The 1989 Spring Meeting of the Materials Research Society will be held at the Town and County Hotel in San Diego, with events spanning April 22-29. Meeting Chairs Robin Farrow, Dick Siegel and Angelica Stacy have developed a program of 16 technical symposia that reflect the continuing key role of materials science in the development of both mature and emerging technologies.

Several new topics will reflect emerging areas, including materials for optical storage of information (Symposium F), ultrathin magnetic films (Symposium G), and materials problems of infrastructure (Symposium P). A special workshop will provide a technology update on diamond films (Symposium P) and will feature a joint session with Symposium H, Optical Materials: Processing and Science.

Plenary speaker Linus Pauling, research professor at the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine, will discuss quasicrystals, materials whose atomic structure displays perfect five-fold symmetry, but whose atomic pattern is never exactly repeated as it would be in conventional crystals. During the Plenary Session MRS will also recognize graduate students who have made outstanding contributions as authors or co-authors of papers presented at the 1989 Spring Meeting.