In this special issue of MRS Communications, we celebrate our young colleagues and early independent researchers. Now in its second year, the Early Career Materials Researcher issue is dear to me as an editor because it allows me to view and invite contributions from promising researchers and faculty who are about to launch their scientific careers as independent researchers. We hope that the contributions of these talented few will be an enduring hallmark for MRS Communications as it helps them launch their careers.

MRS Communications focuses on the latest advancements in research and methodologies across a broad spectrum of materials research. We also help disseminate transformative ideas, new protocols in synthesis, the latest characterization tools and cutting-edge discoveries in our highly interdisciplinary field. This is done through Research Letters as well as Prospectives, which are forward-looking short reviews highlighting trends and potential future topics of broad interest to the materials community. We congratulate our early career authors who contributed to this special issue: Wui Yarn Chan, Zhe Qiang, Aeriel Leonard, Yasutaka Nagaoka, Guang Yang, Christopher Shuck, Minxiang Zeng, Ping Guo, Yong Lin Kong, Abhinendra Singh, Hyowon Seo, David Burghoff, Roopali Kukreja, Yijie Jiang and Anand Babu. Topics include AI-driven materials, hybrid materials, energy storage and carbon capture materials, bio-based synthesis, MXenes, nanocomposites and additive manufacturing. In years to come, I will follow the careers of these Researchers and how they will contribute immensely to material science and engineering. Again, congratulations and thank you to our early career authors.

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Rigoberto C. Advincula

Editor-in-Chief

MRS Communications

UT-ORNL Governor’s Chair Professor

University of Tennessee (UT) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)

ACS Fellow, POLY Fellow, PMSE Fellow, NATAS Fellow, FRSC