ACerS FAQ

When was The American Ceramic Society founded?

The Society was founded in 1898, more than 100 years ago.

Where is The American Ceramic Society located?

The headquarters of The American Ceramic Society is located in Westerville, Ohio but Society members come from all over the world.

Can just “Americans” join The American Ceramic Society?

No, in fact, ACerS members are located in more than 60 countries. Nearly 30% of our membership is made up of International members.

Is The American Ceramic Society about ceramic arts?

Actually, our members are principally ceramic scientists and engineers, and include manufacturers, plant personnel, educators, students, and marketing and sales professionals. Learn more about the branches of technical ceramics here.

We do support a council for the arts called “Potters Council” which is comprised of studio potters and artists but is a much smaller component to the Society.

What does The American Ceramic Society do?

The American Ceramic Society is the leading provider of technical information, meetings, and publications in the world. We offer an exceptional array of journals and publications, technical meetings, and a community that fosters idea generation and information sharing among members.

What’s so cool about “ceramics?”

Did you know that your everyday world would be forever altered if ceramics materials were taken away? You use ceramics all of the time and probably don’t even know it. Of course there are ceramic components that are more obvious to you such as tableware and toilets. But did you know that Andre Agassi uses a tennis racket made of ceramic components? Items such as pacemakers, teeth and body joints are also made of ceramic materials. Car components, light bulbs and space shuttle apparatus all rely on ceramic materials. Medical researchers have developed tiny robots called “nanobots” that can be remote controlled into the body to distribute chemotherapy to patients and then are absorbed by the bloodstream. All of these things and more wouldn’t be possible without ceramic and glass materials.

Do The American Ceramic Society members work mostly at universities?

About a quarter of our members do, however, nearly half of our members work in corporate settings, and many others work in government agencies or government funded laboratories.

What areas of concentration do most of your members work in?

The top four areas that our members work in are electronics, glass refractories, and energy. However, we have many members that work in nuclear, environmental, biomedical, coatings, military, aeronautics, building materials, structural ceramics and whitewares, just to name a few.

What makes The American Ceramic Society different from the other materials societies?

While other societies offer broad information on a range of materials, The American Ceramic Society is the leading authority on glass and ceramic related materials. No other societies can offer more cutting edge and up-to-the-minute information and connections on ground breaking research and application in ceramics and glass materials.

Is The American Ceramic Society only for ceramic scientists and engineers?

No. Of course many of our members work with ceramic and glass related materials everyday but many do not. But we also have members that have occasional need for high level information about ceramic and glass related materials, but do not work with them everyday. These members have found the Society’s knowledge resources and connections to the materials community to be invaluable to their work.