FEMS EUROMAT conferences have taken place every other year since 1989, when the first was held in Aachen, Germany. Over the years they have become prime gatherings in Europe for those with interests in Materials Science and Technology. Participation levels have grown steadily in recent years, with well over 1800 delegates at the last event in Nuremberg in 2007.     

This year’s conference, the eleventh in the series, will be held at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC), which is the UK’s largest integrated meeting venue with a purpose-built auditorium seating 3,000 comfortably. Up to 18 parallel sessions will be accommodated in the extensive facilities and exhibition and poster sessions will take place in Halls 1 and 2.

Trains run from the SECC to the city centre and take just 3 minutes. It is 15 minutes from Glasgow International Airport and has its own bus terminal and train hall.

The Centre is located on a 64 acre site on the banks of the River Clyde, and has comprehensive catering facilities as well as 3 on-site hotels.

The Chairman of the Congress is Sybrand van der Zwaag of Delft Aerospace. He is currently Vice-President of FEMS and has been a member of the FEMS Executive Committee since 2004. His Co-Chairs include Elisabeth Aeby-Gautier of Ecole des Mines de Paris, Aldo R. Boccacini of Imperial College, London, Paloma Fernández of Universidad Complutense, Madrid, and Pedro D. Portella of the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, Berlin, who also belongs to the FEMS Executive Committee.

As is usually the case at EUROMAT Conferences, there will be a number of different topic areas, dealing this time with Functional Materials, Structural Materials, Processing, Characterisation and Modelling, Applications, and Education.  Each of these areas will be sub-divided into as many as twenty different Symposia. In all, over seventy symposia have been confirmed, each one of which is being organised by up to three experts in the particular field.              

Plenary lectures will be held in the Clyde Auditorium, known affectionately as “The Armadillo”, which was designed by Sir Norman Foster and completed in 1997.  The seven plenary lectures will be given by: 

• Ludwig Schultz of Leibniz-Institute IFW Dresden;

• José Serafin Moya of Instituto de Ciencia de materiales de Madrid;

• Peter Goodhew of the University of Liverpool;

• Peter Schwab of voestalpine Stahl, Linz;

• Albert Polman of the Dutch Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter, Amsterdam;

• Yves Bréchet of Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble; and

• Peter Fratzl of Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam.

A special new feature at EUROMAT 2009 will be a Jobs Fair, which aims to connect companies with high calibre job seekers and provide careers advice. A prototype Jobs Fair was organised last year at Junior EUROMAT in Lausanne and the same successful format will be adopted this year. 

Registration fees for FEMS EUROMAT 2009 range from 300 Euros for students to 760 Euros to those employed in industry. However, discounts of up to 25 % are available to members of FEMS Member Societies. It should be noted that a surcharge of 50 Euros will apply after 12 July 2009.

A set of short introductory courses will be run in conjunction with the conference on Sunday 6 September 2009 for which there will be an additional registration fee of 250 Euros. Full details of these, the Jobs Fair and all other features of the conference are available at the following address: www.euromat2009.fems.eu.

For Information contact:

Dr Paul McIntyre, FEMS Secretary

The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, 1 Carlton House Terrace 

London SW1Y 5DB, England

E-mail: paul.mcintyre@iom3.org

www.fems.org