Advanced Materials for Demanding Applications

This was a special conference. It was small enough (60+ delegates) but covering a wide range of topics, under a broad end-use focussed heading. Most conferences today either have hundreds or thousands of delegates or are small and very focussed. The topics ranged over composite materials, the testing of durability aspects of materials, and an eclectic set of papers on radar screening using weak ionized plasmas, composites for microvascular applications, composites in space rockets, and materials for spallation neutron sources etc. There were several papers of new characterisation techniques and, very importantly, several papers that started with the end-user requirements leading back into materials selection. In my own area, there were three talks about the technology for the ultra-precise positioning of individual atoms, donors, and complete monolayers to take modern electronics and optoelectronics ideas closer to the market place. The President of the Institute opened with an experience-based talk on translating innovative technology into business. Everyone gave a generous introduction to bring all-comers up to speed with the burning contemporary issues. Indeed, I wish that a larger cohort of first-year engineering PhD students were present to see the full gamut of what takes a physics idea to a success in the market place. I would urge groups to learn from Prof Alison McMillan (a Vice President of the Institute of Physics) and Steven Schofield, to set up conferences of similar scale and breadth. I took in more than I do from mega-meetings, and in greater depth. Professor Michael Kelly Department of Engineering University of Cambridge