Left to right: Professor Choon Fong Shih; Professor Subra Suresh (Chair); Deborah Logan (Materials Science Publishing Director, Elsevier); Professor Peter Gudmundson; Professor N Balakrishnan.Elsevier has today announced a new initiative to raise the profile and support the efforts of materials science research; establishing the Elsevier Materials Science Council together with world-leading experts in the field,
Professor Subra Suresh, former director of the National Science Foundation and current president of Carnegie Mellon University, will lead the Elsevier Materials Science Council during its early stages. He will be joined by internationally recognized 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..
Over the next three years, the Council will undertake a raft of activities with Elsevier to help support the research community in three ways: supporting the sharing and communication of scientific information and data through new technology platforms and pathways; helping researchers communicate the importance of materials science to the general public; and rewarding researchers, particularly those working in difficult conditions or in countries with limited infrastructure.
Find out more about the Elsevier Materials Science Council:
The Council met for the first time this summer at Elsevier’s offices in Oxford, UK. Deborah Logan, Publishing Director for Materials Science at Elsevier, says that the Council and Elsevier will together be able to develop ideas to benefit the research community that would be too difficult to tackle alone.
“We want to address issues that are problematic for the community and come up with potential solutions,” she explains.
Initially, the Council will explore many possible solutions and not rule out any innovative options.
“It’s a blank page,” says Logan. “We want these initiatives to be led by the community itself.”
With Elsevier as the home of Materials Today and publisher of over 100 high-profile 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 be ideally placed to help support editors explore new initiatives in the publication and dissemination of scientific information, including Open Access models and innovations in peer review. As materials science is a hub of interdisciplinary research spanning 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.
"We hope that the Council will benefit materials research on a global scale.”Subra Suresh, Elsevier Materials Science Council Chair
Speaking on behalf of the Elsevier Materials Science Council, Suresh says, “Rapid changes in technology and the increasingly widespread global access to knowledge and information generated by such technology are creating new opportunities and challenges for research funders, performers, publishers and the general public. We hope that the Council will help facilitate, in collaboration with the journals and the community, new modes of disseminating scientific data and information that will benefit materials research on a global scale.”
“What we hope to provide is real understanding of the issues and opportunities facing the materials science field and how Elsevier can offer a better service for editors, authors and researchers,” says Logan.
The first Council activity will involve highlighting the impact materials science has on society through a series of online lectures that everyone can access, understand and appreciate. More information on the Materials in Society lecture series can be found here.