The 2014 Materials Research Society Fall Meeting in Boston, November 30–December 5, will be chaired by Husam N. Alshareef (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia), Amit Goyal (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA), Gerardo Morell (University of Puerto Rico, PR), José A. Varela (University of São Paulo State–UNESP, Brazil), and In Kyeong Yoo (Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, South Korea). Updated information on the meeting is available at www.mrs.org/fall2014.

Husam N. Alshareef is a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). His research interests are in emerging electronics, energy harvesting, and energy storage. After earning his PhD degree in materials science and engineering in 1996 from North Carolina State University, he worked as a post-doctoral fellow at Sandia National Laboratories where he researched functional electronic materials. He then embarked on a 10-year career in the semiconductor industry holding positions at Micron Technology and Texas Instruments, Inc. Alshareef has worked on several projects focusing on the development of new materials for memory and logic applications. He is the author of nearly 220 articles and has over 60 issued patents. He received the United Nations Undergraduate Fellowship, the Seth Sprague Physics Award, the NC State Dean’s Fellowship, the US Department of Education Electronic Materials Fellowship, and the SEMATECH Corporate Excellence Award. Alshareef is a Member of the Materials Research Society and a Senior Member of the IEEE.

Amit Goyal is a Corporate Fellow and Distinguished Scientist at UT-Battelle/Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He is also a Battelle Distinguished Inventor. He is presently the chair of the UT-Battelle/ORNL Corporate Fellows Council. He is the Founder and President of TapeSolar, Inc., a private-equity funded start-up company and also the Founder and President of TexMat LLC, an IP holding company. Goyal received a BTech degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India, and MS and PhD degrees from the University of Rochester. In 2006, Goyal was awarded the University of Rochester’s Distinguished Scholar Medal, and in 2010 he received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Indian Institute of Technology. His other honors include the 2012 World Technology Award in the category of materials, the 2011 DOE’s E.O. Lawrence Award, the 2010 R&D 100 Magazine’s “Innovator of the Year” Award, and three National Federal Laboratory Consortia Awards for excellence in technology transfer. Goyal has co-authored over 350 publications and has over 75 issued patents. He is a Fellow of eight professional societies including MRS.

Gerardo Morell is a full professor of physics at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), Rio Piedras Campus. He received a BS degree in physics, and a MSc degree in solid-state physics studying the anharmonic interactions of phonons. He obtained a PhD degree in chemical physics in 1995, and joined UPR as associate professor and researcher the same year. Morell’s research interests focus on the synthesis and technological applications of nanocrystalline diamond, graphene, and carbon nanocomposites. Morell's group pioneered and patented the use of aliphatic polymers for the synthesis diamond on unseeded surfaces. He has published over 100 articles and was awarded UPR’s Research Productivity Award in 2001. Morell partnered with Brad R. Weiner to establish UPR’s Nano Carbon Materials Research Laboratory. In January 2004, he was appointed director of the NASA Puerto Rico Space Grant and the NASA Puerto Rico EPSCoR programs. In September 2006, Morell was appointed director of the Department of Physics. In May 2012, Morell chaired the International Conference on New Diamond and Nano Carbons that was held in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

José A. Varela is a professor of physics at the University of São Paulo State (UNESP) and CEO of the São Paulo State Research Funding Agency (FAPESP), both in São Paulo State, Brazil. He received a BS degree from the University of São Paulo State and a MS degree at the Technological Institute of Aeronautics in Brazil. He received a PhD degree from the University of Washington, Seattle. He is a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society and past president of MRS Brazil. He is currently serving as Principal Editor of the Journal of Materials Research. Varela’s main research interests are centered in synthesis and processing of nanostructured functional materials in bulk, thin, and thick films for several applications. He has authored or co-authored more than 580 articles and he holds 11 patents in Brazil. His research programs have received multiple awards, including the São Paulo State Governor Award (1992), Epsilon de Ouro Prize given by the Spanish Ceramic Society (2003), Scopus Prize given by Elsevier (2008), and the Global Star Award given by The American Ceramic Society (2013).

In Kyeong Yoo is a Samsung Fellow at Samsung Electronics in South Korea. He received a BS degree in metallurgical engineering from Hanyang University in 1975 and MS and PhD degrees in materials science and engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in 1986 and 1990, respectively. He described several electrical failure mechanisms in ferroelectrics including breakdown mechanisms and fatigue mechanisms when he joined Virginia Tech from 1991 through 1993. Yoo developed the first 1T-1C 64K PZT FRAM (ferroelectric random-access memory) in 1996. He pioneered an oxide thin-film transistor for liquid-crystal display application and developed the first 1T-1R NiO resistance change memory in 2005. He has published more than 130 papers and filed more than 145 patents in fields including FRAM and RRAM. Yoo has received the FRAM Development Award in 1996 and four Patent Awards, as well as the Paper Award at Samsung.