The TMS 2020 Annual Meeting & Exhibition is an ideal place for graduate students to create the professional networks essential to building a successful career. We encourage you to participate in all of the meeting’s student activities—which are designed for both graduate and undergraduate students—but we also encourage you to look to the next phase of your career by attending some of our young professional and TMS orientation activities.
Student Events (for Graduates and Undergraduates)
TMS2020 Materials Bowl
Date: Sunday, February 23, 2020
Time: 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Location: San Diego Convention Center, Room 6A
Material Advantage chapters are invited to participate in the Materials Bowl, held each year at the TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition. Chapters select a team of two to four members to represent their school in a materials-themed knowledge and trivia competition. The team may consist of up to two graduate students. Teams compete in elimination rounds, a semi-final match, and championship game for cash prizes. Applications for the Materials Bowl are now closed, but come and cheer on your favorite team!
2020 TMS Technical Division Student Poster Contest
Date: Monday, February 24, 2020
Time: 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Location: San Diego Convention Center, Sails Pavilion
Students will display posters of their research related to each of the five TMS technical divisions: Extraction & Processing, Functional Materials, Light Metals, Materials Processing & Manufacturing, and Structural Materials. One winning graduate poster and one winning undergraduate poster will be selected in each technical division. Poster submissions are now closed, but come and view the work of your peers during the poster session at TMS2020.
Student Career Forum
Date: Tuesday, February 25, 2020
Time: 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Location: San Diego Convention Center, Room 19
"When should I start my job search?" "Should I continue to graduate school or begin my career?" "How important is networking to my career?" If you find yourself asking questions like these about your future, then you should attend the Student Career Forum. Organized by the TMS Young Professional Committee, this session will feature speakers from various stages of their careers and diverse materials science backgrounds to discuss how to navigate a successful career path in the fields of minerals, metals, and materials.
Speakers will include:
Melanie Lang, FormAlloy
View Bio
Melanie Lang, FormAlloy Co-Founder and CEO, is motivated by developing a disruptive technology that delivers the future of additive manufacturing—creating high-value components with superior performance. Her passion has manifested into making wave(length)s in metal additive manufacturing since co-founding FormAlloy in 2016. Prior to FormAlloy, she had 15 years of experience as an engineer and program manager with Lockheed Martin and Boeing. She holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Illinois and M.S. in Systems Architecture & Engineering from the University of Southern California. In addition to her role at FormAlloy, she currently serves as the Vice President of Legislative Affairs for Navy League San Diego and is a Women in 3D Printing Ambassador.
Adam Hope, Thermo-Calc Software
View Bio
Adam Hope received his Ph.D. in Welding Engineering at The Ohio State University. His work was focused on combining computational and experimental techniques to predict susceptibility to weld cracking, and to develop new weld metal compositions. He currently works at Thermo-Calc Software providing applications support to users of the tools.
Nolan Hoffman, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center
View Bio
Nolan Hoffman began his career as a Research Mechanical Engineer for the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) in 2016 after earning his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Alabama. He is a subject matter expert in airfield matting systems that support fighter, cargo, and remote-piloted aircraft over soft soils. His other areas of research include aircraft tiedowns and arresting gear anchoring systems. He is currently pursuing his master’s degree in mechanical engineering through Mississippi State University and is planned to graduate in May of 2020.
Remi Dingreville, Sandia National Laboratories
View Bio
Remi Dingreville is a computational materials scientist at the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT) at Sandia National Laboratories. He received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He joined Sandia National Laboratories in 2011. At Sandia, his research interests have encompassed a variety of areas, including probabilistic fracture mechanics, aging of nanostructured materials, synthesis of nanocomposites, grain boundary mechanics, and metamaterials. In the past five years, he has mentored half a dozen Ph.D. students and postdoctoral appointees, many of which are now staff members at national laboratories or in the industry. He is a member of TMS since 2008 and has over 50 publications.
Brian Jordon, The University of Alabama
View Bio
J. Brian Jordon is an associate professor in the department of mechanical engineering at The University of Alabama. He received his doctorate from Mississippi State University in 2008. His research focuses on understanding the influence of microstructure on mechanical behavior in order to model materials and structures for superior performance. His interests include fatigue and fracture, process-structure-property relationships, constitutive modeling of plasticity and damage, simulation modeling of welding and joining, and solid-state additive manufacturing.
Jordon has published over 50 refereed journal articles, over 25 conference proceedings, and given over 25 invited seminars in these and related areas. His research has been supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Defense, the state of Alabama, and private industry. Professionally, Jordon serves as vice chair of the Magnesium Committee of TMS. In addition, he currently serves on the editorial board of the Materials and Manufacturing Processes journal. In 2014, Jordon was a recipient of the TMS Young Professional Development Award. More recently, he was a 2017 finalist for The University of Alabama President’s Faculty Research Award. Prior to coming to The University of Alabama, Jordon was an interim associate director and an assistant research professor at the Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems at Mississippi State University.
Kester Clarke
View Bio
Kester Clarke
is an assistant professor in the Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Department at Colorado School of Mines and serves as the Forging Industry Education and Research Foundation (FIERF) Professor and holds a joint appointment as a scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). He engages in research on deformation processes in metal alloys with the Center for Advanced Non-Ferrous Structural Alloys and the Advanced Steel Processing and Products Research Center. His research interests include alloy development, material deformation and fabrication processes, and the use of experimental and modeling methods to examine the effect of material processing history and microstructure on mechanical properties and performance.
Clarke holds a B.A. in Psychology from Indiana University, a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Wayne State University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines. He has worked as a consulting Metallurgical Engineer for Engel Metallurgical and as a Senior Engineer/Research and Development for Caterpillar. He conducted postdoctoral research at Los Alamos National Laboratory, was an R&D scientist/engineer in the Materials Science & Technology: Metallurgy group serving as the technical lead for thermal-mechanical processing of metals and metal component fabrication and is currently a Visiting Scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
He is a key reader for Metallurgical and Materials Transactions, a JOM topic editor, and chair of the TMS Shaping & Forming and Steels committees. He is also a member of the TMS Nuclear Materials, Phase Transformations, Education, and Diversity committees.
Expanding the Boundaries of Materials Science: Unconventional Collaborations
Programming Developed by Students
As the demands on modern materials continue to intensify, the field of materials science must advance beyond its traditional capabilities and limitations. One way researchers are working toward this is by re-visiting classical problems in materials science from a new perspective through the lens of interdisciplinary collaboration. Talks will feature examples of how significant materials advancement has resulted from collaboration with physicists, statisticians, computer scientists, chemists, and other disciplines. Speakers will include academic researchers who have successfully contributed to interdisciplinary research, which has led to new routes for materials characterization and data processing, thereby expanding the boundaries of how we do research today. It will showcase successful advancements made through effective integration between modeling, computing and experimental groups, allowing development of high-throughput methods to accelerate materials discovery and development. A panel presentation featuring collaborative researchers will elucidate best practices on effective communication and strategies for making the most out of interdisciplinary research collaborations.
This special-topic symposium at TMS2020 is being organized by four graduate students from North Carolina State University: Alex Hsain, Sourabh Kadambi, Brady G. Dowdell, and Benjamin Anthony.
Young Professional Activities
Young Professionals Committee Meeting
Date: Tuesday, February 25
Time: 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
Location: Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina, Catalina Room
The mission of the Young Professionals Committee is to create opportunities and provide avenues for young professionals to increase their involvement in The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society. This committee meeting is open to all TMS members, age 40 or younger, who have graduated or are currently pursuing advanced degrees.
Preparing a Winning Application Package Workshop
Date: Tuesday, February 25
Time: 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Location: San Diego Convention Center, Room 6A
Instructors: Mohsen Asle Zaeem, Colorado School of Mines; additional instructors to be announced
In this workshop, instructors from a national laboratory, university, and industry will share their experiences in obtaining and/or recruiting entry-level positions (postdocs, tenure-track faculty positions, etc.) and help guide the young professional on their journey from recent graduate to career professional. There is no additional cost to attend for TMS2020 registrants, but pre-registration is required.
Note: this event is now full.
TMS Orientation Activities
Attend a TMS Technical Committee Meeting
If you are interested in networking with professionals who work in your particular area of study, attending a TMS technical committee meeting is an excellent way to meet others with similar technical interests, while helping you to better understand TMS, how it works, and how it can benefit your career. More than 30 TMS technical committees from all five TMS technical divisions will hold committee meetings during TMS2020. These meetings are open to all meeting attendees. You do not have to RSVP to participate.
Don’t Forget Your Student ID!
Every student who registers for the TMS 2020 Annual Meeting & Exhibition at the student rate will be asked to show a valid student ID when they pick up their badges at the registration desk. This is the only way to make sure you receive the deeply discounted student attendee rate on the conference. So please—when you pack your bags for San Diego, don’t forget to bring your student ID!