The TMS 2019 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.
Don’t Forget Your Student ID!
Every student who registers for the TMS 2019 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 Antonio, don’t forget to bring your student ID!
Serve as a Student Monitor
Looking to earn some spending money during TMS2019? Consider applying to be a student monitor, where you will assist session chairs with room lighting, notify staff of audio/visual equipment problems, and take attendance.
Please Note: TMS will not be assigning sessions in advance of the meeting for TMS2019. Instead, student monitors are asked to review the list of sessions provided so that they are prepared to make their selections onsite.
The deadline to submit applications in advance of the meeting has passed. However, you can still complete the application onsite to participate as a student monitor.
Instructions for Student Monitors
- Step 1. Please review the student monitor responsibilities for TMS2019.
- Step 2. Report to the Programming Support Desk located at Hall 4A Pre-Function in the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center to complete the application form at 7:00 a.m. on the first day you are available to monitor sessions.
- Step 3. Review the TMS2019 session sheets to be ready to select your session assignments onsite at TMS2019.
Graduate and Undergraduate Student Activities
Student Networking Mixer
Date: Sunday, March 10, 2019
Time: 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Location: Grand Hyatt San Antonio, Lonestar Ballroom BC
Take a break and have some fun at this informal social event. Students will have the opportunity to interact with each other and with professionals in a relaxed setting. Refreshments will be provided.
Student Career Forum
Date: Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Time: 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Location: Grand Hyatt San Antonio, Lonestar Ballroom B
"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:
Veronica Livescu, Los Alamos National Laboratory
View Bio
Veronica Livescu is a materials science researcher analyzing the microstructure of materials in support of the Los Alamos National Laboratory and NNSA programs. During her career, she has not only changed countries but also disciplines, transforming herself from a mechanical and aerospace engineer to a materials scientist. From the thermodynamic analysis of turboprop engines to the Electron Backscatter analysis of complex microstructures, Livescu’s career was carved by opportunity. Her work with shape-memory alloys used in novel stents for treating arterial aneurysms and the patent-to-market development of an intravenous infusion flow controller moved her to materials science and subsequently to Los Alamos.
Robert Maass, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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Robert Maass received a triple diploma in Materials Science and Engineering from the Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine (INPL-EEIGM, France), Luleå Technical University (Sweden), and Saarland University (Germany) in 2005. In 2009, he obtained his Ph.D. from the Materials Science Department at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. During his doctoral work, Maass designed and built an in-situ micro-compression set-up that he used to study small-scale plasticity with time-resolved Laue diffraction at the Swiss Light Source. From 2009-2011 he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) on plasticity of metallic glasses. Subsequently, he joined the California Institute of Technology as an Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral scholar to continue his research on plasticity of metals. After working as a specialist management consultant for metals at McKinsey & Co., he transferred to the University of Göttingen as a junior research group leader. He joined the faculty of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering in 2015. His research interests include microstructure-property relations, size effects, strain localization and defect structures of amorphous and crystalline metals, defect dynamics, mechanical properties, microplasticity, glass transition phenomena, and test system development. His honors include the Young Scientist Award by the German Materials Society, an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship, the prestigious Emmy Noether award from the German Research Foundation, the NSF Career Award, and the TMS Young Leaders Award.
Tori Miller, North Carolina State University
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Tori Miller received her B.S.E. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2011 and completed her Ph.D. in the Materials Department at the University of California Santa Barbara in 2016. After graduate school, she worked for a year at UES, Inc. as a Research Scientist onsite in the Materials and Manufacturing Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio.
Miller's interests include defect and structural evolution in crystalline material and experimental characterization via advanced electron microscopy techniques. She is particularly focused on deformation processing of metals and the associated microstructural evolution, particularly texture evolution, recovery, and recrystallization. Her group's primary focus is on linking macroscopic processing phenomena to micro- and nanoscale mechanisms, enabling the development of predictive material models for engineering applications. Much of the group's work has been in thermomechanical processing of low-symmetry metals including titanium alloys for aerospace and magnesium alloys for automotive and consumer electronic applications.
Raul Rebak, General Electric Global Research Center
View Bio
Raul Rebak is a Corrosion Engineer at the General Electric Global Research Center in Schenectady, New York. Previously he worked for the University of California Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He has expertise on recommending materials for nuclear (power generation and waste disposition), oil & gas (upstream and downstream), transportation, aviation, energy storage, etc. Rebak is the current lead of a multimillion dollar, multiyear project with the U.S. Department of Energy on Accident Tolerant Nuclear Fuels. He has a Ph.D. in Corrosion and Metallurgy from The Ohio State University.
Douglas Stauffer, Bruker Nano, Inc
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Douglas Stauffer, Ph.D. is the Senior Manager for Applications Development for the Hysitron product lines at Bruker Nano, Inc. In short, he manages the internal testing laboratory, engages in collaborations, and assists with sales-related activities with respect to nanomechanical testing techniques. He works with a wide variety of professionals in his role, ranging from professors studying incipient events at very small length scales to industrial manufacturing of 300mm wafers for logic and memory.
His current research focus is on developing new techniques for understanding structure and processing relationships with regards to nanomechanical performance. These relationships and techniques can then be applied to a wide range of applications that include both applied and fundamental studies for assessing component and microstructure capabilities to resist failure. These techniques include in and ex situ testing and the development of in operando type experiments, to gain insight into the role that plasticity and fracture play in the varying failure regimes under operating conditions.
Stauffer received his Ph.D. in Materials Science from the University of Minnesota in 2011. He then joined the R&D department as a Senior Staff Scientist working in instrumentation and applications at Hysitron. Hysitron was acquired by Bruker Nano in January 2017.
Jonathan Zimmerman, Sandia National Laboratories
View Bio
Jonathan Zimmerman is Manager of the Hydrogen and Materials Science Department at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, California. His department provides foundational expertise on hydrogen and helium isotope interactions with materials and conducts fundamental and applied research on materials and technologies important to Sandia’s nuclear weapon and energy missions. Zimmerman also manages Sandia’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Program, coordinating activities across the laboratories to perform foundational research and development that advances the use of hydrogen-powered fuel cell technologies to address the nation’s energy needs in transportation and other applications. He earned both M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from Stanford University and a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering and a B.A. degree in physics from Binghamton University.
TMS Bladesmithing Competition: Awards Presentation
Date: Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Time: 5:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Location: Henry B. González Convention Center, Lila Cockrell Theatre
Prizes will be announced for the 2019 TMS Bladesmithing Competition during this special awards ceremony. Participating bladesmithing teams and all TMS2019 attendees are invited to come and learn which entries will take home the top honors. All entries will be on display Monday through Wednesday in the TMS 2019 Exhibit Hall during exhibit hours.
Date: Wednesday, March 13, 2019
Time: 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Location: Henry B. González Convention Center, Room 008B
Five graduate students from the University of Michigan are organizing this special symposium, which seeks to inform students and professionals about the relationship between materials scientists and the science policy community. The symposium will provide real-world examples and first-hand experiences of program managers, administrators, academic researchers, industry professionals, and congressional consultants working in science policy, as these individuals all collaborate to develop guidelines for future research. Specifically, the symposium will focus on the interconnection between the scientific community and science policies, the common obstacles that should be addressed in order to move forward with future research, and how science policy decisions affect the various scientific and engineering communities.
Organizers for this symposium include University of Michigan students Kathleen Chou, Ashley M. Hilmas, Peter Meisenheimer, Max Powers, and Brian Tobelmann.
Young Professional Activities
Date: Monday, March 11, 2019
Time: 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Location: Grand Hyatt San Antonio, Lonestar Ballroom B
Seasoned professionals representing a combination of academic, government, and industry backgrounds will lead small discussion groups of young professionals and students who are beginning their professional materials science and engineering careers. Deadline to register is March 4, 2019.
Preparing a Winning Application Package Workshop
Date: Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Time: 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Location: Grand Hyatt San Antonio, Mission A
Instructors: Mohsen Asle Zaeem, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science, Colorado School of Mines; Additional instructors to be announced
Sponsored by: TMS Young Professionals Committee
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.
Topics will include:
- How to find the position that fits your interests and expertise
- The effect of networking and how to create your network
- What needs to be included in your cover letter, research and teaching statements, and diversity statement for a faculty position
- The key differences between academic, industry, and national lab application packages
- Hands-on experience on modifying application packages
To make the most of your time in the hands-on session, the instructors recommend that you prepare a sample application package in advance and bring it with you to this session. Registration for this event is now closed.
TMS Young Professional Committee Meeting
Date: Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Time: 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
Location: Grand Hyatt San Antonio, Bowie ABC
Join this committee of your peers to learn how TMS is creating opportunities for young professionals and to share your ideas.
TMS Technical Committee Meetings
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. More than 30 TMS technical committees will meet during TMS2019, and these meetings are open to all TMS2019 attendees.
View a listing of planned technical committee meetings at TMS2019 and plan to attend one in your interest area.