Materials research society (MRS) in San Francisco, California.

At the end of April, the 2nd cohort of students from the TSM CDT, along with their mentor Dr Patricia Hunt, attended the spring meeting of the materials research society (MRS) in San Francisco, California. The meeting offered thousands of talks grouped into some 20 symposia, covering a wide range of topics from nanoscale heat transport to metamaterials.

These talks and poster sessions provided rich pickings for a theoretical group focussed on the frontiers of materials science. The mixture of theoreticians and experimentalists presenting their work gave a broad insight into many important problems where the future expertise of the CDT would be in high demand. Imperial College was well represented, including an invited and well received talk by Professor Mike Finnis, also a member of the Thomas Young Centre with which the CDT is affiliated.

On the penultimate day of their stay, the group visited the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), 50 miles east of San Francisco. The site not only houses the worlds' most powerful computer, but also its largest laser at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). The day included many intimate and engrossing talks with leading theoreticians at the lab, whose work is mainly involved with simulating matter in extreme environments with their formidable computing power.

The group was taken on a tour of the NIF, which aims to 'ignite' power generating fusion through the focussing of intense laser light on small metal objects. The sheer scale of the plant left the group in awe: when laying the foundations, the Earths' curvature meant gravity could not be relied upon to flatten the liquid concrete, requiring laser sighting instead! An impressive end to a fascinating week.