[Image above] MCARE 2019 chair Yoon-Bong Hahn welcomes attendees to MCARE 2019. Credit: ACerS

This report is provided by ACerS executive director Mark Mecklenborg, who attended MCARE 2019


Over 450 people from 20 countries gathered August 19–23 in Jeju Island, South Korea, for the Materials Challenges in Alternative and Renewable Energy 2019 (MCARE 2019) meeting, which was organized by the Korean Institute of Chemical Engineers (KIChE) in conjunction with The American Ceramic Society (ACerS).

Yoon-Bong Hahn, MCARE 2019 chair and professor at Chonbuk National University, reported that 463 abstracts from 20 countries were submitted to the meeting. “We had four plenary, 20 keynote, and 162 invited lectures, which is over 75 percent of total oral presentations, which is very impressive number,” he says. “This kept the content very high quality.”

MCARE 2019 also attracted a record number of attendees. “Since its inception in 2008, MCARE has grown into a flagship meeting to present and discuss the most exciting research innovations in the field of energy and materials challenges,” says Sanjay Mathur, MCARE 2019 cochair and director of the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Cologne in Germany. “With its high visibility and wide acceptance in the global community, MCARE is transforming into a major event to learn about the frontiers of alternative and renewable energy activities.”

MCARE 2019 cochairs Steven Tidrow (Alfred University) and Eva Hemmer (University of Ottawa) both gave words of praise for the meeting.

“MCARE is a fantastic conference to learn about technologies that are making a difference with regard to sustainability, energy, and environment,” Tidrow says. “For the young scientist, MCARE affords significant opportunity to grow your network through interactions both on a professional and personal level with world renowned experts in fields of sustainability.”

“I truly enjoyed the conference—from excellent plenary talks covering diverse topics to the technical presentations,” Hemmer states. “It was a great opportunity for networking and getting to talk to people from all over the globe.”

MCARE 2020 will be combined with the Energy Harvesting Society (EHS) meeting in Seattle, Wash., Aug. 16–21, 2020. MCARE 2020 chair Gabrielle Gaustaud says combining the two meetings is a great match.

“Clean energy technologies are 100% reliant on ceramics and glass materials and technological advances in those fields,” she explains. “This conference brings together an amazing international community studying these materials. Understanding the future challenges in supplying and manufacturing these materials is very important in order to educate the next generation of engineers in this research space.”

Visit the MCARE/EHS 2020 events page on ceramics.org to learn more. If you are interested in joining the organizing committee of MCARE 2020/EHS 2020, please contact ACerS meetings director Andrea Ross at aross@ceramics.org.

MCARE 2019 committee. From left, cochair Sanjay Mathur, University of Cologne; cochair Steven Tidrow, Alfred University; cochair Eva Hemmer, University of Ottawa; MCARE 2020 chair Gabrielle Gaustaud, Alfred University; ACerS executive director Mark Mecklenborg; MCARE 2019 chair Yoon-Bong Hahn, Chonbuk National University; KIChE president Kwan-Young Lee, Korea University; International Advisory Committee chair Ravi Silva, University of Surrey; KIChE past president and cochair Do-Heyoung Kim, Chonnam National University; and Scientific Committee chair Won-Gyu Lee, Kangwon National University. Credit: ACerS

About MCARE

MCARE was started in 2008 by ACerS past president George Wicks working in conjunction with ASM International past president John (Jack) Simon. The meeting was held in 2008, 2010, and 2012 in Florida and in 2013 in Dunhuang, China. Starting in 2014, ACerS formed a partnership with KIChE to alternate between North American and Korean locations every other year. In January 2019, ACerS and KIChE agreed to extend this partnership through 2030.

Author

Lisa McDonald