We are pleased to publish the second Early Career Scholars in Materials Science Annual Issue of the Journal of Materials Research. The issue highlights young scientists carrying our research forward in the field of materials. By publishing these papers together, we spotlight this group of early career scholars at a particularly important stage in their careers. Their photos and biographical details are included to personalize the authors and to help other scientists meet them and thus facilitate networking for them. To further extend that exposure, we have published all of these papers on an Open Access basis. It is impressive to see the degree of international representation of the scholars and the efforts taken by this group to carry out state of the art research on a global scale.
The topical coverage represented by the 19 papers in this issue parallel the diversity of subjects represented by the Materials Research Society. The papers range from the use and processing of carbon in its many forms for electronics, structural composites, and biomedical applications to energy-related materials such as transition metal oxide anodes and perovskite solar cells. New analytical approaches such as measurements of grain boundary energies and ultrafast electron microscopy promise new fundamental insights about core processes affecting material responses under a variety of stimuli. A number of papers demonstrate important advances in metals and polymer composites properties though novel processing. Finally, there are a couple of papers that deal with new scientific perspectives on scintillator materials and silica glass structure and properties. Central to all of the papers is a perspective on processing-microstructure-property relations—a common theme in materials research.
We are enthusiastic to see how the careers of this group of young professionals (over 15 faculty members) advance in the coming years. We expect they will continue to grow and prosper in the field of materials and assume future leadership roles. Feel free to contact the editors if you have any questions about publishing a paper in a future Early Career Scholars in Materials Science Annual Issue and enjoy reading these outstanding papers.
