Beginning with a vision of a "materials-blind" society in the late 1960s, a few forward-looking individuals, with an eye toward advancing the cause of interdisciplinary research, made that vision a reality--the Materials Research Society, officially founded in 1973. The Society's core principles were interdisciplinarity, focused symposia, and greater interaction among researchers. These principles make MRS different from single-discipline professional societies because they encourage communication and technical information exchange across the various fields of science affecting materials.