October 1, 2019|Lisa McDonald
10-01 MS&T19_01

[Image above] From left, 2019–2020 ACerS president Tatsuki Ohji, 2018–2019 ACerS president Sylvia Johnson, ACerS treasurer Stephen Houseman, and ACerS executive director Mark Mecklenborg. Credit: ACerS


The American Ceramic Society organizes numerous meetings each year that feature research by members in various ACerS Divisions. But there is only one meeting that brings together members from the whole Society—the ACerS Annual Meeting!

The 121st ACerS Annual Meeting is held in conjunction with the 2019 Materials Science & Technology (MS&T19) meeting, taking place September 29–October 3 in Portland, Ore. The meeting currently is in full swing—take a look below to see some of the highlights so far!

Johnson passes the gavel

On Monday, September 30, the 121st ACerS Annual Business Meeting took place at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland. ACerS president Sylvia Johnson summarized the Society’s 2018–2019 accomplishments, specifically making note of the steps taken to increase diversity and inclusion in the Society within the past year. After retiring officers and directors on the ACerS Board of Directors and Executive Committee were recognized and new officers and directors sworn in, 2019–2020 ACerS president Tatsuki Ohji talked about his goals for the Society next year.

ACerS president Sylvia Johnson swears in the new officers and directors on the ACerS Board of Directors and Executive Committee. Credit: ACerS
“The fact that I became president shows we are a truly international society.” Newly-initiated ACerS president Tatsuki Ohji talks about the international nature of ACerS and his goal to increase globalization further in the coming year. Credit: ACerS

PCSA initiates new officers

The ACerS President’s Council of Student Advisors (PCSA) held their annual meeting on Saturday, September 28. PCSA is the student-led committee of ACerS responsible for representing student interests to ACerS and its subsidiary committees, divisions, sections, and classes. At their annual meeting, new PCSA officers for 2019–2020 were initiated.

President Sylvia Johnson (front row, fourth from left) with PCSA delegates. Credit: ACerS

Volunteers discuss present and future initiatives

On Sunday, September 29, the ACerS Board of Directors and Volunteers Meeting was held at the Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront. The volunteers consist of ACerS Division, Section, and International Chapter leaders. They reported on the current state of their respective groups and discussed ideas for making each group more active.

“We are going through the annealing phase without any cracks so far.” Sanjay Mathur, director of the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Cologne and chair of the Germany Chapter, discusses the initiatives the Germany Chapter have accomplished in the three years since their creation. Credit: ACerS
ACerS president Sylvia Johnson presents Kristen Brosnan with an ACerS Global Ambassador Award for her leadership and service to ACerS as PCSA lead mentor. Credit: ACerS

The students speak

Also on Sunday, students competed in the Material Advantage Undergraduate Student Speaking Contest, a contest meant “to encourage undergraduate students to present technical papers and to improve their presentation skills.” Four students competed in the finals, and Victoria Reichelderfer (University of Connecticut) was announced the winner for her presentation “Phase field modeling of corrosion.”

Victoria Reichelderfer, this year’s winner of the Material Advantage Undergraduate Student Speaking Contest. Credit: ACerS
The four undergraduate student speaking finalists. Credit: ACerS

Navrotsky presents new award

On Monday, September 30, the first-ever Navrotsky Award for Experimental Thermodynamics of Solids was presented to Alexander Beautl, a junior scientist at the Austrian Institute of Technology. Alexandra Navrotsky, professor at Arizona State University, established the award to honor researchers who made the most innovative contribution to experimental thermodynamics of solids technical literature during the two calendar years prior to selection. Beautl was given the award for his work on designing a novel apparatus for coulometric titrations in lithium containing systems.

Alexandra Navrotsky, left, presents Alexander Beautl with the first-ever Navrotsky Award for Experimental Thermodynamics of Solids after his talk. Credit: ACerS

More exciting events are scheduled at MS&T in the coming days. Keep your eye out for tomorrow’s CTT, which will feature more highlights!

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