[Image above] Cements 2022 attendees. Credit: ACerS
After a two-year hiatus from in-person meetings due to the pandemic, The American Ceramic Society’s Cements Division hosted the 12th Advances in Cement-Based Materials meeting from July 10–13, 2022, at the University of California, Irvine. Several highlights from the meeting include a Sunday night student networking event at Eureka!, poster session, Della Roy Lecture and reception, presentation of the first Early Career Award, and an anteater (details to follow).
Monday’s program opened with a presentation from keynote speaker Sabbie Miller of University of California, Davis, followed by concurrent technical sessions.
On Tuesday, Tiziana Vanorio of Stanford University presented the keynote, “Addressing concrete performance in carbon emissions mitigation.” Breakout session topics included materials characterization techniques, additive manufacturing using cementitious materials, and supplementary and alternative cementitious materials.
Mid-afternoon, immediate past Division chair Denise Silva presided over the Division’s business meeting. Her updates included Division membership and meeting attendee counts, ACerS supplemental funding usage, and the incoming 2022–2023 officer leadership.
Silva announced the 2022 Brunauer Best Paper Award for the 2020 winning paper, “Shifting factor—A new paradigm for studying the rheology of cementitious suspensions,” by Sara Mantellato and Robert J. Flatt of ETH Zürich and published in Journal of the American Ceramic Society. The Division’s inaugural Early Career Award was presented to Shiho Kawashima of Columbia University by Division trustee Jeffrey Thomas.
Following the business meeting, Barbara Lothenbach of Empa presented the Della Roy lecture, “Uptake of ions by C-S-H.” Lothenbach’s lecture was followed by the Della Roy Reception, sponsored by Elsevier and Lehigh Hanson. The evening poster session was held in the outdoor courtyard where more than 25 presenters described their research and were challenged by an evening California breeze to keep their posters upright on the easels!
Providing some levity to the meeting, University of California, Irvine Ph.D. students Wei Geng, Amadeu Malats Domènech, and Kathryn Jones constructed the university’s anteater mascot out of high-strength, 3D-printed concrete cast with an alkali-based geopolymer. Transporting the anteater by scooter to the meeting site proved tricky, but once it arrived, attendees were encouraged to sign their names for posterity.
Wednesday’s sessions began with a keynote presentation by Eric Giannini of Portland Cement Association, followed by three hours of sessions. The closing awards ceremony announced the first, second, and third place poster session awardees, and the 2023 meeting location of Columbia University in New York, N.Y.
View more photos from the event on ACerS Flickr page. Check ACerS website and the Bulletin in early 2023 for details about the 13th Advances in Cement-Based Materials meeting date and abstract submission deadline.