FEMS is always keen to do what it can to encourage young materials scientists and engineers and to promote their careers. This is achieved partly through its biennial series of Junior EUROMAT conferences, the next of which will take place in Lausanne on 26-30 July 2010.

Students are also encouraged to participate in the FEMS EUROMAT Conferences, by low registration fees. At EUROMAT 2009 in Glasgow on 7-10 September (www.euromat2009.fems.eu) late registration for students costs 310-350 euros, a substantial reduction on full fees of 605-810 euros.

Another way in which FEMS encourages Europe’s younger generation is through its awards. One of these is the FEMS Lecturer Award for Excellence in Materials Science and Engineering. 

THE FEMS Lecturer Award

This distinction encourages selected young materials scientists (below the age of 40) who have contributed significantly to a recently emerging topic of materials science and engineering to present lectures in Europe as “ambassadors” of the materials community.
The lectures serve two purposes: to disseminate knowledge on important subjects; and to publicise the work of young researchers in Europe. The award finances a lecture tour to three different European countries (funded by FEMS up to a limit of 1500 euros) and a prize of 1500 euros, which is payable on completion of the tour. 

Two FEMS Lecturers are appointed every other year. Candidates for the award may be nominated by Member Societies of FEMS, members of the FEMS Executive Committee, members of the FEMS Award Selection Committee (ASC), other renowned materials scientists, or materials departments of universities or research organisations. So far, the FEMS Lecturers have been chosen from the nominees by the ASC. However, from next year the ASC will draw up a shortlist of candidates who will be invited to present lectures during a special session at the next Junior EUROMAT event where the final selection will be made.

Details of the FEMS Lecturers for 2009 - 2010 are as follows:

Aged 35, Lyubov Belova was born in Moscow, graduating with honours in Natural Sciences from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in 1996. Her PhD was awarded in 2000 for a thesis on “Colossal Magnetoresistance Materials” for which she was awarded a “Best Young Scientist in Russia” award the following year.

Since 2001 she has been employed at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, where as an associate professor she leads the “Engineering Materials Physics” group in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. The group is mainly involved in the design of new functional materials for magnetoelectronic and spintronics applications, nano-to-micro scale patterning and component design. She was nominated as a FEMS Lecturer by the Swedish member society of FEMS, Svenska Föreningen för Materialteknik.

The title of her FEMS Lecture is “Inkjet technology for flexible patterning of functional materials”. InkJets operate at room temperature in ambient conditions and are compatible with a wide variety of materials from ceramic and magnetic nanoparticles to carbon nanotubes and proteins. Recent developments include direct patterning of oxides (e.g. ZnO, MgO) for optics and magneto-optic components. One of the targeted applications is UV sensing.

Also aged 35, Carlo Mapelli is a native of Inzago, Italy. He graduated in Materials Engineering from Politecnico di Milano in October 1998 and obtained his PhD from the Department of Mechanics at Politecnico di Torino in January 2003 for research concerned with the plastic deformation of metals. In 2002 he was awarded the Daccò Prize of Associazione Italiana di Metallurgia (AIM), the FEMS Member Society which nominated him for the Lecturer Award.
Since 2001, Carlo has worked in the Department of Mechanics at Politecnico di Milano, initially as a researcher in the Materials Section. In March 2005 he became an associate professor at Politecnico di Milano where he lectures on Materials, Metallurgical Technologies and Plastic Deformation of Metals.

His FEMS Lecture is entitled “New opportunities for improving the formability of duplex stainless steels through specially designed thermo-mechanical processes”.  This describes ways of improving the poor formability of duplex stainless steels based on laboratory rolling trials at various temperatures under symmetric and asymmetric conditions. The mechanical properties, microstructural features and texture characteristics have been defined for each condition and finite element analysis has clarified the stress and strain fields induced in the rolled product. Promising results have been obtained.

For Information contact:
Dr Paul McIntyre, FEMS Secretary
The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, 1 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5DB
E-mail: paul.mcintyre@iom3.org