STM publisher Elsevier has announced that, together with leading experts in the field, it has established the Elsevier Materials Science Council, a discipline-specific initiative to raise the profile and support the efforts of the materials science research community across the globe.
Over the next three years, in close coordination with Elsevier, the Council will undertake a raft of activities to help support the materials science research community.
Its main objectives are three-fold: Enhance sharing and communicating of scientific information and data through new technology platforms and pathways; Helping researchers communicate the importance of materials science to the general public; and Supporting researchers working in difficult conditions or in countries with limited access to scientific information and infrastructure.
Professor Subra Suresh, former director of the US National Science Foundation and current president of Carnegie Mellon University, will lead the Council. The team will further consist of internationally recognised academic leaders including Professor Choon Fong Shih, former president of the National University of Singapore and founding president of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia and now consultant to the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing; Professor Peter Gudmundson, president of the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden; and Professor N. Balakrishnan, former Associate Director of the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India.
With Elsevier as the home of Materials Today and publisher of over 100 leading materials science journals, including Acta Materialia, Acta Biomaterialia, Biomaterials, Carbon, Journal of the European Ceramics Society, Nano Today, Nano Energy, Polymer, and Progress in Materials Science, the Council will also serve to support editors explore new initiatives in the publication and dissemination of scientific information, including Open Access models and innovations in peer review. As the materials science field has increasingly become a hub for interdisciplinary research, including among other disciplines engineering, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, and nanoscience, the Council hopes its efforts will also reinforce collaboration at the boundaries of established areas where truly revolutionary breakthroughs will be made.
The first Council program will involve highlighting the impact materials science has on society through a series of online lectures that everyone can access and understand. More information on this initiative is available on MaterialsToday.com.
