The Center for Micro-Engineered Ceramics (CMEC) recently established at the University of New Mexico is a National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center. It is supported by the National Science Foundation, Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico Research and Development Institute, and the ceramics industry.

The CMEC is unique in that it combines the resources of two universities (University of New Mexico and New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology) and two national laboratories to attack ceramics-related basic research problems of industrial significance. An essential part of the effort is the strong interplay between the basic scientific disciplines, particularly physics and chemistry, along with engineering; the work is interdisciplinary with members from chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, chemistry, physics, and geology.

The goals of the CMEC are to

1. Aggressively attack ceramics-related basic research problems using university/national laboratory/industry collaborations;

2. Transfer technology between the universities, national laboratories, and industry; and

3. Train a new generation of ceramic scientists and engineers at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

At present, the areas of major interest are novel powder synthesis and processing schemes for controlled morphology powder compacts, and coatings and porous films. In addition, both laboratories and universities have programs on ceramic superconductors.

The 1989 Spring Meeting of the Materials Research Society will be held at the Town and County Hotel in San Diego, with events spanning April 22-29. Meeting Chairs Robin Farrow, Dick Siegel and Angelica Stacy have developed a program of 16 technical symposia that reflect the continuing key role of materials science in the development of both mature and emerging technologies.

Several new topics will reflect emerging areas, including materials for optical storage of information (Symposium F), ultrathin magnetic films (Symposium G), and materials problems of infrastructure (Symposium P). A special workshop will provide a technology update on diamond films (Symposium P) and will feature a joint session with Symposium H, Optical Materials: Processing and Science.

Plenary speaker Linus Pauling, research professor at the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine, will discuss quasicrystals, materials whose atomic structure displays perfect five-fold symmetry, but whose atomic pattern is never exactly repeated as it would be in conventional crystals. During the Plenary Session MRS will also recognize graduate students who have made outstanding contributions as authors or co-authors of papers presented at the 1989 Spring Meeting.

On Wednesday, April 26, 1989 at 6:00 p.m. Linus Carl Pauling, research professor, delivered the Plenary Address for the MRS Spring Meeting held in San Diego, California. He was introduced by John Baglin, Past President of MRS with the following words: “Linus Pauling…scientist, philosopher, and a thinker, whose fearless, pioneering research has made and continues to make vital and fundamental contributions to the sciences of chemistry, physics, mineralogy, biology and medicine. His work, frequently controversial, has stimulated thought and debate and research, promoting, indeed, the healthiest kind of scholarly activity within these many disciplines.”

With these thoughts and many more in my head 1 set out for the airport the previous afternoon to pick up Linus Pauling. I was about to meet someone who had deeply affected my scientific career from my early days as an undergraduate through the most important and fundamental aspects of 15 years of research. I was aware of almost all of Pauling's prizes and awards, but I couldn't quite remember what he won his second Nobel Prize for (he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962 for presenting a petition to the Secretary-General of the United Nations to ban atom bomb tests), and it was while I was wondering about this that Linus Pauling walked toward me after exiting the airport security gate.