The following article is based on the Von Hippel Award presentation given by Julia Weertman of Northwestern University on December 3, 2003, at the Materials Research Society Fall Meeting in Boston.Weertman received the award for “her lifelong exceptional contributions to understanding the basic deformation processes and failure mechanisms in a wide class of materials, from nanocrystalline metals to high-temperature structural alloys, and for her inspiring role as an educator in materials science.” It has been said that “the best things come in small packages,” and that is certainly in Weertman's mind in this presentation.She has spent much of her career “in pursuit of the small.” In this article, she first looks back at her experiences studying grain-boundary cavities and life in the spaces between grains.She then fast-forwards to modern work on nanocrystalline mechanical behavior, confirming that such nanocrystalline materials are indeed strong, but also brittle.Some of her experiences in studying these phenomena are also described.

This article is an edited transcript based on the David Turnbull Lecture given by Ellen D. Williams of the University of Maryland on December 2, 2003, at the Materials Research Society Fall Meeting in Boston.Williams received the award for “groundbreaking research on the atomic-scale science of surfaces and for leadership, writing, teaching, and outreach that convey her deep understanding of and enthusiasm for materials research.” This article focuses on the special properties of small structures that provide much of the exciting potential of nanotechnology.One aspect of small structures—their susceptibility to thermal fluctuations—may create or necessitate new ways of exploiting nanostructures.The advent of scanned probe imaging techniques created new opportunities for observing and understanding such structural fluctuations and the related evolution of nanostructure.Direct observations show that it is relatively easy for large numbers of atoms—the kinds of numbers that are present in nanoscale structures—to pick up and move about on the surface cooperatively with substantial impact on nano-to micron-scale structures.Such labile evolution of structure can be predicted quantitatively by using length-scale bridging techniques of statistical mechanics coupled with scanned probe observations of structural and temporal distributions.The same measurements also provide direct information about the stochastic paths of structural fluctuations that can be used outside of the traditional thermodynamic framework.Future work involves moving beyond the classical thermodynamic picture to assess the impact that the stochastic behavior has on the physical properties of individual nanostructures.

The following article is an edited transcript based on the MRS Medalist presentation given by C. Jeffrey Brinker (Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico) on December 3, 2003, at the Materials Research Society Fall Meeting in Boston. Brinker received the Medal for “his pioneering application of principles of sol-gel chemistry to the self-assembly of functional nanoscale materials.” Nature combines hard and soft materials, often in hierarchical architectures, to obtain synergistic, optimized properties with proven, complex functionalities. Emulating natural designs in robust engineering materials using efficient processing approaches represents a fundamental challenge to materials chemists. This presentation reviews progress on understanding so-called evaporation-induced silica/surfactant self-assembly (EISA) as a simple, general means of preparing porous thin-film nanostructures. Such porous materials are of interest for membranes, low-dielectric-constant (low-k) insulators, and even ‘“nano-valves” that open and close in response to an external stimulus. EISA can also be used to simultaneously organize hydrophilic and hydrophobic precursors into hybrid nanocomposites that are optically or chemically polymerizable, patternable, or adjustable.

The following article is an edited transcript based on the MRS Medalist presentation given by Ivan K.Schuller of the University of California, San Diego, on December 3, 2003, at the Materials Research Society Fall Meeting in Boston.Schuller received the MRS Medal for “his innovative studies of exchange bias in magnetic heterostructures and nanostructures.” Magnetic nanostructures have received increasing attention in recent years, motivated by the interesting phenomena that are apparent when physical size becomes comparable with relevant magnetic length scales.In addition, a number of important potential applications in the sensors and storage industries have emerged. When magnetic nanostructures are in contact with dissimilar magnetic materials, and because their magnetic fields extend considerably outside the physical structure, they are very susceptible to interaction with the surrounding environment.A particularly interesting situation is a ferromagnetic nanostructure in contact with an anti-ferromagnetic substrate.In this “exchange-biased” configuration, a variety of unusual phenomena arise:The reversal mode of the ferromagnet changes considerably, the superparamagnetic transition temperature is affected, and there is a noticeable change in the microscopic spin configuration.A series of experiments will be described involving these phenomena in nanostructured ferromagnets prepared by electron-beam lithography and self-assembly.

The following article is based on the plenary presentation given by Darryl L.Smith of Los Alamos National Laboratory on December 1, 2003, at the Materials Research Society Fall Meeting in Boston.The presentation contrasted the electronic structure of inorganic semiconductors with that of organic semiconductors, examined how the differences in electronic structure lead to complementary physical properties, and discussed applications of these materials—including infrared detectors and sources, gamma-ray detectors, and chemical/biological sensors—that are of interest to issues of national security.