Materials science development gets push in series of regional meetings. (column)

Materials science development gets push in series of regional meetings

With the encouragement of Presidential Science Adviser D. Alan Bromley, a series of regional meetings has been planned to spur the further development of materials science and engineering in the United States.

The first effort was held in New Jersey in March. Self-styled as the Northeast Regional Materials Science and Engineering Community Meeting, or MS&E, and organized largely by the Princeton University Materials Institute, the results of the meeting have been released in draft form.

While few of its recommendations are novel, they are a good beginning and could establish a prototype for later activity on a …