2000 TMS Annual Meeting: Special Lectures and Addresses

Futureview . . .

Presented by: Daniel Burrus, Burrus Research Associates, Inc.

Date: Monday, March 13, 2000
Time: 11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Room: Presidential Ballroom, Opryland Hotel

Thanks to recent innovations in science and technology we are at the gateway to a renaissance in materials technology, in terms of not only developing new applications, but also in terms of the industry itself. Although we are at a time of tremendous opportunity, we are at the same time faced with problems of equal magnitude. This presentation will provide you with valuable insight into how best to capitalize on present and future opportunities, while artfully minimizing problems along the way.

Key information you will take with you and use . . .

• Switching from a Short-Range Mindset to a Long-Range R&D Focus
• Belt-tightening, Downsizing, and the Growing Threat to Global Science
• Materials Technology's Role in Miniaturization and the Environment
• An Entrepreneurial Look at Leveraging Time with Technology: Doing More with Less
• The Actionable Value of Sharing Knowledge and Wisdom
• The Visible Future: How You can Thrive in the New Millennium

Aspects of Technology Transfer

Presented by: Derek J. Fray, Professor, University of Cambridge

• Date: Tuesday, March 14, 2000
• Time: 12:00 noon
• Room: Jefferson A - Presidential Ballroom

About the topic: In recent decades, those working in extractive metallurgy have made tremendous progress in the understanding of thermodynamics, kinetics, and modeling of metallurgical systems. However, as is well known, the subject of extractive metallurgy has suffered a severe decline in the number of universities and other institutions offering teaching and research activities. This is beginning to be reflected in the lack of publications in the area compared to those in competing areas of polymers, ceramics and composite materials. This decline may affect future innovation in extractive metallurgy but, fortunately, other areas of fundamental and applied science can offer innovative approaches to many problems. This presentation will explore such diverse areas as nanotechnology, battery and fuel cell technology, solid state chemistry and physical metallurgy and give examples where technology transfer from these areas may offer interesting benefits to the understanding of existing processes and the creation of new processes which are more energy efficient and less polluting. The examples will pertain to aluminum, titanium and other non-ferrous metals.

Some Generalities in the Analyses of Equilibria in Ionic Solutions

Presented by: Prof. Robert A. Rapp, Distinguished University Professor Emeritus The Ohio State University

• Date: Wednesday, March 15, 2000
• Time: 12:00 noon
• Room: Jefferson A Presidential Ballroom

About the topic: Despite great differences in the physical and chemical properties of various ionic media, common methods for analyzing internal equilibrium provide useful and simple means for interpreting and predicting their behavior. The formalism of M. Pourbaix for analyzing the activities and solubilities of solutes in aqueous solutions has provided a foundation for interpreting corrosion and other electrochemical phenomena in such solutions. Although perhaps not so obvious, the formalism of Kroger-Vink in plotting the point defect concentrations for ionic solids derives from the same mathematical method. Likewise, the activities and solubilities for solutes in fused salts, e.g. fused sodium sulfate, can be treated by exactly the same sort of simultaneous resolution of equilibria for reactions in an ionic medium. Suggestions for extension of this analysis to analyze cryolite-base fused salt solutions important to aluminum extraction are discussed.