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Katherine Faber, president of the 4th International Congress on Ceramics, on “Shaping the Future of Ceramics.” Credit: ACerS.

I really enjoy going to meetings. The big, conference kind, that is — not so much the day-to-day inhouse kind!

Conferences give me the chance to follow the buzz: the who, what, where and how of ceramic technology. I get the technical details from the sessions, but I get the most out talking to meeting the attendees about their work, what trends they are seeing, who they are collaborating with, what problems they are encountering, etc.

There is just no substitute for the “live action” that happens at a meeting. So, I’m really looking forward to the 4th International Congress on Ceramics this July in Chicago.

International Ceramic Federation convenes these international congresses biennially in cooperation with several international societies. ACerS is the host and organizing society of this fourth congress. ACerS had the privilege of hosting and organizing the first ICC in Toronto in 2006 and is very pleased to reprise the role.

The theme of this congress is “Shaping the Future of Ceramics,” and as you might expect, this refers not just to processing and properties, but also to the business of ceramic science, engineering, product development and manufacturing.

Katherine Faber, president of the ICC4 says the meeting is “designed to bring together international leaders in business and research to investigate new opportunities and emerging opportunities in terms of ceramic design and ceramic manufacturing.”

Indeed, the meeting is organized into themes that reflect this goal: Aerospace; Aerospace; Biology and Medicine; Electro-, Magnetic-, Optical-Ceramics and Devices; Environment, Energy and Transportation; Infrastructure; Nanostructured Ceramics; Security and Strategic Materials; and Workforce Development. Over 600 international attendees representing business, academia and government are expected.

The technical program, Faber says, “is geared toward emerging opportunities in energy, health, transportation and aerospace. We’ll also hear about nanotechnology and nanodevices, as well as other electrical, optical and magnetic materials.”

It seems natural, then, that this year ACerS’s Ceramic Leadership Summit be incorporated into ICC4. The CLS, now in its third year, is a forum for exploring and addressing the business issues and challenges facing the ceramics and glass industries, in both realms of established industries and emerging technologies.

Faber notes, that the combined meeting is an opportunity to bring together those “creating the knowledge and doing the innovating,” to the mutual benefit of all.

There is a lot more going on—an innovative poster session, a short course on sintering, keynote and plenary talks—all in the pleasant setting of downtown Chicago. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing with you a sampling of the talks that are scheduled for ICC4 and CLS and other updates as we learn about them.

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The Shot Glass Drop competition gave students and young professionals a chance to put their on-the-spot design talents to the test. This clip shows a “victory drop” of the winning design by Jessica Serra.

The ICACC meeting in Daytona Beach wraps up today. I left on Wednesday after more than a week on the conference circuit. I was ready to come home, but I confess that the balmy sunshine was working for me. (It’s cold, cloudy and snowy where I live.)

Here are some final sights and sounds from the meeting, but I’ll have more to say about what I saw and heard in the weeks to come.

Monday evening's reception for students and young professionals was well attended and, according to reports, a lot of fun.

A vendor and customers talk shop at Tuesday's Expo.

Posters were displayed on the perimeter of the Expo floor.

While the Expo was going on, so was a Shot Glass Drop competition for students and young professionals. Sponsored by Schott Glass, contestants had about 30 minutes to construct a contraption out of 30 plastic drinking straws that would protect a free falling Schott-made shot glass. Most of the 16 entries survived to the maximum height, which was in the neighborhood of 12 feet. If they reached the maximum height, contestants then were required to remove two straws each round until only one survived. The winning design won with 24 straws. The video clip above shows winner Jessica Serra’s “victory drop,” one final drop after she was being declared the victor. It survived.

The glass and straws.

Intense concentration from a team.

And the winner is Jessica Serra, shown with judges Greg Hilmas (left) and Sean Landwehr. Jessica recently joined the staff of Pratt-Whitney.

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Some of the German delegation of participants in the first Global Young Investigators Forum at ICACC. Thomas Fisher (third from left) was the principle organizer of the forum.

The 36th convening of the International Conference and Exposition on Advanced Ceramics and Composites is in its second day in Daytona Beach, Fla. This year’s meeting attracted over 1,000 engineers and scientists from 41 countries, who will be presenting about 850 papers. According to the organizers, this year, for the first time, the number of foreign attendees has surpassed the number of US attendees.

Two factors are contributing to the strong international participation: the first European Union–USA Ceramics Summit and the first Global Young Investigators Forum. The EU-USA summit is taking place on Monday and Tuesday and attracted about 25 talks with participants from Germany, Italy, Sweden, Czech Republic, Finland, Belgium, Poland and Spain.

The Global Young Investigators Forum starts tomorrow and runs through the end of the week. The GYIF is a new innovation this year, and all indications are that it’s an idea that is long overdue. Thomas Fisher, PhD candidate at the University of Cologne, Germany, organized the Forum, which will have 45 presentations from PhD candidates and post-docs from more than 14 countries. I’ll have more to tell about the Forum later.

I’m told the weather in Daytona Beach in January can be hit or miss, and since Sunday, it’s been all “hit,” with temperatures in the upper 70s and sunshine.

Here is a catalog of some of the things I’ve been seeing.

George Wicks, ACerS president, and Sanjay Mathur, program chair.

ICACC'12 kicked off with a lively reception on Sunday.

Colleagues and friends met at the reception. Pictured from the left, Lise Schioler, George Quinn and Eileen De Guire.

Jay Singh presented the Society with a gift on behalf of the Indian Ceramic Society. Pictured with Jay are Charlie Spahr (ACerS executive director), George Wicks and Megan Bricker (ACerS director of membership).

Monday's plenary session drew a rapt audience.

David Marshall delivered the first plenary talk and was awarded the James I. Mueller Award.

The beach was no distraction for these attendees.

Andrew Portune of Nottingham, Md., is enjoying the meeting.

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Nanshun Lu, an assistant professor at the Univ. of Texas at Austin and a researcher in bio-integrated electronics, in a relaxing moment before her talk.

The 2012 Electronic Materials and Applications meeting just ended, and I have to say, it’s a great time to be a materials scientist!

“It was an excellent meeting,” said Amit Goyal, chair of ACerS’ Electronics Division and EMA coorganizer. “One could see the excitement in the conference rooms and during the discussions. In particular, the new emphasis with a strong energy storage symposium was very well received. A combination of relevant symposia and a congregation of international experts made the conference highly successful.”

Indeed, many of the “grand challenges” society faces and has made a priority come down to materials structure and properties. For example, there are only a few sources of alternative and renewable energy: solar, wind, tidal, biomass and nuclear. But, there are myriad technical problems that stand between tapping them and making them cost effective. Talks addressed questions, such as: How can the efficiency of conversion to electricity be increased? Is electricity the only conversion output? What approaches are there to engineer around scarce materials? What problems can be solved with green manufacturing methods?

Most of the attendees were from academia and national labs, although I met at least one attendee from a venture capital firm who was trolling for promising emerging technologies in energy. It makes sense. Government has an appropriate role to invest in research according to societal priorities, and academia is where most of the basic science and proof-of-concept research takes place.

Also impressive was the youthfulness of the attendees. Many of the professors and national lab people were obviously on the friendly side of 40, and students — graduate and undergraduate — were well represented, too. Students had the opportunity to strut their stuff in a special lunchtime symposium, “Highlights of Student Research in Basic Science and Electronic Ceramics.” For most of the undergraduates, this event was their debut presentation, and I was especially impressed with how well they understood their subject as they fielded audience questions.

Next, I’m heading over to Daytona Beach for next week’s ICACC meeting. Watch for more photoblogging from Florida.

Meanwhile, enjoy these pictures from Thursday and Friday.

A noontime fire alarm postponed the student speaking symposium, but did not rattle the speakers.

ACerS president, George Wicks, chats with young members of the Society.

The delegation from the University of Florida, Gainesville.

Cassandra Llano receives the award for Best Student Presentation from Amit Goyal.

Harriet Kung, associate director of science for Basic Energy Sciences at DOE, delivered Thursday's plenary talk, "Science to Energy."

Friday's plenary speaker was John Prater from the Army Research Office. His talk was "Future Opportunities in Materials Design.

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Beautiful weather in Orlando, Fla. beckoned these attendees at the Electronic Materials and Applications meeting.

The 2012 Electronic Materials and Applications meeting opened yesterday in Orlando, Fla. This is the third consecutive year for the event organized by ACerS’ Electronics Division and Basic Science Division, and this year’s gathering attracted just under 200 participants.

The program focuses on electronic ceramics for energy generation, conversion and storage applications. There are eight symposia covering advanced dielectrics, piezoelectrics, materials for batteries, thermoelectrics, metamaterials and microwave materials, as well as a symposium dedicated to sustainability and green materials processing.

Yesterday’s plenary speaker was Tony Gozdz, principle scientist at A123 Systems, pinch-hitting for Bart Riley one of the cofounders of A123, who was unable to come at the last minute. Gozdz, a polymer chemist by training, really knows batteries and set the tone for the conference by outlining the materials science and engineering successes, ambitions and challenges that are yet to be overcome.

The talk, “Advances in Lithium-ion Technology for Automotive and Grid Application,” started with a brief history of battery technology and quickly focused in on the development of lithium-containing batteries beginning in the 1960s. Observing, “The chemistry of batteries is the chemistry of interfaces, basically,” Gozdz went on to describe how solutions to surface and interface problems drove the evolution of lithium batteries, and continues to do so. He outlined A123’s work developing nanophosphate cathode materials, and offered some thoughts on nascent energy storage ideas and on the energy paradigm shift underway in this country. I’ll have more on the three plenary talks in a later post.

Meanwhile, enjoy this photoblog from Orlando!

Amit Goyal, chair of the Electronic Division, welcomes attendees to EMA 2012

Tony Gozdz of A123 Systems delivered the opening plenary talk on lithium batteries for automotive and grid applications.

Students polish their talks during the mid-morning coffee break.

A special symposium gave students the opportunity to present their work. Here, Manuel Rivas, a senior at U. Texas-Pan American, presents his work on doped barium titanate.

Christopher Turner, PhD candidate at U. Florida, fields questions during the poster session and reception.

Alp Sehirlioglu and Geoff Brennecka at the reception.

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