratory for Biomaterials-based Microsystems and Electronics, which is broadly interested in the design of novel materials and interfaces that integrate medical devices with the human body. Recent efforts focus on flexible electronics for neural interfaces and edible electronics for ingestible diagnostics and therapeutics. He received a SB degree in chemical engineering, a MEng degree in biomedical engineering, and a PhD degree in materials science and engineering as a Charles Stark Draper Fellow, all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He completed his postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University in the Department of Chemical Engineering as an NIH Ruth Kirschstein Fellow.
Bettinger has published over 60 articles, delivered over 50 invited seminars, and is co-inventor on several patents. His honors include the National Academy of Sciences Award for Initiatives in Research in 2012, the ACS AkzoNobel Award for Outstanding Graduate Research in Polymer Chemistry in 2009, the MIT Technology Review TR35 Top Young Innovators Under 35, and the DARPA Young Investigator Award. He is a finalist in the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition, and co-founder and CTO of Ancure, an early-stage medical device company. He is currently a member of the MRS Bulletin Editorial Board.
Stefan A. Maier is a co-director for the Centre for Plasmonics and Metamaterials at the Imperial College London. He is also director of postgraduate studies, deputy head of the Experimental Solid State Physics Group, and leads a research group investigating fundamental and applied aspects of nanophotonics, nanoplasmonics, and metamaterials. He earned a MS degree in applied physics in 2000 and a PhD degree in applied physics in 2003, both from the California Institute of Technology. After his first academic position at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom, he joined Imperial College London and became a chair in nanophotonics prior to his current roles.
Maier’s research has been recognized by the Sackler Prize in the Physical Sciences in 2010, the Paterson Medal of the Institute of Physics in the United Kingdom in 2010, and a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award in 2011. He is a Fellow of The Optical Society. He has over 200 publications, holds two patents, and has delivered 160 invited talks. He currently serves as associate editor for ACS Photonics. He was a co-chair for the 2012 E-MRS Spring Meeting, and he has been a symposium organizer for several societies, including three MRS Meetings.
Alfonso H.W. Ngan is the Kingboard Professor in materials engineering, chair professor of materials science and engineering, and associate dean of engineering at The University of Hong Kong (HKU). He obtained his BSc(Eng) degree from The University of Hong Kong in 1989, and a PhD degree from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom in 1992. After a year of postdoctoral training at the University of Oxford, he joined HKU as a lecturer in 1993, and was promoted to a chair professorship in 2011.
Ngan’s research work is focused on the microstructural basis of properties of engineering materials, and, in particular, crystalline defects and their modeling, and more recently, nanomechanics, including applications to biological systems. He has published over 180 ISI papers and co-authored two books. His research-related honors include the Rosenhain Medal and Prize from the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining in 2007. He was also awarded a higher doctorate (DSc) from the University of Birmingham in 2008, and received the Croucher Senior Research Fellowship in 2009. In 2014, he was elected to the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences. He has won the Outstanding Reviewer Award of Scripta Materialia four times. He has organized a number of conferences, including Dislocations 2008 and the Gordon Research Conference on Nanomechanical Interfaces in 2013, both held in Hong Kong. He is a member of the Hong Kong Advisory Board for Gordon Research Conferences.
W. Jud Ready is the deputy director for innovation initiatives for the Georgia Institute of Technology’s (Georgia Tech) Institute for Materials. He has also been an adjunct professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech, and a principal research engineer on the research faculty of Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) for over 12 years. Previously, he worked for General Dynamics as well as in small business (MicroCoating Technologies). His current esearch focuses primarily on energy, aerospace, nanomaterial applications, and electronics reliability. He has published numerous publications on electronic and nanoscale materials. He has patents awarded in the United States and abroad, with several others pending.
The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society’s (TMS) Electronic, Magnetic and Photonic Materials Division named Ready a 2002 Young Leader. He has served on various TMS committees and was elected to the TMS Board in 2005 and again in 2010. In 2015, he received the Brimacombe Medal from TMS. He is also the recipient of the Innovative Research Award from GTRI in 2013, the Outstanding Undergraduate Research Mentor Award from Georgia Tech in 2009, and the Young Leader International Scholar Award from the Japan Institute of Metals in 2005. He is a member of MRS and a senior member of IEEE. He is a session organizer for numerous national and international symposia and conferences. He was a 2015 volume organizer for MRS Bulletin.
Eli A. Sutter is a professor of mechanical and materials engineering at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She received MS and PhD degrees in condensed-matter physics from Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” in Bulgaria. She then held postdoctoral positions at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zrich) and at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. From 2000 to 2004, she was an assistant professor in physics at the Colorado School of Mines. Before joining the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in June 2015, she spent almost 12 years as a scientist in the Center for Functional Nanomaterials at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
Sutter’s primary research interests include novel materials and materials for energy applications, with a focus on in situ transmission electron microscopy of nanomaterials at variable temperatures and in different environments; mechanisms of epitaxial growth and nanostructure formation; and 2D materials, including graphene. She has co-authored more than 160 scientific publications and holds seven US patents. She received a Scientific American 50 Award for advances in ultra-measurement in 2007, the Sapphire Prize from Springer in 2011, and Battelle’s Inventor of the Year Award in 2015. She served as a co-chair of the International Conference on Nanoscience and Technology held in Vail, Col., in 2014.
