MRS Meetings Blog

Blogging the 2009 MRS Fall Meeting

Four bloggers will be bringing you news, photos and items of interest from the 2009 MRS Fall Meeting.  Our bloggers for this meeting will be:

• Rebecca Kramer (Harvard)
• YongJoo Kim (MIT)
• Melissa Alyson Smith (MIT)

We hope you'll enjoy their unique take on the meeting.

And speaking of the meeting -- if you haven't registered yet, now's the time to do so.  Discounted preregistration rates end at 5 p.m. (ET) on Friday, November 13.

Fall 2009 Lodging & Spring 2010 Call For Papers

Discounted lodging is now available for the 2009 MRS Fall Meeting.

And for those of you who are REALLY thinking ahead, here's the Spring 2010 Call For Papers.  Abstract submission begins on October 2 and concludes on November 2.

2009 MRS Fall Meeting -- Abstract Submission Now Open

Abstract submission for the 2009 MRS Fall Meeting is now open.  Submission deadline is June 23, 2009.

• Call For Papers
• Online Submittal Site

• Submission Guidelines

Adios!

Bye, everyone, it's been fun!  Thanks for reading the blog!   I think maybe I got more out of this conference because I knew I had to write something interesting down... made me pay more attention, be more thoughtful about what I saw.  Try it sometime! 

Hope you enjoy your remaining time in SF!  If you want to do something super touristy, go to Ghiradelli Square and get free chocolate when you walk into the store.  And then walk out and walk in again.  And again. And again...

Final Spring Thoughts...

This terms conference went well! Its finally over. I am sure you all have gotten enough hand shakes and network contacts and new thoughts and perspectives on how to approach your own work! I know I have, and I hope to see everyone again in a year, or sooner. I think highlights for me were:
Poster Session talks about science
Meeting people in between the sessions over coffee to discuss the most provocative talk of the last session
Symposium X.

Mostly I liked everything about the conference that forced me to think about or approach a problem from a new and different angle. Conferences rock! and Spring MRS is a golden standard in my book.
Thanks for checking out the blog! Peace!

photos!

I've got a backlog of photos here, might as well post them on this quiet Friday @ MRS...

Berkeley folks at the Kohn promoting his Power of the Sun video session!

 

Nearly empty Moscone Center, lunchtime on Friday....

Famous faces!

Burnout...

I've been at the conference pretty much from 8:30am to 10-11pm every night for the last few days and I'm pretty burnt out. While it has been exceptionally illuminating and fun, there's only so much I can take before I need a break. So, to keep myself sane, I decided to come in late and spend a couple of hours this morning in the meadow by Fort Mason in North Beach. Its a great place to just hang out, BBQ, play frisbee, read etc. Unfortunately for me, I had a backlog of work to do because I was at MRS all week! Thus, my "break" from the conference was spent grading papers for a class I'm TAing and finishing up a report for the organisation that funds the project I'm working on. Atleast I got to sit outside in the sun by the water :)

-- Dan

Friday morning talks. Good turnout!

Today is the last day of Spring MRS. While the population of the conference has started to dwindle, there are still many who are trying to fuflill their fix of talks for the next quarter (before the next conference!). Some symposium have been combined, so if you don't quite see the talks you want in your "goto" symposium, look at some of the others that may have some overlap. You will find yourself pleasantly surprised. But in any case, Friday is a good day for exploration! Go see symposia you know nothing about! Also go explore the city!

The weather is great in sunny SF! And for many of you this will be a pleasant break from the tough weather back home! Enjoy your stay in SF!

Thursday wrap up...

I just got home from the poster session and I can tell you that I had a great time. Most of today's posters were not directly related to my research but I enjoyed the session anyway. It gave me a chance to just wander around and talk to people about research that I found interesting. 

Most of the talks in Symposium M today were focused on commercialization of compound thin films. It was interesting for me to see some of the problems that the more mature technologies like CdTe and CIGS are having in going from lab cells to commercial modules. I believe it will allow researchers who are working on the next generation of technologies in the pipeline to try and address some of the problems the mature technologies are facing from the beginning. 

Last but not least, I got a chance to meet a couple of friends from undergrad that I hadn't seen in 3-4 years and catch up with them. They are all doing exciting research in a variety of fields and were here to present their talks/posters.

NY Times article: Stoves and the Environment

For those of you that made it to the Symposium X talks on Wednesday by Richard Le Sar and Scott Lacy, you may be interested in seeing this New York Times article on the environmental consequences of conventional stoves in developing countries. 

It states quite the statistic for black carbon emissions from these stoves: 

"While carbon dioxide may be the No. 1 contributor to rising global temperatures, scientists say, black carbon has emerged as an important No. 2, with recent studies estimating that it is responsible for 18 percent of the planet’s warming, compared with 40 percent for carbon dioxide."

Really, 18%? Sounds like a lot to just come from stoves.  

You can likely find more information on the two speakers and their work on their websites at Iowa State University (Le Sar) and Emory University (Lacy).