MRS Fall 2009: Monday evening, the growth of materials, and a keynote that was anything but flat
Well, as I sit in the Sheraton Grand Ballroom this Monday evening, I'm not a bit surprised to learn that this is the biggest MRS meeting ever. The rooms are packed. I'm a big fan of the MRS -- I find the meetings so useful that I attend even when I'm not presenting anything, like this year. What I hope to learn this evening at the student mixer is how I can start up (restart? invigorate?) a student chapter in Oxford.
Materials in the USA is thriving. I was shocked when I first saw materials departments in the UK. There seems to be a real struggle getting students in there, particularly at the undergraduate level. I suspect it has something to do with the different university system there. Instead of going for a four-year, broad (maybe liberal arts) degree where you can choose your course (to a certain extent) after a year of exploration, you generally have to pick your direction from about the time you're 16 and preparing for A levels and your direction is fixed until you graduate. So if your 6th form (think Junior/Senior year) advisor hasn't heard of materials science but has heard of chemistry or physics, you can guess which course they'll recommend. (I think Cambridge's Natural Science course may be an exception, and I welcome hearing about others.)
Anyway, on to the charming Andre Geim, Mr Graphene (Prof. Graphene?). I have a personal interest in this work. Granted my stuff isn't single sheets of graphene (that's probably too narrow for enzymes), but it's damn sexy stuff and gets a lot of electrochemists excited. Search for Geim's name on Web of Knowledge, then see who's citing him: can you say "exponential growth"? Oh yeah.
So why do we care (stealing from his slide)?
- It's the thinnest imaginable material
- It's the strongest and stiffest material (stiffer than diamond)
- most stretchable (20%)
- record thermal conductivity
- highest current density (1 µA through 1 atom thick)
- lighest charge carriers (zero rest mass)
- longest mena free path at room T (µm)
- most impermeable (not even He can squeeze through)
I trust you all can do lit searches, so I'm leaving it here so I can be entertained...
Materials in the USA is thriving. I was shocked when I first saw materials departments in the UK. There seems to be a real struggle getting students in there, particularly at the undergraduate level. I suspect it has something to do with the different university system there. Instead of going for a four-year, broad (maybe liberal arts) degree where you can choose your course (to a certain extent) after a year of exploration, you generally have to pick your direction from about the time you're 16 and preparing for A levels and your direction is fixed until you graduate. So if your 6th form (think Junior/Senior year) advisor hasn't heard of materials science but has heard of chemistry or physics, you can guess which course they'll recommend. (I think Cambridge's Natural Science course may be an exception, and I welcome hearing about others.)
Anyway, on to the charming Andre Geim, Mr Graphene (Prof. Graphene?). I have a personal interest in this work. Granted my stuff isn't single sheets of graphene (that's probably too narrow for enzymes), but it's damn sexy stuff and gets a lot of electrochemists excited. Search for Geim's name on Web of Knowledge, then see who's citing him: can you say "exponential growth"? Oh yeah.
So why do we care (stealing from his slide)?
- It's the thinnest imaginable material
- It's the strongest and stiffest material (stiffer than diamond)
- most stretchable (20%)
- record thermal conductivity
- highest current density (1 µA through 1 atom thick)
- lighest charge carriers (zero rest mass)
- longest mena free path at room T (µm)
- most impermeable (not even He can squeeze through)
I trust you all can do lit searches, so I'm leaving it here so I can be entertained...
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