Rio Grande Symposium on Advanced Materials (RGSAM)

The Rio Grande Symposium on Advanced Materials (RGSAM) is a general technical meeting of materials researchers in the Rio Grande geographic region. It is an outgrowth of the Joint Technical Meetings of the New Mexico Section of the American Ceramic Society and the New Mexico Section of the Materials Research Society initiated in 1989. These meetings, sub-titled “Ceramics and Advanced Materials: Symposia and Poster Session,” proved to be quite popular among materials researchers in the Rio Grande geographic region. Attendance typically ranged between 75 and 150 people presenting 30 to 50 presentations, which were frequently used as a local warm-up for national meetings. An important aspect of this symposium is that it has been, and continues to be a venue for presentations by students from regional universities. In 1997, the Albuquerque Chapter of ASM International joined with the NM Section of the American Ceramics Society to host the meeting which began its new name, “The Rio Grande Regional Symposium on Advanced Materials.” Reflecting the multidisciplinary nature of materials research presented at RGSAM, other societies soon joined to host the symposium. The New Mexico Chapter of the American Vacuum Society organized the RGSAM in 2013, followed by the Central New Mexico Local Section of the American Chemical Society in 2015. In 2018, the Albuquerque Chapter of ASM organized. This meeting hopes to reach out to a broad base of support among local materials societies and will be a focal point for the exchange of technical information in the Rio Grande geographic region well into the 21st century.