The 2021 MRS Spring Meeting will be held virtually April 17 - 23, 2021. There will be 55 symposia grouped into seven topical clusters, as follows:
Broader Impact – This cluster features one symposium dedicated to sustainability and its incorporation into materials science education, training and public Outreach. This complex topic will be addressed in a broad overview, taking
into account its high relevance for various aspects of material research, processes and applications.
Characterization and Modeling – This cluster features eight symposia dedicated to methods and tool development for characterization and modeling of a broad range of materials and applications. Special focus will be on materials
design and characterization with data-driven approaches, functional and operando imaging, understanding mechano-chemical coupling and techniques for ground state and excited state calculations, as well as their applications for materials prediction.
Electronics and Optics – This cluster features nine symposia covering a variety of topical areas in electronics and optics. These include symposia focusing on electronic and optical materials, such as organic semiconductors, halide
semiconductors, ionic semiconductors and ultrawide bandgap materials. Also included are symposia on electronic and optical functionalities and devices ranging from metamaterials and plasmonics to bioelectronics, next-generation interconnects
and negative capacitance in ferroelectronics.
Energy and Sustainability – This cluster features 10 symposia covering energy and environmental research subtopics including energy harvest, storage and conversion. The focus is on catalysis with sustainable approaches, fundamental
science and material development of solid state and next-generation batteries, interface characterization of electrochemical devices and environment systems. Also included are frontier of perovskite materials, thin film semiconductor photovoltaics
and concentrated solar energy technologies.
Nanomaterials and Quantum Materials – This cluster features nine symposia dedicated to nanoscale and quantum materials in a broad range of chemistries, exhibiting simple and complex electronic, atomic and mesoscopic
structures. The symposia cover topics ranging from their synthesis and properties to device applications and performance, including structure-property relationships formulated through integrated and iterative experimentation, advanced characterization,
and materials theory and simulation. Special focus is on superconductivity, low-dimensional materials and heterostructures, in- and out-of-equilibrium responses, heat transport, spin textures, topological effects and other quantum phenomena.
Soft Materials and Biomaterials – This cluster features 13 symposia which comprises three subtopics on polymer and composite research taking in view biomaterials, multifunctional materials and sustainable systems/processes. Materials
for regenerative therapies, medical devices, controlled drug delivery systems and healthcare technologies are considered with their complex interactions in physiological environments. Strategies to integrate multiple functions in one material system,
which often seem to exclude each other, will be addressed from different perspectives: self-organizing systems (e.g. by non-classical crystallization), multimaterial approaches and fabrication schemes with an emphasis on 3D printing. Robotics will
be highlighted as an emerging field for multifunctional materials. Finally, special emphasis is given to sustainable systems/processes including green chemistry approaches and environmental technologies.
Structural Materials – This cluster features five symposia that cover topics including structural material design and fabrication, characterization and modeling, microstructure to property analysis and application
of structural materials for a variety of engineering applications. Specific focus will be on mechanical properties of small scale structural materials, probing the deformation mechanisms using in-situ nanomechanical testing methods and modelling,
architectured materials for structural applications, design, fabrication and analysis of high entropy alloys and mechanics of energy storage materials.
Symposium X – Frontiers of Materials Research will feature presentations aimed at a broad audience and on topics at the forefront of research on materials science and engineering.
To complement the symposia, tutorials will provide detailed information on particularly exciting areas of research and the Exhibit will showcase products and services of interest to the scientific community.
We look forward to seeing you online!