Wild weather kicks off international ceramics conference in Daytona Beach, Fla.

[image above] A beautiful sight! Nearly 1,000 ceramic engineers and scientists networking during the plenary session coffee break. Credit: ACerS

Daytona Beach held its breath on Sunday as fierce storms raged across central Florida. High winds, heavy rain, and tornado warnings caused some anxiety for the local population, who are still recovering from last year’s Hurricane Matthew. The storms, however, had little impact on the 41st International Conference on Advanced Ceramics and Composites, and the rest of the week was very pleasant in terms of weather.

The conference is the annual meeting of the Engineering Ceramics Division and welcomed about 1,000 attendees from 51 countries. In his conference opening remarks, lead organizer Jingyang Wang said nearly half of the attendees were from outside the United States.

Wang was pleased with the outcome of the meeting, especially programming for graduate students and young professionals. “The symposium they organized for themselves is very good, very special,” he says, referring to the Global Young Investigators Forum.

Engineering Ceramics Division leaders discussed strategy for its future at its business meeting, which comes down to “youth, youth, youth and international, international, international,” according to ECD chair, Andy Gyekenyesi.

The Expo on Tuesday and Wednesday evening provided an opportunity for vendors to promote products and services, and a concurrent poster session provided students a chance to promote research and ideas. 

Many other events took place during the week, but all with the same goal in mind—scientific dialog and exchange of ideas for the advancement of ceramic science and engineering.

The photos below attest to the success of the meeting. Enjoy!