This proposal seeks partial support for the Phase Transformation and Microstructural Evolution Symposium to be held at the 143rd TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition on February 16 - 20, 2014, at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. At this symposium, participation by students and other young investigators will be encouraged as critical to the fostering of future generations of materials scientists and engineers. NSF funding is requested for registration support and/or partial travel support for at least 5 students and 3 post docs or special attendees. The organizing committee of the symposium will identify appropriate students, postdoctoral fellows, or special attendees.
was held from February 16 - 20, 2014, at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California as part of the 143RD TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition. Phase transformation is still one of the most effective and efficient means to produce desired microstructures in materials for various applications. This symposium sought to bring together theoretical, experimental and computational experts to assess the current status of theories of phase transformations and microstructure evolution in solid states. In addition to fundamental understanding of the mechanisms underlying phase transformations and microstructure evolution, attention was also given to the utilization of unique transformation pathways to develop novel microstructures for advanced structural and functional materials. Topics of choice for this year included: Phase transformations in steel; Carbon redistribution processes in modern steels; and Phase transformations induced by irradiation. Characterization techniques focused on included: electron microscopy, atom probe tomography, SIMS and nanoSIMS, diffraction and scattering based techniques, including in-situ characterization techniques. Featured modeling and simulation approaches included: mean field approach, phase field (including crystal phase field), ab initio, MD, and Monte-Carlo simulations. The principal goal for the grant support provided by the NSF Interfacial Processes and Thermodynamics Program was to provide financial support to assist the attendance of students, post docs, young faculty and other special attendees. A total of 15 investigators received support and the NSF support was distributed accordingly in the form of registration and partial travel support reimbursements. Of the 15 young investigators supported, 12 were students, and 3 were post-doctoral researchers. The symposium organizing committee was responsible for identifying those investigators most in need of financial assistance for symposium attendance. This organizing committee included the following: Amy Clarke, Los Alamos National Laboratory; Sudarsanam Suresh Babu, The Ohio State University; Ning Ma, ExxonMobile Research & Engineering; Tadashi Furuhara, Tohoku University; and Frédéric Danoix, Université de Rouen.
