9321167 German It is proposed to organize a meeting with about 30 participants on small powder sintering on November 3-4, at Pennsylvania State University. Travel support will be provided for about 15 participants, who will have presentations. The size scale of emphasis will be below 1 micrometer and will include nanoscale powders, for which the research methods and data bases are in development. Critical technical issues related to basic phenomena and sintering techniques will be reviewed,a nd research trends will be identified. The factors affecting the quality of the resulted nanoscale and micron-size microstructure will be reviewed. The meeting will foster interaction between different research disciplines, and between university and industry. A report will be prepared to identify the current state-of-the-art and future research directions. Applications of small powder sintering are advanced materials with controlled microstructure and properties, including submicron metallic, ceramic, intermetallic and composite structures. ***
