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Cong Wang
"I am very honored to be selected as the recipient of the TMS Young Leader Professional Development Award from the Light Metals Division. It was a great experience to get involved with Board of Directors' meetings and various committee meetings, through which I learned how the society, various conferences and symposia are planned and operated, let alone the kaleidoscopic social activities that open a fantastic door of talking to established engineers and scientists. How wonderful it is for a just-out-of-school boy to see many TMS badges carrying identical names that are only seen on textbook cover pages! Just as the TMS motto says: "Learn, Network, Advance", I believe TMS would be the best venue for technical communications, the most wonderful platform for interfacing with peers and senior professionals, and the marvelous classroom for continuous development. I would strongly encourage young professionals to apply for this great program to their best capacities."

Julia Greer
I had a terrific time at the TMS in San Diego this year - especially as part of the Young Leader winners. While TMS is already a great conference for materials scientists, being a part of YL made it be more than a working meeting - with multiple opportunities to attend committee meetings, participate in the Early Career Forum panel (this was my favorite part), and connect with other YL colleagues, students and post-docs. It also increased my enthusiasm for getting involved in the TMS-oriented activities like the Material Bowl, the student posters (there were some really great ones!), and the Board meeting. I will definitely continue getting involved in TMS-related activities in the future, and thank you, TMS, for the award!

Dongwon Shin
I feel very honored to be selected as one of the TMS Young Leader Professional Development award winners in 2011 by the Light Metals Division (LMD). I have been enjoying attending the TMS annual meeting since 2004, but this year’s experience was far superior. Besides attending technical talks relevant to my research area presented during the conference, I had a chance to attend various meetings organized by the TMS, which greatly helped me to promote networking opportunities. Judging student posters and attending the TMS board of directors meetings gave me a chance to see what is going on behind the scenes. Attending Young Leader luncheon and LMD luncheon were nice chances to meet people whose career path and research interests are aligned with me. I really appreciate the fact that TMS is putting lots of efforts on fostering younger generation and look forward to have such wonderful experience again at the 2012 TMS meeting at Orlando!

Kyle Brinkman
It was an honor to receive the Young Leader Professional Development award from the EMPMD division at the 2011 TMS annual meeting in San Diego. In addition to presenting two technical talks in “Materials in Clean Power Systems: Clean Coal, Hydrogen Based Technologies and Fuel Cells” and “Materials for the Nuclear Renaissance” symposiums, it was a pleasure to participate in the business side of the annual meeting. It was particularly instructive to see how decisions were made at the society, division and technical committee level. I have a greater appreciation for all of the volunteer time dedicated and organizational talent involved in making these annual meeting the premier gathering of materials professionals. I am looking forward to future involvement in both the technical programming as well as business development activities that the society has to offer.

Frank DelRio
I would like to express my gratitude to the Structural Materials Division (SMD) and TMS for selecting me as a 2011 Young Leader Professional Development Award winner. As a Young Leader award winner, I was given the opportunity to participate in a number of different events at the 2011 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition in San Diego, including the Materials Bowl (as a judge), SMD undergraduate/graduate student poster contests (as a judge), Young Leaders Tutorial Luncheon Lecture, TMS-AIME Awards Banquet, and numerous technical sessions. By participating in these events, I discovered that TMS involves much more than the technical sessions at its meetings; the committee meetings, social events, and awards banquets provide even more chances to get involved with TMS at both the division and society levels and reconnect with old friends while meeting new people with similar research interests from around the world. In the short term, I hope to use what I have learned about TMS to become more involved with technical committees (in particular, Mechanical Behavior of Materials Committee in SMD) and plan technical sessions. In the long term, I hope to use my experiences with the Young Leader Program to facilitate additional opportunities throughout the society. I am already looking forward to the MS& T ’11 meeting in Columbus!

Edouard Asselin
I was honored to be chosen as one of the 2011 Young Leaders Professional Development Award (YLPDA) recipients from the Extraction and Processing Division (EPD). As an award recipient I was able to attend a wide variety of events over and above the normal conference activities. In particular, the EPD council meeting shed light on the significant organizational task that is planning division events and programming. I was surprised by the number of volunteers involved in running a division like EPD and I was inspired to help with future division activities. As a YLPDA recipient I was asked to judge the EPD poster session and I was particularly gratified to engage with students from all over the world and learn about their research. Finally, the annual meeting provided a significant opportunity for networking and I met many fellow researchers from all aspects of the materials and metallurgical communities. I look forward to continuing my professional development through further engagement with TMS.

Samrat Choudhury
I was honored to receive the 2011 TMS Young Leader Award from the Electronic, Magnetic, and Photonic Materials Division (EMPMD). The award provided me a unique opportunity to interact and network with researchers during the TMS Annual meeting who are at different stages of their career in materials science. On the one hand, I was able to meet the Directors of various TMS divisions at the TMS Board of Directors meeting and the young material scientists at the Young Leader luncheon, while on other, I could discuss science with graduate and undergraduate students while judging the EMPMD student poster competition. During various interactions I realized that the young leader program truly fosters future leadership within the materials community as I met some of the past recipients of the Young Leader Award who are currently serving in different leadership positions within the TMS including the TMS Board of Directors. Although I enjoyed each of the events, the experience of attending the Board of Directors meeting was extraordinary as I could see first hand how TMS plans to adapt and evolve in the near future, keeping in pace with changing needs of our society and government. I look forward to actively participating in TMS and MS&T meetings through organizing future symposia.

Eric Schmidt
I am very pleased, and honored, to have been selected to participate in the Young Leader program at the 2011 TMS Annual meeting in San Diego. As an American expatriate living in France for the past three years, I had found myself slowly falling “out of the loop” of the US materials science and engineering network in which I had spent a number of years as a student. Not only did this award give me an opportunity to reconnect with some of my fellow materials engineers (including a former classmate who won the award as well), but a new side of a thriving professional organization was presented to me, in a very warm and welcoming way. I am looking forward to reflecting every bit and more of this enthusiasm in my time as an active member of TMS. In describing my experiences as a Young Leader, I must certainly thank a previous winner of the award, Dr. Jim Yurko, for encouraging me to take part in this exciting program. Jim was also a valuable resource during the program, introducing me to other TMS leaders and sharing with me helpful hints that made my time in San Diego even more beneficial. I hope to continue this tradition, and have already spoken to a number of my colleagues about becoming Young Leaders in 2012. I can think of no better way to insure the bright future of The Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society!

Antoine Allanore
A TMS Conference is a unique experience for a researcher. It gathers academic and industrial researchers from very different fields and provides a snapshot of the key topics and development related to materials and society. It was a great honor to receive the EPD Young Leader Professional Development Award, and I particularly appreciate being introduced to the various Committees, to understand how such an event is organized and how any member of the society can get involved. I therefore strongly encourage young researchers to come to TMS 2012 in Florida, and contact volunteers and leaders to get the best from this honorable and prestigious society.