Eleventh African Materials Research Society (A-MRS) Conference

This award to the Materials Research Society (MRS) will be predominantly used to support travel and participating costs of students and young scientists currently working in American universities to attend the Eleventh African Materials Research Society (A-MRS) Conference. The Conference will be held at the King Fahd Palace Hotel and Conference Center in Dakar, Senegal, in December 2022.

Organized by the African-MRS with strong support of the MRS, the heart of the Conference is to build knowledge, foster relationships and promote action to further the understanding in the broad fields associated with materials science and technology. The African-MRS Conferences plays a vital role to unify the rapidly growing materials research community in Africa and helping couple it to the broader materials research world outside of Africa, and to the US, in particular.

With an eye toward increasing understanding and awareness of how materials impact development, a key goal of the Conference is to bring together leading scientists from around the world to interact with leading African researchers. The conference also informs non-African participants about the current state of materials science and education in Africa, including research needs and opportunities for development and collaboration.

This year’s conference will also include sessions on value chain and entrepreneurship in materials science.

This conference, organized by the African MRS and a local team at the Universite Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD) with support of the (US-based) Materials Research Society (MRS), serves as a central hub for the materials science and engineering communities across Africa. The conference allows the basic and applied research communities to build knowledge, grow relationships, and promote activities and exchanges for further understanding and collaborations in the multidisciplinary fields associated with materials science and technology.

Participants will come from across Africa and around the world, and meet in-person for the first time since the COVID 19 pandemic, with an anticipated attendance of 500. Themes of the conference reflect both the needs of the global research community such as energy and health, as well as needs specific to Africa such as appropriate construction materials and sustainable biomaterials.

The conference adds unique value by bringing together leading international scientists and engineers to present and discuss recent advances in several broad areas of materials research and define future research priorities. This conference also provides a unique platform for US and African students to interact directly with each other as well as with national and international leaders, which is evidence of the African-MRS’s deep commitment to education and capacity building.

The themes of the conference for this year are: Energy materials – photovoltaics, batteries, fuel cells, catalysis, CO2 abatement Biomaterials and Health – polymers, nanomedicine, imaging, sensors Agriculture– soil chemistry, food science, materials processing Nano, Quantum, and Photonic Materials, and Nanotechnologies – nanoparticles, graphene, nanotubes, optics, materials physics, quantum behavior Computational Materials Science – ab initio, molecular dynamics, finite element, statistical mechanics, multiscale modelling Materials for Mining and Manufacturing – extraction, foundry, metallurgy Water & Environmental Monitoring – filters, waste-water treatment, desalination, sensors Education and Networking in Materials Science and Engineering – curriculum development, online education, academic and research exchanges, summer schools In addition to these themes, a series of pre-conference workshops and special sessions are planned that will include women and girls in science, and entrepreneurship.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.