FEMS is proud to announce that four European Materials Societies joined the Federation in 2008, bringing the total membership to 27 societies in 22 different countries.

The new members are:
• AIMAT - Associazione Italiana d’Ingegneria dei Materiali 
• ASSOCOMPOSITI - Associazione Italiana Compositi & Affini
• HMS - The Hellenic Metallurgical Society
• MRS-Serbia - The Materials Research Society of Serbia

AIMAT, the Italian Association of Materials Engineering has Professor Teodoro Valente of the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at the University of Rome as its president. It organises biennial national conferences, the first of which, AIMAT’92, took place in Rome on 23-24 April 1992. The most recent event, the ninth in the series, took place in Piano di Sorrento on 29 June - 2 July 2008.  Its five main sessions featured 40 oral presentations, with topics ranging from corrosion and stress corrosion cracking to ceramics, polymers and nano-materials. AIMAT also organises training courses for materials engineers.  The latest one, entitled “Innovative Materials and Nanotechnologies for the ‘Made in Italy’” was held in Ischia Porto on 26-20 July 2008. Further information about AIMAT is available on its website (http://www.aimat.it).

The Italian Association of Composites, ASSOCOMPOSITI, has both individual and corporate members. It was established in 2004 with the aim of promoting information about composite materials and their industrial applications in Italy. Its president is Prof. Roberto Frassine of Politecnico di Milano.
Composite production raises particular problems regarding design, environmental impact, manufacture, and recycling and the Association is keen to counter these by promoting action on an international level. It is encouraging information flow between industry, research centres and universities at both national and international levels. It publishes Compositi, the first Italian quarterly magazine on composites, and organises seminars and technical demonstrations at exhibitions in Italy and beyond. ASSOCOMPOSITI will be participating in “PLAST’09”, the next in the international series of triennial shows for the plastics and rubber industries.  This will take place at the Fiera Milano showground on 24-28 March 2009.  As well as having its own booth in the exhibition, ASSOCOMPOSITI will be organising the convention “Advancing with Composites 2009”. For further information visit the website: (www.assocompositi.it).

HMS, the Hellenic Metallurgical Society, was established in 2000 with the mission of promoting science and engineering concerned with metallic materials in Greece. Since then three triennial National Conferences have been organised, at the Universities of Thessaly (2001), Athens (2004) and Patras (2007). HMS has also organised a number of Workshops, on topics including:
• Computational Alloy Thermo-dynamics, Volos, 2002;
• Mechanical Behaviour of Metallic Materials, Patras, 2005;
• Surface Engineering Technologies, Athens, 2006.

HMS also publishes a Newsletter and has its own website. (www.met.gr). Prof. Dr.-Ing. Spiros Pantelakis of the Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Patras is the HMS President.

MRS-Serbia, the Materials Research Society of Serbia, is one of the two successor societies to the Yugoslav Materials Research Society (Yu-MRS). It was formed in 2007 following the political separation between Serbia and Montenegro and is the official successor to Yu-MRS. Prof. Dr. Dragan Uskokovic of the Institute of Technical Sciences of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts is its president.  
The original Yu-MRS was conceived at the first Yugoslav Conference on Advanced Materials for High Temperature Applications (Yucomat 95), in Herceg Novi, Montenegro, and founded two years later. Its mission was to promote multidisciplinary goal-oriented research in materials science and engineering. Its main objective was to encourage creativity in materials research and engineering and create access to international projects. Conferences in the Yucomat series were held biennially until 2003 since when they have been annual events.
MRS-Serbia is continuing to organise the Yucomat conferences and Yucomat 2009, will take place in Herceg Novi on 31 August - 4 September 2009.  The deadline for abstract submission is 1 May.  Further information can be found on the Serbia-MRS website (www.yu-mrs.org.yu).

Benefits of FEMS Membership

FEMS Member Societies enjoy many benefits, including a reduction for all of their members of at least 10 % in the registration fees for EUROMAT Conferences, the next of which will take place in Glasgow on 7-10 September 2009 (www.euromat2009.fems.eu). FEMS participates actively in the European Materials Forum (EMF) and each year organises a Presidents’ Day to provide the presidents of its member societies with the opportunity to exchange ideas. European Materials Societies wishing to learn more about FEMS membership should contact its Secretary, Paul McIntyre (paul.mcintyre@iom3.org).