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Peter Johnson from the Brookhaven National lab explains the basics of high temperature superconductivity and why it can make a profound impact on energy usage and transmission. Yes - it ends somewhat abruptly.

There is a tremendous opportunity for a one-year fellowship for a materials scientist, engineer or researcher with an interest in federal public policy. The Materials Societies Congressional Science and Engineering Fellowship offers a one-year appointment beginning Sept. 1, 2009 in which the selected individual serves as a special legislative assistant on the staff of a member of Congress or congressional committee to assist with legislative or oversight work, help with relevant hearings, prepare briefs and provide other guidance. The fellowship is sponsored by The American Ceramic Society, the Materials Research Society and The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society. A $58,000 stipend is provided, plus funds for health insurance, travel and relocation expenses to the Washington, D.C. area. The name of the person selected for the fellowship will be made in early 2009. The fellowship is also an excellent learning experience in regard to development of science-related public policies and governmental procedures. Time is of the essence, however, for anyone interested in this fellowship as applications are due Jan. 9, 2009 The Fine Print: A prospective Fellow must demonstrate a record of success in research or scholarship in a field relevant to materials science and technology. The prospect must also demonstrate sensitivity toward policy issues and have a strong interest in applying scientific and technical knowledge to United States public policy issues. The candidate must be able to work quickly and communicate effectively on a wide variety of topics, and be able to work cooperatively with individuals having diverse viewpoints. An applicant is expected to be a member of ACerS, MRS or TMS (or an applicant for membership) and have a master’s degree or doctorate with at least three years of professional experience. To Apply:

1. Submit a detailed CV including information about educational background, professional employment and activities, professional publications and presentations, public policy and legislative experience, and committee and advisory group appointments.
2. Submit a statement of approximately 1,000 words addressing the applicants interest in the fellowship, career goals, contributions the applicant believes he or she can make as a Fellow to the legislative process, and what the applicant wants to learn from the experience.
3. Three letters of reference, specifically addressing the applicant’s ability to work on Capitol Hill as a special legislative assistant.
4. Application materials should be sent to Materials Societies Congressional Fellow Program, c/o Nancy Lesko (TMS), 184 Thorn Hill Road, Warrendale, PA 15086.

Please note that information about the Fellowship and application procedures is also available on page 143 of the December 2009 issue of the Bulletin of The American Ceramic Society.

Dec. 31 is the final day to save $100 on the registration fee for the 33rd International Conference and Exposition on Advanced Ceramics and Composites. The meeting is slated for Jan. 18-23, 2009, at the Hilton Daytona Beach Resort & Ocean Center, Daytona Beach, FL USA. This is one of the top ceramics meetings in the world, showcasing cutting-edge research and product developments in advanced ceramics, armor ceramics, solid oxide fuel cells, ceramic coatings, bioceramics and more. See for yourself. Download the latest brochure which includes session dates and times. Make your plans to be part of this important meeting so that you won’t miss the information exchange and expanded exposition. Register today! Another highlight of the meeting is the Expo featuring the top names in ceramics-related manufacturing, materials suppliers and non-profit organizations. For more details, click here.

Three of Germany’s top materials scientists, Jürgen Rödel, Jürgen Eckert and Holger Braunschweig, have all been awarded that nation’s highest research prize. The Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft presents the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize annually to 10 (actually 11 in 2009!) outstanding scientists and academicians, with the aim that the laureates use the funds - worth up to €2.5 million - over a seven-year span.

Rödel, a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society, works at the Institute of Non-metallic Inorganic Materials, Technical University of Darmstadt, where he focuses on high-performance ceramics such as ferroelectrics and lead-free piezoelectric ceramics. His discoveries have already made their way into mobile phones and controls for internal combustion engines. Rödel is also researching novel gradient materials and has made new ceramic-metal gradient materials that he hopes will find applications in energy and medicine. Rödel obtained his doctorate from the University of California Berkeley, after which he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, before returning to Germany.

Eckert can be found at the Institute for Complex Materials, Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden and the Institute for Materials Science at the Technical University of Dresden. His efforts have been aimed at novel amorphous inorganic materials such as metallic glasses. His research has improved the understanding of the properties of metallic glasses and production of these strong and inexpensive materials in an industrial environment. He has worked at the California Institute of Technology before moving to the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research and the Technical University.

Braunschweig works at the Department of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Würzburg. He gained notice for his work on how the element boron is effectively “tamed” by metal bonds, knowledge that is leading to advances in catalysis and material sciences. Braunschweig was a senior lecturer and reader at Imperial College London before moving to Würzburg to take up a chair in inorganic chemistry in 2002.

NIST has developed a method to measure the toughness (i.e., resistance to fracture) of low-k insulating films found in high-performance ICs. As with other NIST efforts, the technique is aimed at setting standards and testing methodology that will improve reliability and manufacturability. NIST notes, however, that unlike some of new standards that come out of the agency, the toughness test is something microelectronics manufacturers can use with equipment they already own. The low-k films are sandwiched between layers of conductors and components in microprocessor chips and other high-performance semiconductor devices. Resent IC manufacturing efforts have made better - but more brittle - films that can yield defective components NIST researchers are recommending adaptation of a nanoindentation test that presses a diamond tip into the film and then records the amount of pressure it takes to deform the material and the crack lengths. The new test requires only modest modifications to existing nanoindenters. But toughness, the force needed to actually break the material, has been, well, tougher. Thin films were particularly problematic because they necessarily must be layered on top of another stronger material, such as a silicon wafer. The new NIST technique requires a slight modification of the nanoindentation equipment—the probe has to have a sharper, more acute point The measurement technique and model were published in a two-part series in the Journal of Materials Research.