Scaling Up Sustainability Awareness, Impact, and Training within the Materials Science and Engineering Community

Materials Research Society, Warrendale PA

Investigators

Abstract

Materials science will play a pivotal role in solving many of the key challenges our society will continue to face in the coming years, including providing a sustainable supply of energy, water, products, services, transportation, buildings, and public infrastructure. New approaches to sustainable development will require materials researchers who have technical expertise and understand the complex interrelationships between materials science and other disciplines. As the premier professional society for materials researchers, the Materials Research Society (MRS) is well positioned to help materials scientists address these challenges. MRS has been building a robust community of practice in this area for many years. In recognition of the critical and cross-cutting role of sustainability in materials science, MRS established the Focus on Sustainability Subcommittee in 2016. This proposal seeks to build on and expand the scope of sustainability activities and programming within MRS, as well as to increase the impact of sustainability within MRS and beyond to the entire materials science community. The MRS Focus on Sustainability Subcommittee, along with two task forces, will execute three thrusts including: (1) enhancing awareness and understanding of sustainability across MRS; (2) elevating the impact of sustainability efforts within MRS; and (3) training the next generation of materials scientists to incorporate sustainability in their work. Awareness and understanding of sustainability will be enhanced by meeting attendee engagement through multiple routes, including gamification, handouts, video, and social media, and a special networking event and program at the 2019 MRS Spring Meeting will seek to engage 140 energy and sustainability symposium organizers in the MRS broader sustainability efforts. The impact of the MRS sustainability efforts will be elevated by building on the successful series of high profile, panel discussions on interdisciplinary sustainability topics, as well as starting a new effort to bring in invited speakers on targeted hot topics that intersect with sustainability. A set of new workshops will train materials scientists to more comprehensively incorporate sustainability in their research. Finally, background research on the current status of sustainability in materials science curricula will inform a longer-term reform effort. Together, these efforts have the potential to increase the role of sustainability in materials science research and to inform new approaches to materials science that more completely take sustainability into account. 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.