European Materials Day was initiated by suggestion of FEMS in 2003 and occurs every first Wednesday of November and SPM has been commemorating since 2003. The event is organized in collaboration with the Materials Committee of the National Association of Engineers.

A contest will take place in order to award prizes to the best Master thesis on Science and Engineering of Materials presented by students of the Materials Engineering Courses of the Portuguese Universities.

There is a national call among all the Portuguese Universities for students application. The applicant should comply with the rules (thesis should have been evaluated before the competition to exclude works not finished, the student should have finished their master degree, present an extended abstract written in English, respond to a query, present a letter of acknowledgement of the supervisor). There is a judging panel appointed by SPM (normally professors and fellows from the industry) and a judging panel chair. There is a set of rules that help the jury panel to evaluate. Thesis and information are distributed among the judging panel members well in advance. On Eurioean Materials Day the panel members meet the candidates, listen and discuss with them after their pitch or poster presentations. After that the panel withdraws to take a decision and award the prizes.

Two prizes are awarded: the SPM Prize (500 Euros) and the Association of Engineers Prize (500 Euros).

Since 2017, the SPM prize is used to cover the expenses of the winning candidate to attend the FEMS EUROMAT or FEMS Junior EUROMAT conferences where the thesis is presented for the FEMS Master Thesis Award.

European Materials Day is organized around a thematic / topic that is of interest of the Materials community, that includes technology and innovation and transfer of research and development results to the industry on Materials.

Programme

Opening by the Materials authorities (SPM, National Association of Engineers and Host Institution Representative);

Presentation by the students of their work: poster and pitch presentation

Invited talk(s) by Portuguese Industries, Industrial Associations or Researchers on a Materials related topic

Round table and discussion on the selected topic;

Presentation of awards

End

For more information, visit the SPM website.