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Texas A&M University at Qatar hosts annual Materials Science and Engineering Symposium

Published Mar 18, 2015

Texas A&M University at Qatar hosted the sixth edition of the Materials Science and Engineering Symposium 17 March in the Texas A&M Engineering Building at Education City. The event brought together experts from academic institutions, research centers, industry and government organizations to discuss the latest advances in materials science and engineering.

Dr. Mark. H. Weichold, dean and CEO at Texas A&M University at Qatar, said, “Texas A&M at Qatar is proud to partner with academic and industry collaborators such as Qatar University, QAPCO and QEERI to help realize sustainable solutions to real-world challenges, and to encourage the exchange of knowledge, ideas and expertise that is essential to fuel innovation and new thinking. This year’s symposium illustrates the importance of industry, academic and government partnerships in developing scientific solutions that have direct impact on the world around us.

“The Materials Science and Engineering Symposium is another example of how Texas A&M at Qatar is collaborating with academia and industry in Qatar to help realize sustainable solutions to real-world issues for the benefit of the State of Qatar and its greatest natural resource, its people.”

The theme of this year’s symposium was “Building Capacity, Knowledge Transfer and Education in Materials Science and Engineering” and the symposium’s speakers, presenters and poster presenters focused on this theme to support research grand challenges in the State of Qatar.

Dr. Eyad Masad, executive associate dean at Texas A&M University at Qatar, said, “This continuing strong participation from the industry, research and academic institutions in the sixth edition of the Materials Symposium clearly shows the value of the event to the community.  It contributes to exchange of ideas, transfer of knowledge, and development of strategic partnerships. “

The event was co-organized by Qatar University, Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI) and Texas A&M at Qatar, and was supported through generous sponsorship from Qatar Petrochemical Company (QAPCO).

During his keynote speech, Dr. Mohammed Yousef Al Mulla, vice chairman and CEO of QAPCO, described sponsoring the symposium as an honor and noted how important the potential benefits of innovation were and how it would impact on the next generation of materials.

Al Mulla said, “Our modern society is heavily dependent on advanced materials: lightweight composites for faster vehicles, optical fibres for telecommunications and silicon microchips for the information revolution and of course many polymer related applications. The fascinating element about materials science is that the outcome of research projects are tangible, and they directly impact our lives. For this reason, knowledge transfer and education in materials science and engineering is essential.”

Al Mulla also noted that, “Materials science is very much pertinent to Qatar and critical for our prosperity, and can leverage our beloved nation’s competitiveness. Together, through collaboration and synergy, we can advance material science knowledge transfer and education and encourage sustainable made in Qatar groundbreaking discoveries.”

The symposium, featured speakers from top international academic institutions, QEERI, Qatar University, Texas A&M at Qatar and industry, served as a platform to foster interdisciplinary future collaborations among the participants.

The program also featured a poster session, which included a competition of separate tracks for students and researchers, with first-place winners from each track receiving QR 5,000 and with second-place winners from each track receiving QR 3,000. Students and researchers presented the outcomes of their research and impact on advancing the industry in Qatar.

Dr. Mariam Al-Maadeed, director at Center for Advanced Materials and coordinator at Materials and Technology Master Program at Qatar University, said, “I hope the Materials Science and Engineering Symposium 2015 brought together academicians, researchers and professionals from a broad set of disciplines to discuss the latest advances in materials science and engineering.

“This year’s symposium addressed the theme ‘Capacity Building, Knowledge Transfer and Education in Materials Science and Engineering’ to support research grand challenges in the State of Qatar. This symposium brings the maximum interdisciplinary collaborations between academic institutions, research centers, industry and government organizations to effectively facilitate the research.  A network involving a large number of researchers from different organizations can be established for the active research in materials science and engineering and to build a knowledge-based economy as per Qatar National Vision 2030.”