The Collaboration Inter Americana en Materiales (CIAM) is a body that brings together agencies from Argentina, Brasil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and the USA. It aims at stimulating enhanced collaborations among materials researchers and at creating networks linking countries in the Americas, and recognizes the need for interdisciplinary, inter-institutional and international collaboration in the field of materials science and engineering. CIAM came into being at a meeting in Brasilia, Brasil (January, 2002), that was attended by representatives from the countries already mentioned. This meeting was preceded by international workshops that were held in Saltillo (Mexico, 1995), Rio de Janeiro (Brasil, 1998), and Cancún (Mexico, 2001). Calls for international cooperative research proposals were issued by the participating agencies in the third quarter of 2002, and over twenty proposals were selected to receive awards at a meeting in Mar del Plata, Argentina, in April 2003 that was attended by representatives of the seven participating agencies.

At the Mar del Plata meeting it was agreed that a second CIAM competition would be launched in 2004, and that a scientific meeting on materials, promoting the participation of researchers from the Americas, would be held in Chile in April 2004. On October 2003, CONICYT (www.conicyt.cl), the Chilean agency participating in CIAM, requested that the workshop be jointly organized with the Center for Advanced Interdisciplinary Research in Materials (CIMAT: www.cimat.cl) of the Universidad de Chile in Santiago. More information about CIAM can be obtained from any of the following: Argentina, Roberto Williams (williams@fi.mdp.edu.ar); Brasil, Carmen Negraes (cnegraes@cnpq.br); Canada, Mario Lamarca (mario.lamarca@nserc.ca); Chile, Ximena Gomez (xgomez@conicyt.cl); Colombia, Rafael Hurtado (rhurtado@colciencias.gov.co); Mexico, Jose Lever (jlever@conacyt.mx); USA, Carmen Huber (chuber@nsf.gov).

CIMAT