MRS Bulletin - Collection in Honor of V.S. Arunachalam

V.S. Arunachalam (1935–2023)

V.S. Arunachalam (Arun), a long-time member of the Editorial Board of MRS Bulletin, who was Director General of the Defense Research and Development Organization of India, Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister of India, and later a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in public policy, passed away on August 16, 2023 at the age of 87. In 2005, he founded the Bengaluru-based think tank Center for Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP), with a mission to enrich policymaking with innovative approaches using science and technology for a sustainable, secure, and inclusive society.

Arun contributed immensely to MRS Bulletin, beginning his association with MRS in the 1990s. He helped generate a series of articles in 1999–2001 on Materials Challenges for the 21^st Century. He then facilitated and guest edited the first special issue of MRS Bulletin on “Harnessing Materials for Energy” in April 2008. This arguably set the stage for energy-related programming in MRS along with the energy textbook published soon after. Arun was the motivation and push behind the 2015 MRS Bulletin special issue on “Materials & Engineering: Propelling Innovation.” He also founded and actively participated in the “Energy Quarterly” section of MRS Bulletin for several years.

MRS Bulletin

• Materials & Engineering: Propelling Innovation (this opens in a new tab) (2015 December Materials & Engineering Special Issue, editorial)
• With steel, cement, and mortar (this opens in a new tab) (2013 September Energy Quarterly, editorial)
• Energy and expansion: The Tata story (this opens in a new tab) (2010 September Energy Quarterly, interview)
• The Global Energy Landscape and Materials Innovation (this opens in a new tab) (2008 April Energy Special Issue, introduction)
• Materials Challenges for the Next Century: A Concluding Note (this opens in a new tab) (2001 December Materials Challenges for the 21^st century)
• Bounded Rationality and Materials Selection (this opens in a new tab) (1999 October Special Feature)
• Order in disorder: Stanford Ovshinsky talks of his materials, methods, and machines  (this opens in a new tab)(1998 November, interview)
• Materials Research and Development in India Has Rich and Rocky History (this opens in a new tab) (1993 May, opinion)

You may also find the above articles listed here (this opens in a new tab) as a collection!