This month, the Materials Research Society (MRS) Board of Directors approved the establishment of an MRS chapter at the University of Houston.
The UH MRS chapter will focus on diverse aspects of materials science and engineering, including high temperature superconductors, semiconductors, materials energy fabrication, batteries, photovoltaics, nanomaterials and more.
Venkat Selvamanickam, M.D. Anderson Chair Professor of mechanical engineering, and Pavel Dutta, a research assistant professor with Selvamanickam’s research group, will serve as faculty advisors and doctoral research assistants from the Cullen College’s mechanical engineering department, materials engineering program, Advanced Manufacturing Institute (AMI) and Texas Center for Superconductivity will serve as core administrators for the new UH chapter.
Meysam Heydari Gharahcheshmeh, a mechanical engineering doctoral student and the UH MRS president, said his prior experiences with MRS motivated him to open a chapter at UH. He served as an MRS mentor for two years and gave oral presentations at MRS meetings in 2015 and 2016.
“We want to encourage materials science and engineering students to join us and build our network,” said Heydari Gharahcheshmeh. “The UH MRS chapter will serve as a platform for its members to network and communicate with materials research scientists in academia, industry and government worldwide.”
Heydari Gharahcheshmeh and UH MRS vice president Ying Gao represented the chapter at 2016 MRS Spring Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona.
MRS university chapters are entitled to various benefits including special project grants, distinguished speaker support, travel assistance to attend MRS meeting, access to MRS publication and other in-kind support.