Dear all,
First and foremost, we wish you a very Happy New Year, full of support, success and achievements.
To start this year on a high note, we are delighted to share with you the program of the World Materials Forum's 8th edition which will take place in Nancy on June 16-18 2022 with an incredible range of partners and speakers.
As to this no 40, we see a deepened focus on critical materials: Indonesia aims to build a full EV supply chain industry (Nikkei Asia), China plans to secure its strategic supply of iron ore (News.com.au), Europe considers starting new deposit of rare earth in Sweden (Mining.com), the US review possibilities of improving waste recycling (Pennsylvania State University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and also face some difficult choices for new mining of EV raw materials (Reuters) and finally the key messages of the latest Fitch report on global lithium market (Mining.com).
Further on the scientific front with a wide variety of innovations such as longer-lasting solid state batteries by Sandia National Laboratories, efficient catalyst for lower cost hydrogen production at Oregon State University, more efficient film solar cells based on abundant and low cost tin sulfide at Tohoku University, detection of quantum spin liquid at Cambridge University, using AI and electron density to predict materials properties in Nature, better heat transfer at interfaces for optimum power electronics at GeorgiaTech, 3D printed nanomagnets for new patterns of energy storage at Cambridge University and long data retention at 3,5 ns in next generation spintronics at Tohoku University.
Sustainability-wise, we spotted 4 surveys and initiatives: how AI and machine learning could make the renewable energy industry more competitive in Forbes, how hydrogen and recycling will play a central role in making low emission and profitable steel according to new Bloomberg report, a new tool to guide sustainable buildings design and construction developed by Northwestern University, and a demonstration in TechXplore that EVs are definitely more advantageous emission-wise than thermal vehicles, all scopes included.
And finally 17 of our WMF Start Up Alumni were in the news last month. Some great fundings (Carbios - France, ETS - USA, Kebotix - USA, Momentum Technologies - USA, Polystyvert - Canada, UBQ Materials - Israel) as well as interesting press coverage (BComp - Switzerland, Blackleaf - France, Brimstone Energy - USA, CompPair - Switzerland, Graphene MG - Australia, Kebotix - USA, Nitricity - USA, Sepion Technologies - USA, Twelve - USA, UbiQD - USA), an interview (Inopsys - Netherlands) and finally some promising partnerships (Demeta with Metton America Inc., Kebotix with Software for Chemistry & Materials, Twelve with Exosonic Inc.). And special mention to two of our Alumni, winners at the Hello Tomorrow Global Summit in early December: C12 Quantum Electronics (France) in the Computer & Communication Hardware category & Kebotix (USA) in the Data & AI category.
