I had a great time last week at the Materials Science & Technology 2009 conference and ACerS Annual Meeting events held in Pittsburgh. Many thanks to Ann for taking over responsibilities for Ceramic Tech Today while I was gone.

I came back with lots of great footage of various lectures and interviews with some of the luminaries in ceramics and materials science. I also have some video from the MS&T09 Opening session and keynote speeches, plus a tape of the great panel discussion that followed featuring battery power expert Yet-Ming Chiang (MIT professor and co-founder of A123 Systems), solar energy expert Gregory Hildeman (Solar Power Industries) and nuclear power expert John Marra (Savannah River National Lab).

Not everything went totally smoothly with all the recordings. There were some behind-the-scenes problems initially with recording the MS&T’09 keynote speakers Jeff Wadsworth (head of Battelle Institute) and Steve Koonin (DOE), but we still were able to capture most of their talks. I also had a fleeting problems with (I think) occasional cell phone interference with our wireless mikes. Finally, I am still waiting on getting some of the PowerPoint slides from many of the speakers. So, there is quite a bit of editing ahead.

But, here is how I think the editing-posting schedule will take place over the next few months (subject to change):

• Today – MS&T’09 keynote panel (see above)
Nov. 11 – MS&T’09 keynote speaker Steve Koonin
Nov. 18 – ACerS Frontiers of Science/Rustum Roy keynote speaker Charles M. Vest (The National Academy of Engineering): “Engineering Education and the Challenges of the 21st Century”
Nov. 25 – MS&T’09 keynote speaker Jeff Wadsworth
Dec. 1 – ACerS Corporate Environmental and Technical Achievement lecturers Yet-Ming Chiang (MIT, A123 Systems) and Rudy Olson (Selee Corp.)
Dec. 8 – ACerS Arthur L. Friedberg Memorial lecturer Gary Fischman (The National Academies): “Ceramics in the 21st Century Materials World”
Dec. 15 – ACerS Edward Orton Jr. Memorial lecturer Ludwig Gauckler (ETH Zurich): “Innovations Through Ceramic Processing by Tailoring Solid-Liquid and Solid–Gas Interfaces”
Dec. 22 – ACerS Robert B. Sosman Memorial lecturer Gregory Rohrer
Dec. 29 – ACerS Alfred R. Cooper Memorial lecturer and award winner Michael J. Haynes (Iowa State Univ.): “Mixed Glass-Former Effects Seen in the Physical Properties the the yNa2S + (1-y)[xB2S3 + (1-x)P2S5] System”
Jan. 5 – ACerS Alfred R. Cooper session lecturer John Mauro (Corning Inc.): “A Physical Approach to Industrial Glass Research”
Jan. 12 – ACerS Alfred R. Cooper session lecturer Delbert Day (Missouri Univ. S&T): Glass Microspheres in Medicine – An Overview”
Jan. 19 – ACerS Alfred R. Cooper session lecturer Steve Martin (Iowa State Univ.): “Mixed Glass-Former Effects on the Properties and Structure of Glass”
Jan. 26 – Richard M. Fulrath Award lecturer Naoki Ohashi (National Institute for Materials Science, Japan)
Feb. 2 – Richard M. Fulrath Award lecturer Ryosuke Ueyama (Daiken Chemical Co., Japan)
Feb. 9 – Richard M. Fulrath Award lecturer Venkatraman Gopalan (Penn State Univ.)
Feb. 16 – Richard M. Fulrath Award lecturer Andrew L. Gyekenyesi (NASA, Ohio Aerospace Institute)

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