FEMS Junior EUROMAT 2024 takes place in Manchester, UK

IOM3 hosts FEMS Junior EUROMAT 2024 in Manchester, UK.

When Dr Kate Thornton, IOM3 President addressed speakers, delegates, sponsors and guests at the opening ceremony, she encouraged all to have fun and network. At the closing ceremony it was pail to see that they delivered and was pleased to see that lifelong friendships and future collaborations were forged.

During the conference, delegates from 21 countries enjoyed plenary, keynote lectures, daily poster sessions, lectures across 3 parallel sessions covering 5 areas (Functional Materials, Structural Materials, Characterisation & Modelling, Materials for Sustainability and Processing Technologies), and the 2024 FEMS Master Thesis Award final.

Plenary lectures were delivered by:
- Sarah Haigh (University of Manchester)
- Judy Lee (University of Surrey)
- Nikolaos Michailidis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)

Keynotes were delivered by Lola Gonzalez-Garcia (INM-Leibniz Institute for New Materials), Radha Boya (University of Manchester) and Paloma Fernandez-Sanchez (Universidad Compultense de Madrid).

Traditionally, the conference opened with the tutorial day, which included workshops and panel discussions on career planning and materials science and engineering outreach, and sessions on materials selection for sustainability (by ANSYS), data management planning and open research for PhD researchers, and commercialisation in materials science.

'FEMS Junior EUROMAT 2024 has been a fantastic conference, giving the opportunity to almost 200 enthusiastic early career materials researchers from across Europe and beyond to present fascinating talks and posters and to network with their peers. It was great to discuss their ideas and future career goals. After FEMS Junior EUROMAT 2024, I am convinced about the bright future of European materials science and engineering!', said FEMS President, Professor Aldo R Boccaccini.

Apart from the technical and scientific programme, delegates had the chance to participate in a series of networking activities, such as social fun run, Lock & Key, photo/selfie and app engagement competitions, as well as orienteer around Manchester looking for materials-related clues in Matopoly: Manchester. All winners were announced at the official conference dinner at Imperial War Museum.

FEMS would like to thank IOM3, the IOM3 Events Team for an excellent and engaging conference, and the conference co-chairs Dr Ilija Rasovic and Paloma Fernandez-Sanchez for an excellent scientific programme.

We hope all delegates, speakers and sponsors enjoyed the conference seeing the energy and enthusiasm they brought to the conference and how they supported each other, asking questions, learning and developing together, it is evident that the future of materials is in safe hands.

We hope to see you all in FEMS EUROMAT 2025 in Granada, Spain!