Over the past eighteen years FEMS has become well known for Junior EUROMAT. This biennial conference for young materials scientists is held in Lausanne, on the picturesque shores of Lake Geneva. 

The tenth event in the series will, as usual, be organised on behalf of FEMS by DGM, the member society in Frankfurt. For the third time in a row, it will take place as a poster conference.

In addition, authors will be allowed three-minutes to give an oral introduction to their posters in the lecture theatre, making use of up to three illustrations.

The dates for Junior EUROMAT 2010 are 26-30 July 2010. By the time the call for posters closed on 3 March, 332 abstracts had been received.  This is well up to the usual level for these events.
While the focus is primarily on Master’s and PhD students, anyone with interests in the following materials research topics is very welcome to attend:
• Surface engineering;
• Mechanical properties;
• Corrosion and wear;
• Fundamental aspects;
• Metals, MMCs and foams;
• Ceramics, CMCs and glasses;
• Polymers and PMCs;
• Simulation methods and models;
• Materials characterisation;
• Biomaterials;
• Nanostructured materials;
• Electronic and photonic materials.

A special session at Junior EUROMAT will give short-listed candidates for the FEMS Lecturer Awards the opportunity to present their lectures to the assembled audience. On the basis of these presentations the two FEMS Lecturers for 2011 will be selected.
Registration fees for Junior EUROMAT range from 220 Euros for students up to 28 years of age to about 320 Euros for other participants. Cheap accommodation is available in hostels and guest houses at prices between 50 and 100 Swiss Francs per night.
For further information visit the conference website: www.dgm.de/dgm/junior-euromat
 
The FEMS Management Committee

FEMS is administered by an Executive Committee (EC) which usually meets twice each year in order to implement the decisions of the annual General Assembly. The EC is a fairly large group, amounting to thirteen in total. In between the meetings of the EC, momentum is maintained by a much smaller group, the FEMS Management Committee (MC). This usually includes only the President, Vice-President, Past president and secretary. Others may be invited to attend its meetings as the need arises.
The most recent meeting of the FEMS Management Committee took place in Cambridge on 31 March. Three of the participants had been attending the CAMTEC II Symposium on Fine-Scale Mechanical Characterisation and Behaviour, which had been held on the two preceding days in Downing College, Cambridge. These were the FEMS President, Dr.-Ing. Pedro D. Portella (BAM, Berlin), the Vice President, Prof. Dr. Ehrenfried Zschech (Fraunhofer Institute, Dresden), and the Past President, Prof. Bill Clyne (Cambridge University). They are pictured below, standing in front of the Haefely Generator in the Gordon Laboratory. This is a 750 kV generator of the Cockroft-Walton type that was used to accelerate electrons in the Cambridge High Voltage Electron Microscope. It was in active use from 1965 to 1985 for pioneering atomic-scale studies of a wide range of materials.     

They were joined for the MC meeting by the FEMS Secretary, Dr. Paul McIntyre (NPL, Teddington).
The first item on the agenda concerned the identification of a successor for Dr. McIntyre, who was appointed in 2003. He had indicated his wish to retire due to failing health at the meeting of the Executive Committee in Berlin during January. A number of potential candidates for this part-time post had been identified since then, but it was decided that all FEMS Member Societies should be given the opportunity to nominate a candidate. A short-list will then be drawn up in advance of interviews to be held in Berlin on 30 June. It is hoped that the new secretary can be appointed before the end of July so that a seamless transition can take place during Junior EUROMAT.
Another important agenda item concerned the preliminary arrangements for FEMS Presidents’ Day in Lausanne on July 28. Possible topics for discussion include: liaisons between industry and FEMS; future options for Junior EUROMAT; and FEMS Website developments.
Consideration was also given to possible changes in the way that the two-yearly FEMS EUROMAT Conferences will be organised from 2013 onwards. One option under consideration is to work with a professional ‘conference organiser’ appointed by FEMS to facilitate hosting of the event by the smaller member societies acting singly or in combination, and to ensure good continuity between successive events.

For Information contact:
Dr Paul McIntyre, FEMS Secretary
E-mail: dr_paul_mcintyre@compuserve.com