ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES | OCTOBER 2025 51 GUEST EDITORIAL continued from page 2 15 government funding in the USA (apart from the critically important roles of NOL and NASA). Other countries have partnered with university researchers to accelerate the development of SMA technologies. A prime example of another Big Event was the formation of the German Collaborative Research Center SFB 459 (SonderforschungsBereich) that was funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsch Forschungsgemeinschaft) between 2000 and 2011 at Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany. Professor Gunther Eggeler was the speaker/chair of the SFB 459 and guided on the order of 20 projects simultaneously each year with focus on fundamentals, processing, properties, and applications. Over 220 publications were published and over 40 graduate students successfully completed their theses during this time. More importantly, this program already produced some of the next leaders in our field where many of these former students are now heading their own development programs throughout Germany. Our SMA industry is now at the cusp of the potential Biggest Event with the development of elastocalorics. A grassroots organization was formed and the founders recently hosted the second international conference in Saarbrücken, Germany. Elastocalorics is a solid-state technology based on superelasticity and has the potential to reduce (eliminate?) the harmful effects of vapor compression cooling that is a major contributor to greenhouse gas and global warming. The predictions from the experts in this industry indicate that we face a formidable task with respect to material availability, designs for both industrial and home spaces, and the infrastructure to create these potential planet-saving Nitinol-based devices. Fortunately, many of the European nations have stepped up to fund research and development at universities (including at Saarland University) and laboratories. Alas, since the past election, the U.S. government has violently turned away from the Paris Agreement with any funding opportunities for elastocalorics few and far between. Industry simply cannot bear the full burden of this heating/cooling transformation. To solve such a large problem, researchers in the USA will need to collaborate, cooperate, and share vital information with our colleagues in Europe and Asia to keep pace with the requirements. So, whereas I remain optimistic that the international community will create this next Big Event, it will require diligence to overcome both the technical challenges as well as the policy roadblocks. Alan R. Pelton, FASM SMST Co-Founder and G.Rau Inc. CTO
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