June-July 2012 - Vol. 91 No. 5

Straight talk with Karen Scrivener on cements, CO₂ and sustainable development
In this interview, the Swiss Ecole Polytechnique Federale (Lausanne) professor and cement and concrete expert talks about the importance of concrete, pathways to reducing CO₂ and improving sustainable development.

Cement technology in sub-Saharan Africa—Practical and scientific experiences
Wolfram Schmidt, Naomi N.M. Hirya, Dubravka Bjegovic, Herbert C. Uzoegbo, Senthil G. Kumaran
Cement and concrete are critical to the modernization of the subcontinent. Low cement concretes may be a cost-effective sustainable solution, but developing a local expert workforce will be equally important.

Keynote and plenary speakers . . . . . . . . 57
Preliminary program schedule . . . . . . . . 58

Invited speakers and 3rd Ceramic Leadership Summit Track . . . . . . . . 59

Interactive technology forum and Exhibit . . . . . . . . 60

Short course: Sintering of Ceramics . . . . . . . . 61

Program overview and call for abstracts . . . . . . . . 62
Tentative schedule . . . . . . . . 62
Hotel information . . . . . . . . 62

ACerS lectures and special events . . . . . . . . 63
Short courses . . . . . . . . 64
Student activities . . . . . . . . 65

Exhibitors . . . . . . . . 65

• The Economist looks at intersection of materials, innovation and manufacturing

• Bloom Energy opens new East Coast SOFC plant and secures big Delaware deal

• BBC’s ‘Ceramics—How they work’

• Business news

• Large deposit of rare earth neodymium discovered in Brazil

• Germany stops energy subsidies, forcing First Solar to scale back

• Supply chain issues drive rare earth economics

• Lawn elected to Australian Academy of Science

• NIST awards cements paper

• Goyal receives DOE award

• Kyocera Professors Technical Meeting held in March

• Society leadership elections: Candidate statements and ballot

• Alfred to lend ceramic electrolyte and glass expertise to GE Global Research battery project

• NexTech’s SOFC interconnect coating surpasses one-year mark

• PowerPots demonstrate practical side of thermoelectrics

• DARPA says hypersonic vehicles need better high-temp materials data; UCSB team shows how to measure strain at high-temps

• Hot stuff: Measuring thermophysical properties at very high temperatures

• Rutgers grad students demonstrate rapid ceramic product inspection technique

• Reactive fillers to produce wollastonite bioceramics

• International team finds help from boron nitride nanotubes in cancer treatment

• ICG reports on progress for pharmaceutical glass roadmap

• Solar cement—Solar-driven electrolysis for making lime and no CO₂ emission

• Honda announces large rare earth recycling effort

• Greenroads groups award first LEEDs-type certification to ‘Poticrete’ project

Jason Nikkel
Undergrad research provides direction