APS Division of Materials Physics

APS Division of Materials Physics
Name	APS Division of Materials Physics
Abbreviation	DMP
Formation	1973
Type	Professional society division
Headquarters	American Physical Society headquarters
Region served	International
Parent organization	American Physical Society

Contents

APS Division of Materials Physics is a specialized unit of the American Physical Society dedicated to advancing the scientific understanding of materials through research, education, and community-building. The division fosters connections among researchers from institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Argonne National Laboratory, and engages with funding agencies like the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy. DMP serves as a focal point for collaborations linking laboratories, universities, and industry partners including IBM, Intel, Toyota, Samsung, and General Electric.

History

The division was established within the American Physical Society during a period of expanding interest in condensed matter studies that included contemporaneous developments at Bell Labs, IBM Research, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Early influences included landmark work from researchers associated with Harvard University, California Institute of Technology, Cornell University, Princeton University, and Yale University. The evolution of DMP paralleled major discoveries such as the identification of high-temperature superconductivity linked to groups at Bell Labs and University of Zurich, advances in semiconductor physics at Fairchild Semiconductor and Texas Instruments, and nanoscale breakthroughs at Rice University and University of Manchester. Over the decades the division interacted with broader initiatives like the National Nanotechnology Initiative, the Materials Genome Initiative, and international programs at the Max Planck Society, CERN, and Riken.

DMP operates under the governance structures of the American Physical Society with an elected executive committee, officers including a chair and vice-chair, and appointed subcommittees. Leadership often comprises faculty and laboratory scientists from institutions such as Columbia University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Imperial College London, ETH Zurich, and Seoul National University. Advisory interactions include liaisons to organizations like the American Chemical Society, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Materials Research Society, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and international academies such as the Royal Society and the National Academy of Sciences. Financial oversight and program coordination interface with bodies such as the National Institutes of Health when interdisciplinary materials-biomedical topics arise.

Membership spans researchers, educators, and industrial scientists affiliated with University of Cambridge, Johns Hopkins University, University of Texas at Austin, University of Michigan, and Northwestern University. DMP administers awards and recognitions that reflect major accomplishments, often coordinated with APS prizes and fellowships such as those connected to the Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize, the APS Fellowship program, and named lectures honoring figures like Philip W. Anderson, John Bardeen, Walter Kohn, Mildred Dresselhaus, and Nevill Mott. Student and early-career awards foster ties with summer schools and programs hosted by Argonne National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and international exchanges with institutions such as University of Tokyo and Peking University.

DMP organizes focused sessions within the APS March Meeting and fosters symposia that attract participants from European Physical Society meetings, International Conference on Composite Materials, MRS Spring Meeting, and international conferences at venues like Tokyo Big Sight and Geneva. Regular topical conferences emphasize themes explored at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and in collaborations with industry partners such as BASF and 3M. Invited speakers have hailed from award-winning groups at Bell Labs, IBM Research, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, and university centers including the Materials Research Laboratory at UC Santa Barbara.

DMP contributes to APS publication programs and coordinates with journals and publishers including Physical Review Letters, Physical Review B, Nature Materials, Science, and Advanced Materials. Outreach efforts engage educators and students through partnerships with organizations such as the American Association of Physics Teachers, the Society for Science & the Public, National Science Teachers Association, and international science communication initiatives at UNESCO and the European Research Council. The division supports topical review articles, workshop reports, and educational materials that draw on expertise from contributors affiliated with MIT, UCLA, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, and Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

DMP spans research areas including superconductivity exemplified by work at Brookhaven National Laboratory and University of Chicago, magnetism with links to Los Alamos National Laboratory and Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, semiconductor and quantum materials researched at Microsoft Quantum, D-Wave Systems, and NIST, and two-dimensional materials advanced at Columbia University and University of Manchester. The division has engaged with emergent topics such as topological insulators associated with studies at University of Tokyo and Princeton University, spintronics with contributions from Hitachi and Tohoku University, and energy materials research tied to National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Fraunhofer Society. Impact spans academic citations and technological transfer influencing sectors connected to Tesla, Inc., Samsung Electronics, ASML Holding, and national laboratories shaping policy dialogues with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and international science funding agencies.