Manufacturing: John E. Marquis Award

The John E. Marquis award is an international award given out once per year by the American Ceramic Society’s (ACerS) Manufacturing Division to the main author/two lead authors of the best ceramics/glass manufacturing paper published in the prior calendar year (2025) in an ACerS publication which includes the approximately 1300 articles contained within the  Journal of the American Ceramic Society (JACerS), International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology (IJACT), International Journal of Applied Glass Science (IJAGS), International Journal of Ceramic Engineering and Science (IJCES) and ACerS Bulletin. All ACerS members (10,000+ globally) are eligible for the award. Recipients of this highly prestigious award are regarded as the very top worldwide experts on ceramics/glass manufacturing technology which constitutes areas of expertise such as refractories, ceramic armor, aerospace materials, semiconductors, electronic ceramics, optical and transparent ceramics, glass, biomedical ceramic implants, cement, whiteware and traditional ceramics, nuclear ceramics and glasses, batteries and other energy materials. This underscores that the winning article exhibits excellence in manufacturing not just within its own domain but also all other specializations of ceramics and glass.

The previous winners of this award include the foremost experts in the field of ceramic manufacturing globally, including Dana Goski (past ACerS President, Vice President-R&D of Allied Mineral Products), Larry Hench (inventor of Bioglass: the first man-made material to bond with living tissues and author of textbook “Introduction to Bioceramics”), James E. Funk and Dennis R. Dinger (author of Dinger and Funk equation for particle packing that is extensively used in refractory ceramics industry), William Carty (author of textbooks: “Science of Whitewares” and “Whitewares and Materials: Ceramic Engineering and Science Proceedings”), and James Reed (author of internationally famous textbook: “Principles of Ceramics Processing”).

Criteria Used to Judge:

The selection process is highly competitive, involving rigorous evaluation by a panel of 4-8 experts who assess each article based on originality, technical excellence, and potential impact on the field of ceramics and glass manufacturing. The article has to be on research, engineering or plant practices relating to manufacturing ceramics and glass which is judged to be of greatest value to ACerS members and to industry.

Reasons for selecting a paper would be:

• Holistically, the technical quality of the paper implies that the first author or two lead authors can be considered a ceramic/glass manufacturing process expert;
• The paper describes a new or improvised “industrially viable” processing technique, composition, equipment, or quality control method that enhances performance, productivity, safety, or reduces cost;
• Whether it solved a long-standing industrial problem;
• Whether it improved understanding of an existing commercial process or composition;
• If the article postulates a theory, simulation (mathematical modelling) or concept, whether it can improve industrial manufacturing;
• No matter how improved the properties described in the paper are, the manufacturing technique must be either commercial technology (there are real products in the market) or one which multiple companies are pursuing to develop;

Papers are rejected by the awards committee based on various criteria such as:

• Unrealistic for scaling up/commercialization: Expensive precursors/equipment, too slow process, creating two problems while solving one, limited to tiny samples;
• Techniques/compositions that are not industrially used or judges have a reason to believe there would be major problems when used in industry (cost, homogeneity, defect rate);
• Technical flaws (statements not supported by evidence), dubious XRD patterns or SEM images, misleading EDS interpretations/data manipulation;
• The article is a review paper without giving significantly valuable industrial manufacturing-oriented insights;
• Majorly contains sales pitch or marketing exhibit unless it clearly describes how to make it and why it works so well;
• Unclear/poor language or too many typos;
• Too theoretical/academic work having no clear inputs on commercialization
• None of the authors are ACerS member (there are 10,000+ members globally).

Timeline and selection process:

Nomination emails are sent to the award in-charge, Vicki Evans (VEvans@ceramics.org) by the January 15 deadline each year. These emails must justify why the paper deserves the award. These are forwarded to the award committee chair who inspects them along with all the 1300 papers in the 5 ACerS journals and distributes them to the judges depending on their expertise/interest area. The 2026 Marquis award committee consisted of Somnath Mandal (Chair), Sherry Van Mondfrans, Joe Szabo, Dileep Kumar CJ, Tristana Duvallet, Marco Pelanconi, Santanu Mondal and Bola Yoon. Typically, by February 15, each judge selects the 5 best out of ~175 articles and sends slides containing justification and preliminary scores (out of 10) to the chair. This leads to a pool of about 40 papers including the earlier received nominations which are then graded by the committee. By March 15, scores of the 40 top articles are ranked and by March 22, tiebreakers, if any, are critically discussed among the jury. By March 25, the chair reveals the winner to the award in charge who takes care so that the award is given out preferably during Ceramics Expo during April/May.

The award consists of a stoneware platter, a certificate and an honorarium.

Past Award Winners