Purpose
To promote the interaction of Texas researchers working on theory, computation and experiment directed at modeling material design, material processing, material properties and material performance, and to provide a mechanism for transferring the developed methodologies and technologies to industry.
Membership
Membership will be free for faculty, students, post-docs and researchers at any university located in Texas. Membership will automatically be extended to Texas faculty, students, post-docs and materials-related researchers who attend an annual meeting. To maintain membership a person must have attended one annual meeting in the previous two years. Membership for other Texas university faculty, students, post-docs and materials related researchers as well as for those seeking to keep membership after missing two consecutive meetings will be decided upon by the executive committee on a case by case basis. Members are entitled to present a poster, maintain a blog, propose and lead focus groups at the annual meeting, nominate and vote for executive committee members and serve on the executive committee if elected. In addition to the members, industrial partners may join for a fee to be set by the executive committee. Industrial partners may attend the annual meeting, propose and lead focus sessions and have access to the TXMMN website.
Activities
The main activity of TXMMN will be a two day annual meeting, preferably at a regular time each year, that will consist of poster sessions and focus group meetings. One main aim of the focus group meetings will be to provide the opportunity for researchers at various Texas institutions to develop joint research proposals and projects. TXMMN will also maintain a website open only to members and industrial partners where members will have a blog space to describe current research issues and activities, ask questions and post preprints and reprints. The website will also maintain a membership list, information about the annual meeting and news and information related to material modeling issues (e.g., RFPs, conference dates). The website will also serve as a repository for public domain materials modeling software. TXMMN will also promote a Distinguished Lecture series that will bring distinguished materials modeling researchers to Texas for lecture tours at various member universities and possibly industrial partner sites.
Organization
The executive committee will consist of seven members, each serving a four year term. There will be four officers on the executive committee (ExCom); the president, the vice-president the treasurer and the secretary. The president will preside over ExCom meetings, oversee management of the website; the vice-president will succeed the president, oversee management of the lecture series; the treasurer will manage the finances (deposit any funds from industrial partners, pay any bills, etc.); the secretary will be responsible for communication with members and industrial partners. The officers will be elected by the ExCom members. The secretary and treasurer serve one year terms and may be re-elected during their tenure on the ExCom. The vice-president serves one year as vice-president and one year as president. The ExCom will be responsible for site selection for the annual meeting, solicit and choose focus group topics and organizers, maintain the TXMMN server, solicit funds from and maintaining a relationship with industrial partners, and manage the lecture series. The ExCom will propose changes to rules and method of operation of TXMMN as the network develops. Once the startup phase is over, any changes to the rules of operation will need approval of a majority of voting members.