In This Issue
TMS Leadership Holds Virtual Congressional Visits
TMS leaders participated in virtual Congressional visits to discuss key legislative priorities for the Society and its members on May 26 and June 3, 2021. Participants included
Ellen Cerreta, 2021 TMS President;
Tom Battle, 2020 TMS President;
Eric Brown, TMS Public and Governmental Affairs Director; and
James Robinson, TMS Executive Director. These delegates met virtually with staffers from the offices of Representative Don Beyer (D-VA), Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Representative Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA), and Patrick Looney, Deputy Director of the U.S. Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP) for Physical Sciences and Engineering, as well as with staff leads of subcommittees of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, & Technology.
The groups discussed TMS legislative priorities, including:
- Endless Frontier Act (Now U.S. Innovation and Competition Act): TMS supports the main portions of the Endless Frontier Act, which would increase U.S. investments in science and technology innovation and strengthen the economy and competitiveness. TMS stresses the need to retain the proposed significant investments in the National Science Foundation and establish a new Directorate for Technology and Innovation. TMS also emphasizes retention to extend the STEM workforce pipeline and have workers educated and work ready to realize the aspirations of the Endless Frontier Act. Note, however, that TMS does not support some of the more recently added pieces of the legislation that pertain to public access to federal research.
- Materials Research and Development and Hard Infrastructure: TMS supports strengthening materials R&D because investing in the next generation of physical infrastructure will enhance the American quality of life, increase public safety, and promote the public welfare. Increased investment in materials technology is critical to national security, American economic competitiveness on the global stage, and our response to climate change. Investing in infrastructure and materials technology includes ongoing protection of our economic prosperity and security. Innovations in infrastructure safety and reliability, including the non-destructive evaluation of roads and bridges and embedded structural health monitoring technology, should be part of America’s infrastructure plan.
To learn more about current legislative priorities for TMS, visit the
Current Issues page of the TMS Public & Government Affairs website, which includes the following recent additions:
- A letter issued by the TMS Public & Governmental Affairs Committee and the TMS Materials Innovation Committee to the OSTP, providing materials science information in response to President Biden’s intent to “refresh and reinvigorate” the national science policy for the next 75 years.
- TMS’s Position Statement on Racial Justice for African Americans in the U.S., which was approved by the TMS Board of Directors in March. TMS supports the identification and correction of policies, systems and any operational standards in U.S. academic, government, or industrial institutions that negatively and disproportionately impact any racial group. The events of 2020 have highlighted significant opportunities still remain to address generational legacies of racial injustice and disadvantage still faced by African-Americans today.
Learn about the Latest Metal Forming Research
The 13th International Conference on the Technology of Plasticity (ICTP 2021) will convene virtually July 25–30, 2021. To be a part of this premier meeting to discuss all aspects of metal forming science and technology, be sure to complete your registration.
Highlights of the conference will be presentations from a diverse and accomplished group of keynote speakers:
- Global Issues: Matthias Kleiner, Leibniz Association; and Reimund Neugebauer, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
- Simulation: Pierre-Olivier Bouchard, Mines ParisTech; and Oana Cazacu, University of Florida-REEF
- Materials: Irene Beyerlein, University of California, Santa Barbara; and Christopher Schuh, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Innovation: Jun Chen, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai; and Takashi Kuboki, University of Electro-Communications
In addition, the careers of several distinguished individuals will be recognized through special programming.
Register for this event through the meeting website.
Register to Attend MiNES 2021
Register today for the second installment of the
Materials in Nuclear Energy Systems conference (MiNES 2021) set for September 19–23, 2021 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. MiNES 2021 will build on its highly successful inaugural conference held in 2019 to serve as the professional destination for the fission reactor materials community to share the latest research and developments specific to the field.
The technical program will cover the following topics:
- Fundamental Irradiation Damage (e.g., ion irradiation, defect evolution, microstructural investigations)
- Evolution of Material Properties (e.g., bulk versus small-scale properties, mechanical behavior, in-situ mechanical testing, changes in thermal properties, changes in properties under irradiation)
- Integrated Phenomena in Reactor Materials (e.g., irradiation creep, IASCC)
- Advanced/Novel Materials (e.g., materials development, materials qualification, preliminary irradiation studies)
- Fuels and Actinide Materials (e.g., novel fuel types, U-Mo, TRISO, metallic fuels)
- Nuclear Fuel Cycles (e.g., fuel production/handling, spent nuclear fuel management, separation and reprocessing, waste forms and environmental degradation)
MiNES 2021 is accepting submissions for a late-news poster session until the deadline of July 30, 2021. For details and to submit a poster, visit
ProgramMaster.
MiNES is an outgrowth of the TMS Microstructure Processes in Irradiated Materials Symposium and the American Nuclear Society (ANS) Nuclear Fuel and Structural Materials Symposium, with both societies invested in the quality and success of the MiNES symposium series.