History of NAMES seminars

French-Russian NAMES seminars are hold for reviewing and discussing actual developments in the field of Materials Science by researches from Russia and from the Lorraine Region of France. In more precise terms, as put down by the organizers of seminar (Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys and Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine), the mission of the seminars is the following:

• development of scientific and academic contacts, giving a new impulse to joint fundamental research and technology transfer;
• development and consolidation of scientific, technical and business collaboration between Moscow and Lorraine through direct contacts between the universities, institutes and companies involved.

The First seminar took place on October 27-29, 2004 at the Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine (on the premises of the Ecole Européenne d'Ingénieurs en Génie des Matériaux, Nancy, France). The number, variety and quality of the oral presentations given and posters exhibited at the first Seminar were of high international standard. 30 oral presentations were given and 72 posters presented by

• 19 participants from 5 Universities and 3 Institutes of the Russian Academy of Science, and the Moscow Government Delegation;
• participants from 11 laboratories of 3 Universities from the Lorraine region,
• three industrial companies, including European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company - EADS, and ANVAR (Agence nationale de valorisation de la recherche).

From 2005 on, it was decided to organize the Seminar every other year. The Second Seminar convened on the occasion of the 75th Anniversary of Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys on November 10-12, 2005 in Moscow, Russia. The seminar proved the efficiency of scientific partnership founded between the research groups of Russia and France during the First Seminar. High productivity of the French-Russian scientific cooperation on the basis of Research-Educational French-Russian International Centre has been demonstrated. By high standards of the reports presented, as well as by its overall organization, the Second Seminar met the standards of an international conference.

Reviews of the state-of-art developments in Materials Science were given by leading scientists from Moscow and from the Lorraine region. The three days of the seminar were structured into four main themes:
- Functional Materials;
- Coatings, Films and Surface Engineering;
- Nanomaterials and Nanotechnologies;
- Environment,

and three Round Tables:
- defining practical means of carrying out Franco-Russian collaborations in technology transfer and innovation;
- Materials Science;
- ARCUS: Lorraine-Russian collaboration in materials science and environment.
32 oral and 25 poster reports within four sections were presented by, in total, 110 participants.

The First and the Second NAMES conferences were financially supported by the following organizations:
- Ambassade de France à Moscou
- Communauté Urbaine du Grand Nancy
- Région Lorraine
- Conseil Général de Meurthe et Moselle
- Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine
- Université de Metz
- Université Henry Poincaré
- CNRS
- ANVAR
- Federal Agency on Science and Innovations of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russian Federation;
- Moscow Committee on Science and Technologies;
- Moscow institute of steel and alloys (technological university)

The Seminars indicated directions for future research and stimulated the possibilities of cooperation between scientists from Lorraine and Moscow.
The participants of the Seminars reviewed the remarkable worldwide progress with numerous breakthroughs in areas of basic research and industrial applications, specifically in the fields of nanomaterials and nanotechnologies, surface engineering, biomaterials and multifunctional coatings, functionally graded materials, new materials for microelectronics and optics, nanostructured thin films and nanodispersion strengthening coatings, combustion synthesis, new micro- and nanosystems and device, natural resources environmental sciences etc. The participants consider that new fundamental knowledge, new materials, and industrial production methods generated as a result of international cooperation betweeen both countries will be of interested to the industrial sector in Lorraine and Moscow, France and Russia.