The MRS-Japan (Materials Research Society of Japan) was founded in March 1989, based on the premises that interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary fields should be covered, after holding MRS International Conference on Advanced Materials at Sunshine City in Ikebukuro in May 1988. At first the academic society was named as Advanced Materials Science and Engineering Society, which was modified in 1990 to Materials Research Society of Japan. Concurrently, the IUMRS (International Union of Materials Research Societies) launched in 1989 together with the adhering bodies of MRS over the world. The MRS-Japan is one of the founders of the IUMRS. The main activities of the IUMRS are to organize the series of international conferences, that is, biennial IUMRS-ICAM (Int’l Conf. on Advanced Materials), IUMRS-ICEM (Int’l Conf. on Electronic Materials), annual IUMRS-ICA (Int’l Conf. in Asia), biennial IUMRS-ICYRAM (Int’l Conf. of Young Researchers on Advanced Materials) and other symposia.
Since its establishment, the MRS-Japan has promoted research & developments and industrial applications of advanced materials science and technologies, via the interdisciplinary research activities of scientists and engineers and their global co-operations. The MRS-Japan has organized international conferences and symposia under the cooperation with the IUMRS, such as IUMRS-ICAM (Ikebukuro, August 1993 & Yokohama, October 2003), IUMRS-ICA (Makuhari, September 1997, Nagoya, December 2008, & Fukuoka, August 2014), and IUMRS-ICEM (Yokohama, September 2012) while the MRS-Japan cooperates with and actively participates in the IUMRS conferences. The IUMRS conferences are growing year by year and keep providing materials scientists and engineers with unique opportunities to highlight their R&D achievements and to develop the international networking.
It has globally been recognized that the innovation and new materials development are the complementary to each other and together constitute the key for future scientific and technological progresses. In order to achieve a sustainable society and life, and to solve the critical issues that the humankind is currently facing, such as global warming, resource scarcity, food & water crisis and energy problems, with their multiple facets and interwoven elements, the developments of new materials and advanced technologies are of crucial importance.
For this kind of research and development of new materials, it is vital to discard the conventional classification of material species among metals, organic and inorganic materials, or structural and functional materials, in accordance with various industries, such as industries of chemicals, steels, machines, foods, medicals, transports, information technology, etc. and to take interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary approaches in cooperation with experts of diverse materials science and engineering fields.
The MRS-Japan activities can be achieved only by the active participation and voluntary contribution of many people from various fields. Your everlasting supports would be greatly appreciated.
President of MRS-J Prof. Yasuro Ikuma