Some of the German delegation of participants in the first Global Young Investigators Forum at ICACC. Thomas Fisher (third from left) was the principle organizer of the forum.
The 36th convening of the International Conference and Exposition on Advanced Ceramics and Composites is in its second day in Daytona Beach, Fla. This year’s meeting attracted over 1,000 engineers and scientists from 41 countries, who will be presenting about 850 papers. According to the organizers, this year, for the first time, the number of foreign attendees has surpassed the number of US attendees.
Two factors are contributing to the strong international participation: the first European Union–USA Ceramics Summit and the first Global Young Investigators Forum. The EU-USA summit is taking place on Monday and Tuesday and attracted about 25 talks with participants from Germany, Italy, Sweden, Czech Republic, Finland, Belgium, Poland and Spain.
The Global Young Investigators Forum starts tomorrow and runs through the end of the week. The GYIF is a new innovation this year, and all indications are that it’s an idea that is long overdue. Thomas Fisher, PhD candidate at the University of Cologne, Germany, organized the Forum, which will have 45 presentations from PhD candidates and post-docs from more than 14 countries. I’ll have more to tell about the Forum later.
I’m told the weather in Daytona Beach in January can be hit or miss, and since Sunday, it’s been all “hit,” with temperatures in the upper 70s and sunshine.
Here is a catalog of some of the things I’ve been seeing.
George Wicks, ACerS president, and Sanjay Mathur, program chair.
ICACC’12 kicked off with a lively reception on Sunday.
Colleagues and friends met at the reception. Pictured from the left, Lise Schioler, George Quinn and Eileen De Guire.
Jay Singh presented the Society with a gift on behalf of the Indian Ceramic Society. Pictured with Jay are Charlie Spahr (ACerS executive director), George Wicks and Megan Bricker (ACerS director of membership).
Monday’s plenary session drew a rapt audience.
David Marshall delivered the first plenary talk and was awarded the James I. Mueller Award.
The beach was no distraction for these attendees.
Andrew Portune of Nottingham, Md., is enjoying the meeting.