Meeting Report: Fifth International Conference on Synchrotron Radiation in Materials Science

More than 250 scientists from 22 countries gathered in Chicago, Illinois, from July 30 to August 2, 2006, to participate in the Fifth International Conference on Synchrotron Radiation in Materials Science (SRMS-5). The SRMS conference is held every two years, bringing together leading-edge researchers in the materials sciences making use of synchrotron radiation. The conference, which was organized and hosted this year by Argonne National Laboratory and the Advanced Photon Source, provided an overview of the latest research developments in a broad range of areas, such as polymers and biomaterials, magnetic and superconducting materials, glasses and ceramics, engineering materials, materials under extreme conditions, complex oxides, innovative instrumentation, membranes, and thin films. The aim of SRMS-5 was to highlight recent breakthroughs in materials science using synchrotron radiation and to open doors to future innovation and discovery.