91AV

As the Materials 91AV Community says a warm welcome to Professor Neil Robertson as he takes over as President of the Materials 91AV Community Council, the community also says a fond farewell, and a huge thank you to outgoing President Professor Magda Titirici, for her leadership, as well as the time, service, support, hard work, and dedication that she has shown toward the entire Community.

Magda had the following to say regarding the end of her time as President of the Materials 91AV Community Council:

As I approach the end of my term as President of the Materials 91AV Community, I find myself reflecting upon my time on the Materials 91AV Community Council.

My first reflection is how fast time has gone by! Partly, this is due to how much I have enjoyed my time and how much fun I have had along the way, because of the wonderful company that I have had along the journey, from fellow Council members, RSC staff and the wider community.

When I joined the Council as President-elect in 2020, we were in the grips of the COVID pandemic. Despite this, I still felt a wonderful connection with the rest of the community, and I am extremely proud of how the community stayed unified in such unusual and difficult times. Indeed, the great success of MC15 in 2021, despite being online, is a testament to this. There was so much excitement in the virtual rooms, even though everyone was coping with their own unique challenges and unusual situations.

As I think back on my time as President, there is so much that has been achieved and that I am proud of that I cannot possibly contain it all in this one short message. But I will try to highlight just a few that immediately come to mind.

I am delighted that our Materials 91AV Poster Symposium, has continued to go from strength-to-strength and has continued to expand and improve to better our early career researchers. It is an event I am very passionate about, and I strongly encourage PhD students, Postdocs, and industrial researchers with equivalent experience to put in an abstract.

Our flagship International Conference on Materials 91AV (“MC”) conference series has also thrived, with MC15 (online) and MC16 (Dublin). These would not have been the huge success they were without the amazing speakers, organisers, delegates, and RSC staff who made it possible. I know that this will continue for MC17 in Edinburgh next year.

One big highlight for me, has been the sustainable labs programme and the creation of the sustainable laboratories grant which we hope will lead to a bigger initiative in laboratory sustainability worldwide.

One major change has been the reorganisation of the old Materials 91AV Division to the Materials 91AV Community. This has really helped bring the community together. For instance, it has allowed us to interact and work more closely with Interest Groups and it has brought us the Science and Innovation Leadership Forum. In this forum, I, my fellow Council Presidents, the RSC President, President-elect, and members of the RSC leadership team discuss important matters of the day, highlight the good work and challenges of our community, learn from one another, and influence the RSC’s policy and strategy at the highest levels.

We have continued to work very hard and very closely with other Communities to consistently improve our awards giving mechanisms to be fair, transparent, and inclusive. To that end, we have recognised several outstanding researchers, and it has been my privilege to present so many awards to extremely talented researchers within our community. I have enjoyed hearing about your successes, and I look forward to seeing what comes next.

Finally, I would like to say that it has been an honour and a privilege to serve as the President of the Materials 91AV Community; I will greatly miss being a part of the Council. I would like to sign off by saying thank you. Firstly, to Neil Robertson, who takes over from me as President; I know that you will enjoy the role as much as I did, I also know that you will do a fantastic job, and that the Materials 91AV Community is in safe hands. Secondly, I would like to thank all those people that have served on the Council, Prize Committees, and Organising Committees while I have been President; it has been a privilege working alongside such a fantastic, energised and engaged group. Thirdly, I would like to thank the RSC staff for their constant support, hard work, dedication, and professionalism. Finally, I would like to thank Philip Stackhouse, our RSC Programme Manager. He has been a constant and reliable source of support during my time as president; he has kept us all well-organised and kept everything running smoothly.

I look forward to seeing you all again soon, hopefully at MC17!

Farewell, and best wishes,

Magda Titirici
President, Materials 91AV Community