Advanced materials and high performance polymers and their technologies specially designed and developed for emerging defense and aerospace applications has started to play a vital role in maintaining security and world peace in the 21st century.

Ongoing fundamental and applied research and development of the state-of-the-art aerospace and defense relevant product technologies is being carried out at various academic, research institutes and industrial organizations throughout the world.

A first edition of the international symposium (a semi-autonomous event) entitled, Symposium W:Advanced Materials and Polymers for Defense and Aerospace Applications was successfully held under the auspices of International Conference on Materials for Advanced Technologies (ICMAT 2005) organized by the Materials Research Society of Singapore (MRS-S) from July 3rd to 8th, 2005 in Singapore. http://www.mrs.org.sg/icmat2005/downloads/symposium/SymposiumW.pdf

The 1st Symposium was marked by the attendance of internationally reputed materials and polymers scientists including Dr. Herbert C. Carlson, Jr. (then the Chief Scientist at the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), Arlington, VA, USA), Dr. Y-C (Charles). Lee (Program Manager, Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), Arlington, VA, USA), Dr. Bhakta B. Rath (Associate Director, Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), Washington DC, USA), Dr. Richard A. Vaia (Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL/ML), Polymer Branch, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH, USA), Dr. Rolf Bütje (Vice President-Research, European Aeronautics Defense and Space Company (EADS), Munich, GERMANY), Dr. S. Sivaram (Director, National Chemical Laboratories (NCL), Pune, INDIA), Dr Ram Gopal (Director, Defense Laboratory (DL)/DRDO, Jodhpur, INDIA) Prof. Masa-aki Kakimoto (Distinguished Professor, Tokyo Institute of Technology (TIT), Tokyo, JAPAN), Prof. Ajit D. Kelkar (Research Professor, North Carolina A&T State University), Greensboro, NC, USA, Prof. Suat Hong Goh (Distinguished Professor, Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore (NUS), SINGAPORE), Prof. Shabbir M. Moochhala (Director, Center for Biomedical Sciences, Defense Medical & Environmental Research Institute (DMERI) –Defense Science Organization (DSO), SINGAPORE), just name a few. Leading defense and aerospace institutions around the world were represented.

The peer-reviewed proceedings of the first symposium was published as a ‘Special Issue’ titled ‘Science and Technology of Advanced Materials and Polymers for Defense and Aerospace Applications’ in the Materials Science and Engineering: Part-B journal, Volume 132 (1-2) (2006) pp. 1-228 by the Elsevier, UK. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09215107)

Ongoing fundamental and applied research and development of the state-of-the-art aerospace and defense relevant product technologies is being carried out at various academic, research institutes and industrial organizations throughout the world.

In this context, it is expected that the scientific community’s effort for a continuing symposium series on novel materials and polymers R&D, synthesis and formulations, characterization, fabrication, and processing, and product technology development as applicable to defense and aerospace will be considered highly appropriate and timely. In particular, the strategic importance of the south Asian and south-east Asian region, and security issues that are of relevance to the region, and space exploration collaborations demands that such a series be conducted in the region. it is our strong desire and interest to have the next edition of the symposium held in India.

The venue (viz., India) and timing of the second edition of the symposium is in cognizance of the importance of aerospace and defense-related materials research in the Indian sub-continent and around the glob, and the strategic importance of the region, and to showcase as well as to invite joint collaborations for the advancement of the outer-space exploration and global defense capabilities in the region.

The 2nd International Symposium on Advanced Materials and Polymers for Aerospace and Defense Applications (SAMPADA-2008) will cover all the important R&D and advanced technologies areas, including the sensitive needs to protect intellectual properties specific to new and emerging materials and polymers, technologies and applications in aerospace and defense industries.

In addition to aerospace and defense related technologies, the SAMPADA-2008 would cover many interesting topics relevant to its ancillary manufacturing sectors such as microelectronics, renewable energy, micro-nano technology and smart manufacturing materials. The polymeric materials includes PI, BMI, PBI, PBO, POSS, Aralites, Aramides, IPN, etc., and their fiber reinforced composites and

fabrication, as well as their thermo-mechanical stability and long term performance reliability studies; high performance ceramics, C60, C-SWNT, C-MWNT and ion-exchanged clay minerals based nano-structured materials [hybrids and nanocomposites (i.e., CERAMER, METAMER, and METACER)] technologies; metallurgical materials and alloys, magnetic nanocrystalline alloys and composites, Aluminum and Aluminum alloy matrix composites, Titanium-matrix composites for high energy impact absorbents and projectiles, armor penetration, anti-armor and armor protection; armor design and engineering for advanced battle tank and military vehicles; Stone matrix asphalt (SMA) formulations for all terrain roads, bridges, and tunnels constructions; thermo- mechanically/elastically stable polymeric 'Cementious' materials and coating technologies for explosion blast mitigation and anti-fragmentation in space vehicle/ rocket launch pads and defense installation structures and civilian constructions; Low- and high- k nano electronic materials and dielectrics; Semiconductor materials, for multilevel microelectronic chip designing and Fab steps optimization through modeling and simulation; Semiconductor lasers and superconducting composite conductors; Optical materials: LED materials, Quantum dots, optical fiber sensors, photovoltaic, opto/electro, bioactive and chemiluminescent polymers and their fabrication processes, Electro-plating and electroless-plating methods, Li-ion doped as well as inherently conducting polymers and their morphologies, supercapacitors and proton exchange membrane fuel cells design fabrication technology for aerospace, defense, automotive and locomotive applications; complex MEMS and NEMS metrology design and devices fabrication engineering, complex miniature systems and microsystems based smart sensors and clusters technologies, high performance nano particles, bio-inspired nanomaterials for life science devices; polymers and ceramic separation membranes design and fabrication for gas and liquid purification; polymers blends and materials selection and characterization (thermal, electrical, corrosion, fracture mechanics, tribological properties, etc.); and instrumentation, device components and hardware and tooling; analytical and reliability testing methodologies development; process simulation and modeling, etc. important for the 21st century and relevant to the technical scope of the symposium. The full list is provided in the Topic of Interest as well as in the Announcement Brochure.

It is expected that the SAMPADA-2008 will provide an exclusive forum for intellectually stimulating and engaging interactions among the leading international scientists and academicians to share their recent scientific breakthroughs and achievements, and will attract tremendous interest globally among institutions keen to engage in interactions with the regional bodies to discuss collaborative research and development of emerging technologies for the aerospace, defense, and industrial applications. It also would provide excellent venue for discussing potential business opportunities and for developing MoUs for various joint ventures in these technologies, as well.

Similarly, in the interest of promotion of significant global science and technology R&D idea exchange amongst the young budding chemists, scientists and engineers, PhD research scholars, postdoctoral fellows and students (working at various academic and research institutions as well as in the aerospace and defense industries), and their one-to-one highly spirited interactions with the seasoned and experienced materials and polymers research scientists, aerospace and defense engineers and academicians, the SAMPADA-2008 provides conducive avenue and therefore encourages their proactive participations as well.

Technical contributions will be welcomed in the broad range of relevant areas of the materials and polymers technologies for aerospace and defense applications