Issues and Opportunities in Materials Research

OCT 01, 1992

Solutions to technologically important problems in materials science—such as pattern formation during solidification—are within reach. Yet, while US researchers may have the tools to find solutions, their opportunities for doing so in the US are slipping rapidly.

DOI: 10.1063/1.881341

James Langer

In the fall of 1989 the National Research Council issued a major report on materials science and engineering, known more familiarly as the Chaudhari‐Flemings report (after Praveen Chaudhari and Merton Flemings) or simply the MS&E report. This was followed in 1990 by a series of regional meetings in four different parts of the US involving hundreds of participants from industry, academia and government. The results of those meetings were summarized in a 1991 proposal for a “National Agenda” in materials, addressed to the Office of Science and Technology Policy. In turn, this proposal has led to a Presidential initiative for fiscal year 1993 entitled Advanced Materials and Processing.

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References

1. Natl. Res. Council, “Materials Science and Engineering for the 1990s: Maintaining Competitiveness in the Age of Materials,” Natl. Acad. P., Washington, D.C. (1989).
2. R. Abbaschian, B. R. Appleton, I. M. Bernstein, P. M. Eisenberger, J. S. Langer, G. M. Rosenblatt, J. C. Williams, “A National Agenda in Materials Science and Engineering: Implementing the MS&E Report,” Materials Res. Soc, Pittsburgh, Pa. (1991).
3. Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering and Technology, Advanced Materials and Processing, suppl. to President’s Fiscal Year 1993 Budget, Office of Science and Technology Policy, Washington, D.C.
4. My favorite introductory text in this area is W. Kurz, D. J. Fisher, Fundamentals of Solidification, Trans Tech, Switzerland (1989).
5. A variety of reviews are available at various levels of technical detail:J. S. Langer, Science 243, 1150 (1989); https://doi.org/SCIEAS
P. Pelce, ed., Dynamics of Curved Fronts, Academic, New York (1988);
J. S. Langer, in Chance and Matter, 1986 Les Houches Summer School Lectures, J. Souletie, R. Stora, J. Vannimenus, eds., North‐Holland, New York (1987), p. 629;
D. Kessler, J. Koplik, H. Levine, Adv. Phys. 37, 255 (1988).https://doi.org/ADPHAH
6. M. E. Glicksman, R. J. Shaefer, J. D. Ayers, Metall. Trans. A 7, 1747 (1976).
7. R. Trivedi, K. Somboonsuk, Acta Metall. 33, 1061 (1985). https://doi.org/AMETAR
K. Somboonsuk, J. T. Mason, R. Trivedi, Metall. Trans A 15, 967 (1984).
8. V. Bush, “Science, the Endless Frontier, “ report to the President (1945), reprinted by Natl. Sci. Foundation, Washington D.C. (1990).

More about the authors

James Langer, University of California, Santa Barbara.