Newswise — January 16, 2014 – Warrendale, PA (USA) - The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS) will install Patrice E.A. Turchi as 2014 Vice President at the TMS 2014 Annual Meeting & Exhibition in San Diego, California, February 16-20, 2014. He has been an active member of TMS for more than 25 years, and has served on the TMS board as Chair of the Electronic, Magnetic & Photonic Materials Division (EMPMD). The office is part of the TMS three-year presidential cycle, so Turchi will serve as President in 2015 and Past President in 2016.

Turchi is a Distinguished Member of the technical staff and group leader in the Condensed Matter and Materials Division of the Physical and Life Sciences Directorate at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in Livermore, California.

As Vice President of TMS, he hopes to continue to advance the society's central goals.

"Bringing together scientists from diverse disciplines enables new ideas to emerge and develop," said Turchi. "My overarching goal is to work with our dedicated volunteers to promote the TMS mission from within as well as at the national and international levels, so that the TMS motto—learn, network, and advance—is enhanced and truly experienced by the scientific community."

Turchi received a Ph.D. in solid-state physics and a Ph.D. in materials science from the University of Paris VI, France, after obtaining his Engineering diploma from the National Superior School of Chemistry of Paris. He was a professor at the University Paris VI for 11 years, a visiting scientist at University of California, Berkeley, for one year, and has been at LLNL for more than 27 years.

His research interests encompass computational materials science and condensed matter physics with an emphasis on alloy theory from first-principles electronic structure, and stability and physical properties of complex assemblies. Turchi has given more than 310 presentations, authored or co-authored more than 285 publications, sits on the review boards of several scientific journals, and has received several professional honors and awards.

Turchi has chaired TMS's Alloy Phases Committee and the Electronic, Magnetic & Photonic Materials Division, and various administrative committees. He also has been a member of several TMS technical advisory groups, a contributor to several recent TMS reports, and organizer of 15 symposia for TMS, three symposia for the Materials Research Society (MRS), and eight international conferences. Turchi is co-founder of the International Alloy Conference, chair of the Alloy Phase Diagram Committee at ASM International, and a member of the Alloy Phase Diagram International Commission.

ABOUT TMS The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS) is a member-driven international professional society dedicated to fostering the exchange of learning and ideas across the entire range of materials science and engineering, from minerals processing and primary metals production, to basic research and the advanced applications of materials. Included among its 12,000 professional and student members are metallurgical and materials engineers, scientists, researchers, educators, and administrators from more than 70 countries on six continents. For more information on TMS, visit www.tms.org.