The election results are in! MAS is pleased to welcome to the Executive Council, Directors Assel Aitkaliyeva (University of Florida) and Thomas Lam (Smithsonian Institution), and Secretary Owen Neill (University of Michigan)!
Read here the letter from our new MAS president Heather Lowers!
The effect of COVID-19 on event planning is a rapidly-evolving situation. MSA and MAS Leadership are aware that many upcoming conferences have been canceled or postponed, and that several organizations and universities have enacted travel bans for the 2nd quarter.
MSA and MAS Leadership have determined that it is too early to make changes for August. The Microscopy & Microanalysis (M&M) community will be informed immediately if any changes or decisions are made that will affect M&M 2020, but as of today, all plans regarding M&M 2020 in August in Milwaukee, WI are moving forward as scheduled. Note that should the event be postponed, registration fees will be transferred to the re-scheduled event, and if M&M 2020 is canceled, registration fees will be refunded.
The MAS is excited to announce the results of its 2019 election results. By vote of the members of the MAS, Chad Parish has been overwhelmingly re-elected as Secretary. Our new directors for the three year term are Michelle Thompson of Purdue University and William (Will) Bowman of the University of California, Irvine. The new directors will replace Roseann Csencsits and Emma Bullock who are rotating off council after their three year stint. Emma Bullock will continue her service to the society by taking over from Mike Nagorka as the Chair of the Membership Committee.
In addition, all of the changes to the By-Laws passed. In general, they reflect changes in how the society is managed, replacing the corporate seal with corporate letterhead and defining eligibility for becoming a Fellow of the Society. The details are below.
Thank you to everyone who voted and to the individuals on council and the committees who through their service help to make the MAS a vibrant “member run” society.
Changes to the MAS By-Laws (changes are in bold-italics)
ARTICLE I
Offices
The Principal office of the Society shall be located with the Treasurer for the Society. The Society may also have an office or officers at such other places as the Executive Council may from time to time designate.
ARTICLE II
Corporate Letterhead
The Corporate Letterhead used for business documents shall include the name of the Society, the year of its incorporation, the words “incorporated in New York“, AND THE SOCIETY FEDERAL EIN (TAX ID).
ARTICLE III, Section 1. ELIGIBILITY:
ARTICLE VI, Section 6
Indemnification: All Officers and Directors as defined in Article V, Appointed Officers as defined in Article VI, Chairmen of duly appointed Committees under Article VII or employees of the Society shall be indemnified by the Society against all expenses and liabilities, including counsel fees, reasonably incurred or imposed upon him or her in connection with any proceeding to which he or she may be made a part, or in which he or she may be involved, by reason of his or her being or having been a member of the Executive Council, officer or employee of the Society, or any settlement thereof, whether or not he or she is a member of the Executive Council, or employee at the time such expenses are incurred, if such individual acted in good faith, for a purpose they reasonably believed to be in the best interests of the corporation and had no reasonable cause to believe their conduct was unlawful. The foregoing right of indemnification shall be in addition to and not exclusive of all others to which such member of the Executive Council, officer, or employee may be entitled.
MAS Members,
For many us of, the beginning of September marks the end of the summer conference and vacation season. We return to work and school with a renewed sense of accomplishment and focus on goals for the coming year. It is a time for taking stock, and planning for the future. For MAS, 2019 has been an excellent year. Our membership numbers, > 500, and financial picture, > $750K in combined invested and liquid assets, are at historically high levels. Beyond just the numbers, the active engagement of society members in person and on-line visibly demonstrates the strength and vibrancy of MAS. Total attendance at the annual Microscopy and Microanalysis Meeting in Portland this summer reached record levels, with over 3,000 total participants, including 11 Distinguished Scholars and an AMAS student representative with financial support from MAS. The annual Meal with a Mentor connected nearly 100 early career M&M attendees with the senior members of the society. The induction of the Inaugural Class of MAS Felows recognized the long-standing contributions of some of our most dedicated members to the goals of MAS. QMA 2019, held in June at the University of Minnesota as part of our on-going Topical Conference series, provided the premier international venue for in depth discussion of quantitative microanalysis methods and applications. Six Goldstein Early Career scholars were awarded travel grants to develop their microanalysis technical skills and the Tour Speaker program supported Affiliated Regional Societies through travel subsidies for invited speakers to local meetings. MAS leadership and early career scholars participated in the European Microanalysis and the Australian Microanalysis meetings. On-line, our newly revamped web page and our growing social media presence provided connection to members worldwide. I’d like to take this opportunity to give a sincere thank you to the Council, the committee chairs and members, the M&M Meeting Co-Chair and Symposia organizers, and Sustaining members for all the volunteer time and resources they contributed to making 2019 such a successful year for MAS.
For 2020, MAS Council is continuing to look at ways to grow our value to the MAS membership through promotion of the advancement of microanalysis methods, instrumentation, and applications. Planning for EBSD 2020 (June 24-26th, 2020, University of Michigan), latest of the bi-annual EBSD TCs is well underway. A permanent home for the MAS archives at the Science History Institute in Philadelphia is in development. The Executive Council will work on establishing a dedicated strategic initiative fund from our current assets, to make funds available for one-time and on-going expansion of MAS activities.
In closing, I invite all members to make the most of their membership in 2020 by nominating your colleagues for a Best Paper Award, sponsoring an early career member through the Goldstein Scholar Program, inviting an MAS expert to speak at your regional society meetings through the Tour Speaker program, submitting an MAS-focused topic to the M&M 2021 call for symposia, and voting in the upcoming society elections in November. Stay connected, and send us your news and events to highlight on the MAS web page and social media platforms!
Sincerely,
Rhonda Stroud
President of the Microanalysis Society, 2018-2020
President-elect – Heather Lowers
Please join me in congratulating our new and returning Executive Council members for 2019. Our incoming President Elect for January 2019-August 2020 is Heather Lowers. Elaine Schumacher will stay for a second term as Treasurer (2019-2020). The incoming directors are Donovan Leonard and Abigail Lindstrom (2019-2021). Many thanks to our two outgoing Directors, Vincent (Vin) Smentkowski and Julie Chouinard for their service to MAS over the last three years. In addition, the change to the By-Laws to clarify the annual audit requirement was approved.
Happy New Year,
Rhonda Stroud
MAS President
Every two years at the end of the Wednesday night Business Meeting during the M&M meeting, a new President of the Microanalysis Society takes over the gavel and beads of office. This year in Baltimore it was my honor to receive those ceremonial tokens from Masashi Watanabe. When I joined MAS in 2005, the thought of one day leading the society was not even remotely on my mind. I joined because I was asked, by two colleagues whom I knew and respected as experts in materials analysis. Like many in the microscopy community even today, at that time I was honestly a little confused about the different roles played by MAS and our sister society, MSA. But my colleagues needed a new addition to the MAS tour speaker roster, and they thought FIB-enabled coordinated TEM and SIMS analysis of supernova stardust was just the thing to interest the local societies. So I said, “Yes.”
Thirteen years later, the role of MAS in the microscopy and microanalysis community is much clearer to me. MAS is first and foremost a community of problem solvers. We are diverse in our backgrounds, with degrees in materials science, geology, physics, chemistry, biology and more. We are diverse in the employment sector, hailing from universities, industrial laboratories, national labs, and commercial vendor corporations. We are united by our common goal of solving materials problems through microanalysis. Our wealth of expertise was prominently on display at this year’s M&M Plenary session, where for the first time MAS inducted society Fellows. There we honored 28 Legends who, over the first fifty years of the society’s history, pioneered the methods we now all rely on for our microanalysis solutions: WDS, EDS, XRF, SIMS, EELS, FIB and more. Imagine for a moment trying to solve a problem in catalysis, or microelectronics, or art conservation, or planetary materials or pharmaceutical development without applying at least one of those techniques. The ability to obtain answers and provide solutions for materials problems across so many disciplines and applications is exactly our strength and purpose as a society.
Looking to the future, the prospects for the Microanalysis Society over the next fifty years are strong. Our membership numbers are growing (over 550), and our financial position is robust (over $500K in assets). This year MAS leadership will focus on providing even better value to our current and future members. We will expand popular initiatives, such as the Meal with a Mentor Lunch, which brings senior society members to together with student members to discuss microanalysis career options over lunch following the M&M Plenary Session. We will modernize our member communications with more extensive social media outreach, a modern website, and easier “one-stop-shopping” member renewal on the joint MAS-MSA member portal. I hope that each member finds more ways to be engaged with MAS that fit their individual goals and expertise, whether through contributing to microanalysis-focused symposia at M&M, participating in a Topical Conference (QMA-2019!), applying for a Goldstein Scholar Early Career Fellowship, or even serving as a host and mentor to Goldstein Scholar. MAS is a society of problem solvers, and each member is part of the solution. Thank you to all those who have contributed to making MAS as vibrant a community as it is today. I look forward to seeing you in Portland next summer, if not before.
Sincerely,
Rhonda M. Stroud
MAS President
Dear MAS Members,
On August 8, 2018, I passed the MAS presidency to Rhonda Stroud and became one of Past Presidents. I am still in transition process, so that I have not yet felt relief from the heavy pressure being the President. Soon, I will enjoy the relief feeling!
The previous President, Tom Kelly has created new dynamics in the society and I wanted to maintain the dynamics during my presidency. If you notice some of recent MAS activities, I think my primary mission as the MAS President was successfully accomplished. Although I expressed “my” primary mission, I have been strongly supported by various MAS members, especially the executive council members and committee chairs including committee members. Without their dedicated supports, nothing has been completed. I would like to express my sincere acknowledgement to the individuals who supported the society managements (and me!).
In addition, I would like to thank the Presidents of our sister societies: Mike Marko, Ian Anderson, Bob Price and Paul Kotula (MSA), Ric Wuhrer (AMAS), Mike Matthews (EMAS), and Ed Vicenzi (IUMAS). It was great to contribute to the M&M organization together with MSA. We had successful M&M meetings. As I described in the previous Presidential Messages, I was invited to the AMAS 2017 meeting (Brisbane, Australia) and to the EMAS 2017 meeting (Konstanz, Germany) as the President exchange program among the sister MAS societies. It was wonderful experiences to attend to those meetings organized by our sister societies. Furthermore, I was also invited to the EAMC3 (The 3rd East-Asia Microscopy Conference) meeting as one of the key note speakers in November, 2017 (Busan, Korea). This invitation is partially due to the MAS Presidency. It was great to bridge sister societies. Good and strong relationship with the sister societies should be continued.
During my presidency, we had two major events: the MAS 50th Anniversary and launching the MAS Fellow Program. More details of those events can be found in the links above. Prior to the events, I contacted the Previous MAS Presidents and the Legend class of MAS Fellows. It was wonderful for me to exchange e-mails with whom I just knew by name from textbooks and scientific articles when I was a student! I never forget this wonderful experience, which is a gift to me for my MAS presidency!
Now, the situation of MAS is very healthy: over 550 members (the highest in 21st century) and decent finance. New challenge would be to keep this high membership and activities, which is one of the fundamental missions to make the society stronger towards the 75th anniversary and beyond. I have no doubt that the New President Rhonda Stroud and the council members will lead us to the next stage of the society!
Finally, I would like to finish this message by citing a phrase from an old Japanese song:
“Sayonara (Good Bye)” is not a word for farewell but a long-term promise to see you again!
Thank you very much for your tremendous contributions and kind supports to MAS and “Sayonara!”
Masashi Watanabe
Past President