Energies Matériaux Sans Frontières

The global health crisis of COVID 19 has shown more than ever that the eyes of the citizens are turned towards science in order to bring very quickly palliative and then decisive solutions to the pandemic. In such situation threatening the human species, the prerogative of Science would like researchers to work together in a spirit of sharing information, methods and discoveries, simply working for the sustainability of Man and life in general when it is threatened. Although the situation prevented any face-to-face meeting, the exchanges continued.

Indeed, the evolution of knowledge during the last two centuries allows today, thanks to the development of virtual interfaces and to the progress of the algorithmic, to transport sound and visual information which tend to generalize to the sensory. No one knows the limit of this exercise. In an increasingly reliable, stable and fast way, this connection made possible the continuity of pedagogical transmission and scientific research.

This is another demonstration that the knowledge produced, accumulated and preserved is today a kind of lifeline-saving arch for doctors and patients, litigators and judges, teachers and students, professors and doctoral students, to continue to advise, assist, dialogue, transmit and create the knowledge of tomorrow.

In this sense, the high places of knowledge that are the Universities, the Academies of Sciences, the Schools have largely fulfilled their saving missions towards the whole humanity.

In mathematics, if the extraction of the square root of a number became a child’s play with the advent of calculators, its extraction with a sheet of paper, a pencil and the four elementary operations was previously, an exercise that could be long. Similarly, for prehistoric man, bringing a quantity of water to boil without having a metal container despite the domination of fire was in the same order of challenge as extracting the root of a number without a calculator.

At first, computers worked with lamps, today’s computers (for all purposes) are based on the use of transistors industrialized since 1950 and their design is closely linked to the advent of rare earths and soon quantum.

By chance, Moore’s law (doubling every eighteen months of the density of transistors in processors) sees its predictions come true in the challenge of materials. This law is accompanied in a global context by another law called Dennard’s law (increase in computing power at constant energy), which opens the challenge of energy efficiency. Without these two competitions between materials and energy (involving many scientific disciplines), the reader is free to imagine what his daily, life would have been like during the lockdowns that have disrupted the existence of the world’s citizens since the end of 2019.

In this spirit, the ICOME (International Conference of Materials & Energy) aims to bring annually an updated and balanced picture of advances in the fields of materials and energy and to address significant progress in both fundamental and applied research as well as in societal areas.

This virtuous circle has punctuated the history of humanity by taking advantage of all the advances in knowledge as a natural laboratory or as a crucible providing innovations allowing experimental physics and numerical mathematics to continue their breakthroughs. Among these breakthroughs, we will particularly note those in optoelectronics, laser physics or high-performance computing.

The ICOME 2020 edition was supposed to take place in Metz, in Lorraine, and address advances in the fields of materials and energy. This edition was to take place under the auspices and legacy of the mathematician Henri Poincaré (Nancy) and the poet Paul Verlaine (Metz), symbolizing science and society. This conference returns after an international tour in Africa and Asia, especially after the success of the 2019 edition in Tunisia.

ICOME is also a bridge between the two shores of the Mediterranean, the crucible of a civilization that has largely influenced in its own way the course of the history of materials and energy.

The new edition of ICOME has been postponed to June 2021 and again the health conditions do not allow a face-to-face event, the committee opted to maintain an online edition as a new postponement would be unfavorable to the various strong links created all these years.

We are particularly grateful to the international speakers who were willing to come in 2020 and who reiterated their solidarity with this online edition. Our gratitude also goes to the organizers of the mini-symposia. All authors and contributors have coped and maintained their interest in the event, we hope to live up to their expectations.

Usually, the conference is coupled with a thematic school for PhD students and newly-qualified doctors. It is a privileged place of exchange between juniors and seniors who take advantage of the event’s atmosphere to benefit from the seniors’ advice and experience. Only face-to-face exchanges can ensure and fully consolidate the benefits of the seniors’ values. The committee has chosen to reschedule the theme school for a face-to-face event during the fall of 2021, if pandemic conditions allow for travel and gatherings.

During this edition of ICOME’21, participants are invited to three days of intense activity, through twelve (12) plenary lectures given by renowned scientists and 3 mini-symposia dedicated to current topics such as photonics applied to materials for energy, matter sciences in microgravity or innovative simulation approaches such as Boltzmann network methods.

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The topic of climate change has largely shown its importance for the future of the planet. This theme is at the crossroads of science and the organization of our societies. It is not far from the problems of materials and energy. We will leave it to each person to imagine these links. Professor G. Levermore from the University of Manchester, member of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize team of the Intergovernmental Organisation for Climate Change, has given us the honor and pleasure to talk about climate change in the opening conference.

The series of lectures on materials and energy promotes initiatives and values science as a vector of accumulation of human progress, cultural exchange, economy of mind, sharing and investment in intelligence, strength of argument, guarantee of respect for opinions, initiator of creativity, support for the quest for truth… In this sense, the reference to the universal scientist Averroès born in Cordoba, Spain in 1126 and died in Marrakech, Morocco in 1198, through the prize bearing his name reinforces this vision of a man who places truth beyond the beliefs and allegiances of his time, intelligence beyond temporal interest and societal use.

« Knowledge acquired in a foreign country can be a homeland and ignorance can be an exile lived in one’s own country » Averroès (1126-1198).

The organizers of the ICOME 20-21 edition wish everyone a fruitful event where young researchers can deepen their knowledge online while waiting for better days.

The organizers would like to thank the entities that supported the event and in particular the laboratories and institutes of the University of Lorraine that encouraged and supported the holding of this edition in Lorraine and accompanied the ICOME series since its creation.

Prof. R. Bennacer, Président ICOME Serie’s, Université Paris-saclay

Prof. A. Benyoussef, Directeur du Collège des Sciences Physiques et Chimiques de l’Académie (Academey Hassan II sciences et Technologies).

Prof. M. El-Ganaoui, Chair ICOME Serie’s, University of Lorraine

Prof. O. Fassi-Fehri, Permanent Secretary Hassan II Academy of Science and Technology

Prof. M. Petrissans, Co-president ICOME 21 edition