MRS Meetings Blog

pics from today...I guess everyone was as busy as I was!!

I had the greatest time at the Student Mixer this evening. It was MRS on a more lighter note. I won a rafffle for putting C20 (bucky ball) together faster than the other team (my teammate rocked!!) and got a free T-Shirt!! And it was great just to meet other fellow materials-heads!. Greatest thing ever!! MRS please keep doing this. The Student Poster session was great too!! So much brilliance everywhere!! I love it!!!!

first day.

hello guys. I had no idea how to post script before, but I know right now, so I will post really hard from today :) Anyway, the first day was really awesome, I met lots of scientist and engineers came from Korea, that was really good opportunity to know korean scientist. I am really interested in computational study of materials, so I looked around sessions related to modeling and calculation. I didn't stuck in one spot, but I made the list of lectures I am interested in, and then I constantly moved to listen all the lectures I am interested in (especially simulation of polymer system). All presentation were really good and really enjoyed it :)

My afternoon has been mostly attending Session II2: Mechanochemistry in Polymers.  I decided to go learn something completely new today -- and indeed, mechanochemistry is something I know little about. When I think chemistry, I think reactions -- dump a few things and together, perhaps  add some heat, and something happens.  But imagine designing a system where you are able to push or pull a molecule by certain atoms in such a way that it changes conformation, properties, or even drives a reaction in a certain way.  I found the color changing polymers particularly interesting, as examples of "mechanophores". It's a simple concept -- take a molecule like spiropyran, attach it to a polymer (the example given was polyurethane), and stretch the polymer to induce conformational change in the spiropyran and change it to merocyanine, which gives the polymer a purple color.  Pretty cool :-)       

WOW! Pretty intense morning. I spent most of my time in Symposium C: Large-Area Processing and Patterning for Optical, Photovoltiaic and Electronic Device II. Lots of interesting ideas and a variety of topics...time flew by. The afternoon is a bit open. I will go exploring.

Iridescent art

I visited the "nano at noon" booth during the lunch hour today, and I met Lisa who taught me a really cool, simple, art activity for kids -- "iridescent art". All you need is black paper, water, and clear nail polish. Submerge the paper in water, put a drop of nail polish on the top of the water and it will spread out into a thin film, and lift the paper out of the water and the film will stick to the paper and dry into an iridescent design. Neat way to teach about thin films and interference.

I'm sure you all will see this eventually, but I was quite happy with the third floor view -- I love the floor to ceiling windows along the whole length of the hall. Quite a pretty place to relax.

Of the many tutorial sessions available, I began with Tutorial XX: Interfacing Inorganic Nanoparticles with Biology. See, this is what I love about nanomaterials today -- I have some background in nanoparticles, almost zero background in biology, but somehow I can learn to apply the knowledge from one field to another and poof, a brand new area of research! Interdisciplinary work is certainly the way to new breakthroughs. Although my degree will be in chemistry, I have often said that I don't feel like a chemist. But I don't really feel like a materials scientist either. I think we need some new words.

At any rate, if you are interested in this subject, especially nanoparticle based biodetection, don't forget to go to Chad Mirkin's presentation tonight at 7 pm. Enjoy!

The tutorials seem to cover a WIDE range of topics. I think I'll take this opportunity to learn about something completely new and different from my own research.

Welcome to Boston!

I arrived a short while ago at the convention center. My first excitement of the day came when I realized that it is right across the street from Trader Joe's (my favorite grocery store, and a great place to grab lunch). But that aside, it's a beautiful day and I'm looking forward to the events ahead.

After registration, and trying to carry as many free journals as possible around with me, I'm going to check out some tutorials.

And again, welcome to Boston!