High-temperature superconductors have been featured at MRS meetings since their discovery in 1986. Twenty years later, the progress both on the fundamental understanding of these materials and the path towards their industrial applications has been impressive. First-generation wires are now routinely produced in kilometer lengths and used in a variety of large-scale prototypes of practical devices, while the scale-up of second-generation wires (RE123-based coated conductors) for industrial manufacturing is progressing at a fast pace. These achievements have been made possible by cutting-edge developments in materials science and technology. Coated conductors are composites of nanoscale layers of various materials and functionalities; and the understanding of issues concerning textured templates, complex oxide epitaxy, interfacial reactions, metal-oxide interfaces, crystal chemistry, defect characterization, and diffusion barriers is essential for the optimization of their properties. A topic of present large interest is the improvement of the in-field critical current by introduction of appropriate vortex pinning centers. It is now clear that large improvements can be obtained through the nano-engineering of several types of defects. As the technology approaches maturity, new problems such as ac losses and thermal stabilization will become increasingly important. Superconducting MgB₂ also attracts large interest due to its high-transition temperature (highest among binary compounds), chemical simplicity, low cost of the raw materials, and absence of weak-link limitations that allows the use of mature powder-in-tube technology to fabricate long wires. The inclusion of MgB₂ presentations in the symposium will bring together both communities and will encourage the discussion of problems that are common to all superconducting wires.

Contributions are solicited in, but not limited to, the following areas:

• Biaxially textured templates
• Buffer and superconducting layers
• Multiscale characterization of coated conductors
• Flux pinning and nano-engineering of defects for pinning enhancement
• Grain boundaries and interfaces
• Rare-earth substitutions, doping, and nonstoichiometry
• Long lengths, thermal stabilization, and scale-up issues in coated conductors
• New developments in BSCCO tapes
• MgB 2 bulk, films, and wires
• AC losses in MgB 2, BSCCO, and coated conductors
• Coils: MgB 2, BSCCO, and coated conductors
• New materials

Invited speakers include: Alexei Abrikosov, Nobel Laureate (Argonne National Lab), Michael Cima (Massachusetts Inst. of Technology), Judith Driscoll (Univ. of Cambridge, United Kingdom), Ron Feenstra (Oak Ridge National Lab), René Flükiger (Univ. of Geneva, Switzerland), Herbert Freyhardt (Univ. of Goettingen, Germany), Alex Gurevich (Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison), Yasuhiro Iijima (Fujikura, Japan), Quanxi Jia and Boris Maiorov (Los Alamos National Lab), Alex Malozemoff (American Superconductor), Dean Miller (Argonne National Lab), Teresa Puig (Inst. de Ciencia de Materials de Barcelona, Spain), Jody Reeves (SuperPower), Yuh Shiohara (SRL-ISTEC, Japan), James R. Thompson (Univ. of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Lab), Maria Varela (Oak Ridge National Lab), Haiyan Wang (Los Alamos National Lab), and Xiaoxing Xi (Pennsylvania State Univ.).

Leonardo Civale
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Superconductivity Technology Center
MS K763
Los Alamos, MN 87545
Tel 505-665-9886
Fax 505-665-3164
lcivale@lanl.gov

Claudia Cantoni
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Condensed Matter Sciences Division
MS 6061, 1 Bethel Valley Rd.
Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6061
Tel 865-574-6264
Fax 865-574-6263
cantonic@ornl.gov

Matthew Feldman
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Applied Superconductivity Center
1500 Engineering Dr.
Madison, WI 53706
Tel 608-263-5026
Fax 608-263-1087
feldmann@cae.wisc.edu

Xavier Obradors
CSIC
Institut de Ciencia de Materials de Barcelona
Campus de la UAB
08193 Bellaterra, Spain
Tel 34-93-580-1853
Fax 34-93-580-5729
xavier.obradors@icmab.es