What Is the HMS Master/Diploma Thesis Competition?

Updated

The HMS Master/Diploma Thesis Competition is an award program run by the Hellenic Metallurgical Society (HMS) for graduate-level thesis work. According to the news listing on met.gr, the 9th edition of the competition was announced under the title "9th Master/Diploma Thesis Competition of the HMS," dated March 26, 2026. If you are a master's or diploma thesis author working on metallic materials or a closely related field, this is the HMS program to watch.

What the competition is

HMS is a Greek scientific society founded in 2000 by 20 scientists and engineers from Greek universities and industry. Its stated mission is to promote the science, technology, and applications of metallic materials in Greece, and it became a full member of the Federation of European Materials Societies (FEMS) in 2010. The thesis competition fits that mission by recognizing student research at the master's and diploma level.

The met.gr news entry confirms three things:

  • Name: Master/Diploma Thesis Competition of the HMS
  • Edition: the 9th
  • Announcement date on the site: March 26, 2026

Who it is for

The title points to two groups of thesis authors:

  • Master's thesis authors — students completing a postgraduate degree.
  • Diploma thesis authors — in the Greek and wider European engineering tradition, the diploma thesis is the final research project of a five-year engineering program, roughly equivalent to a combined bachelor's and master's qualification.

Because HMS focuses on metallic materials, the competition is most relevant if your thesis deals with metallurgy, metals, or materials science and engineering. The met.gr page does not state eligibility rules, submission deadlines, or required language, so confirm those directly with HMS before preparing an entry.

Why it matters for early-career researchers

HMS positions itself as a bridge between academia, research, and industry. A society-level thesis award does several practical things for a graduate:

  • It gives external validation of your thesis beyond your own department.
  • It puts your work in front of a national metallurgy community that includes both university and industry members.
  • It connects you to a network that also runs larger events, such as the 9th International Conference of the Hellenic Metallurgical Society in Thessaloniki on November 3–4, 2025, co-organized with the Physical Metallurgy Laboratory at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

How to follow or enter

  1. Go to met.gr and open the News section, where the competition announcement is listed.
  2. Read the announcement post for the current edition's rules, eligibility, and deadlines.
  3. If details are missing or unclear, contact HMS through the society's own contact channels listed on the site.
  4. Watch the news feed around the same period in future years, since the competition recurs by edition number.

The site's news list also shows related HMS activity such as FEMS Junior EUROMAT 2026 in Trikala, Greece, and FEMS EUROMAT 2025, which is useful context if you want to combine the competition with a broader conference presence.

What is not confirmed

The met.gr material does not specify prizes, application fees, submission format, evaluation criteria, or whether the competition is open outside Greece. Treat those as open questions and verify them with HMS rather than assuming.