United Kingdom Chapter

The UK Chapter of The American Ceramic Society serves ACerS members in London and the United Kingdom for the purpose of promoting the arts and sciences connected with ceramics and glass science and engineering. Events such as workshops, industrial showcases, and seminars are planned to enhance and facilitate the interaction, technical discussions, and potential collaborations between ACerS members in the UK.  These will focus on the development of early career researchers  to present their work to our members, provide publicity for job opportunities, and the establishment of networking collaborations.

The Chapter is headquartered at the University of Sheffield.

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Officers:

Chair:  Ian Reaney, University of Sheffield

Treasurer: Julian Dean, University of Sheffield

Secretary: Derek Sinclair, University of Sheffield

Immediate Past Chair: Eugenio Zapata-Solvas

If you would like to contact any of the United Kingdom Chapter officers, visit the ACerS online membership directory for contact details.  You must be a member to access the directory.  Or, you may contact Vicki Evans at vevans@ceramics.org for assistance.

If you would like to receive periodic updates regarding the United Kingdom Chapter, click here to be included on our email list.

Meetings and Events

One day Workshop on Sustainable Ceramic Technology

University of Sheffield, Materials Science and Engineering, Sir Robert Hadfield Building, Sheffield,

One day meeting on Sustainable Ceramic Technology, August 30, 2023

For more information, including registration information, please visit this link.

United Kingdom Chapter Chair presents award to Keynote Lecturer

Prof Reaney presents an award for giving a keynote lecture to Jason Bridges of Johnson Tiles UK at the recent ‘Sustainable Ceramic Manufacturing’ symposium on 19th June 2023 at the Materials Science and Smart Materials (MSSM) Conference in Emilo Reggia, Italy.

Workshop on Smart Materials

9th International Conference on Material Science & Smart Materials at University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy, June 19-21, 2023

Enablers of Transformation in the Foundation Industries

October 12, 2022

This workshop, a collaboration between Transforming Foundation Industries Network+, TransFIRe and the Leeds University Business School explored how Foundation Industries can effectively engage with policy-makers and embed business models to enable transformation across sectors.

The workshop included a panel discussion, interactive workshop, keynote and short presentations. Attendees learned about government policy, supply chains and business models and how they can be effectively utilized and integrated to boost innovation and transformation in Foundation Industries.

United Kingdom Chapter: Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ launches ECR funding call

TFI Network+ are pleased to announce the launch of an open funding call for ECR project applications.
The Network are looking to fund high quality projects that, with industrial participation, have potential to drive transformative impact in the Foundation Industries.

Full details and application information available at this link.

United Kingdom Chapter hosted “New ceramic technologies for the move to net-zero” on Wednesday, July 27, 2022. Lucideon and the Transforming Foundation Industries Network+  hosted the United Kingdom Chapter meeting on Wednesday, July 27, 2022. The meeting focus was how ceramic technologies can be the solution and catalyst to achieve net-zero targets for the ceramic sector. The meeting showcased current developments and latest progress on the challenges of de-carbonization and efficiency improvement. This event marked the return of face-to-face gatherings, networking and discussion opportunities.  More information can be found at this link.

Cold sintering of functional materials

Cold Sintering involves a transient phase that permits the densification of particulate materials at low temperatures 300 ^oC and below. Sintering at such low temperature offers so many new opportunities. It permits the integration of metastable materials that would typically decompose at high temperatures. So cold sinter enables a platform for better unification of material science. Now ceramics, metal and polymers can be processed under a common platform in one step processes. With controlling the forming process new nanocomposites can be fabricated. Polymers, gels and nanoparticulates can be dispersed, interconnected and sintered in the grain boundaries of a ceramic matrix phase.  With the ability to sinter metal phases, multilayer devices can be co-sintered with electrodes made from metals such as Al, Ag, Fe and Cu. With appropriate binder selection, polypropylene carbonate and its de-binding at 130 ^oC we can remove organic binders and leave metals and other more stable polymers within the layers that then can be co-sintered under the cold sintering process and form unique combinations of materials in multilayers.  This talk will cover some of the fundamentals of cold sintering, as well as some new examples of this technology across different material systems, ranging from ferroelectrics, semiconductors, and battery materials.

ACerS members- please click this link to listen to the presentation.

Sustainable Ceramic Manufacturing

The chapter hosted a virtual workshop on July 6, 2021. The virtual workshop is available at this link.

The ‘Blue skies, green future’ webinar series presents ideas to spark discussion on the topic of transformation and innovation within the foundation industries.
Webinars will take place each month and with novel ideas and concepts presented by a world-leading researcher in the field. During the session, speakers will discuss a technology which if implemented could transform the foundation industries. The goal is to encourage the audience to consider ways in which their own industry can utilize and embed innovation.

This session featured a presentation from Professor Clive Randall on the cold sintering of functional materials.
Cold Sintering involves a transient phase that permits the densification of particulate materials at low temperatures 300 o C and below. Sintering at such low temperature offers so many new opportunities. It permits the integration of metastable materials that would typically decompose at high temperatures. So cold sinter enables a platform for better unification of material science. Now ceramics, metal and polymers can be processed under a common platform in one step processes. With controlling the forming process new nanocomposites can be fabricated. Polymers, gels and nanoparticulates can be dispersed, interconnected and sintered in the grain boundaries of a ceramic matrix phase. With the ability to sinter metal phases, multilayer devices can be co-sintered with electrodes made from metals such as Al, Ag, Fe and Cu. With appropriate binder selection, polypropylene carbonate and its de-binding at 130 o C we can remove organic binders and leave metals and other more stable polymers within the layers that then can be co-sintered under the cold sintering process and form unique combinations of materials in multilayers. This talk will cover some of the fundamentals of cold sintering, as well as some new examples of this technology across different material systems, ranging from ferroelectrics, semiconductors, and battery materials.

ACerS UK Chapter honors outstanding students

In response to the success of the I UK Ceramics Talent Workshop and its session in the last Ceramics UK show, the UK Chapter is pleased to announce that nominations for the II UK Ceramics Talent Workshop are now open until the end of 2019.

Eugenio Zapata-Solvas, chair of the UK Chapter of ACerS, recently announced the students selected to be honored at the UK Chapter Ceramics Talent session:

Nicola Ede, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge

Robin De Meyere, Department of Materials, University of Oxford

Guillermo Menendez-Rodriguez, School of Engineering, Cardiff University 

Gareth Jones, Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick

The UK Chapter would like to recognize UK ceramics students who are making remarkable contributions to our field!  The selected students will be invited to speak at the next Ceramics UK show, taking place 8-9 July 2020 in NAEC Stoneleigh, Coventry, UK.

We would not be able to celebrate the future leaders of our field without the help of our community, so please do get involved and send your nominations in support of those students you think are doing a remarkable job!  We welcome nominations for students doing ceramic research from either academia or industry.

Click here for a nomination form. For any questions, contact Eugenio Zapata-Solvas.

UK Chapter Holds Talent Session at Ceramics UK

The UK Chapter of ACerS was a major participant  at this year’s Ceramics UK conference, July 10-11, 2019, at The International Centre, Telford.

Eugenio Zapata-Sovas, Chair of the ACerS UK Chapter, facilitated the UK Ceramic Talent session, which featured the most talented young ceramists from academia and industry in the UK.  The event provided the platform for PhD students and early career researchers to communicate their work and ideas to industry representatives.  All speakers in the session were nominated by the ceramic community in the UK.

Additionally, Zapata-Solvas assisted in the facilitation and delivery of two other sessions, the Faraday Battery Challenge session and the Bringing Academia-Industry Together session.

UK Ceramics Talents speakers (from left): Stephanie Thornber (National Nuclear Laboratory), Rowenna Brugge (Imperial College London), Eugenio Zapata-Sovas (UK Chapter Chair/University College London), William Rowlands (Manufacturing Technology Centre), and Wirat Lerdprom (Lucideon).

Ceramics UK 2019 is Europe’s only free exhibition and conference focused on advanced ceramics and technical glass for a range of applications.  Co-located with The Advanced Materials Show, the event welcomed 200 exhibitors, 3000 attendees, and 100 speakers.

Lucideon was Host of Ceramics Additive Manufacturing Workshop

Lucideon, the materials development and commercialisation organisation, hosted a workshop organised in collaboration with the UK Chapter of The American Ceramic Society.

It took place on May 16, 2019, at Lucideon’s headquarters in Stoke-on-Trent. The workshop focused on “Ceramics Additive Manufacturing” and fostered a knowledge exchange between academics, businesses and government. Discussions took place on the latest developments and opportunities in additive manufacturing, including a round table discussion about how the interaction between academia and businesses could speed up innovative solutions and route them to market.

UK Ceramics Talent Workshop to Become an Annual Event–Nominations are Open

Due to the number of nominations from the academic community, the UK Chapter announced that the UK Ceramics Talent Workshop will be held annually.  The “II UK Ceramics Talent Workshop” will take place at the UK Ceramics Show, July 10 & 11, 2019, in Telford, during which more than 200 exhibitors and 3000 attendees are expected.

Please assist our efforts in finding the talented students in the UK that are making remarkable contributions to our field, and on its extension to our Society.

Requirements for eligibility:

• PhD award cannot be from a date earlier than 31 August 2018. So nominations are aimed ideally to ceramists that just finished the PhD or that are about to finish soon.
• Young ceramists that were nominated to I UK Ceramics Talent and meet the previous requirements are also eligible and can be nominated again.

We hope that this can be an annual event and part of the Advanced Materials show if successful. This is a fantastic opportunity to showcase the outstanding work that our young ceramists are doing in the UK (in an event with high presence of Industry), so please submit your nomination and support the future of the UK ceramics community.

Click here for the nomination form.  The deadline for nominations is December 31, 2018.

Workshop Recognizes Outstanding Ceramics Students

The UK Chapter of ACerS was pleased to recognize UK ceramics students who are making remarkable contributions to our field on Wednesday, October 10, 2018, at 10:00 a.m., at Queen Mary, University of London. The selected students, who were nominated for this special recognition, were invited to speak at this workshop.  They are:

Bernhard Leube — University of Liverpool

Wirat Lerdprom — Imperial College London

Matt Porter — University of Birmingham

Shunsuke Murakami — University of Sheffield

Williams Rowlands — Loughborough University

Rebecca Smith — University of St. Andrews

Stephanie Thornber — National Nuclear Laboratory

Rowena Brugge — Imperial College London

Chao Yun — University of Cambridge

To view the abstracts for this workshop, click here.

To view the agenda for this workshop, click here.

For any questions, please contact Dr. Eugenio Zapata-Solvas.

Exciting and Informative Workshop Well-Attended

The UK Chapter of the American Ceramic Society co-organized with the University of Liverpool a workshop on “Advanced Ceramics for Energy applications: From Conversion to Storage” held at The School of Engineering from the University of Liverpool March 20,  2018. This is the third event for the UK Chapter since its establishment in October 2016 and the first event in its second year of existence. This workshop was well attended with approximately nearly 40 attendants. The attendance was very balanced between local and non-local people.  As in previous occasions ,there was also a good representation of industry, as half of the non-local people were from industry. Universities from different UK locations were represented, such as Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Loughborough, Cambridge, Queen Mary and Imperial College. It was very remarkable that nearly all the companies present in previous meetings managed to send at least one delegate to the workshop. This clearly shows an established interest and loyalty of companies for UK Chapter events. In addition, there was a presence of a few attendants that have not missed any of the UK Chapter activities, which is a big support for the society and an indicator of the good acceptance from the UK ceramic community to our activities. As in previous meetings, there was a good balance and mixing of experienced researchers, industry people, early-career researchers and students, with a strong presence of early career researchers from the University of Liverpool.

During this second year, the UK Chapter has the goal of making its activities more inclusive for students or to increase the interaction between students, early career researchers, academics and industrialist. This is the main reason why the first poster session of the UK Chapter was celebrated, a perfect scenario for students to present their work to the community. In addition, there was a parallel lab tour through the Materials Innovation Factory (MIF), where the poster session took place. This new building from the University of Liverpool is a modern facility with an open access concept on the ground floor: “The laboratory hotel”. A place where companies and external researchers can book a room (laboratory) for periods of at least a year, in which a whole lab is provided to establish their base in the MIF and do research in its top-notch facilities. I particularly enjoyed the tour and found this concept very novel and interesting. This idea came thanks to the invited seminar that Dr. Esther Garcia-Tunon gave in the workshop celebrated in Sheffield in September 2017, in which she gave an introduction to the MIF and I thought straightaway that this was the ideal place to gather the UK ceramic community, an open space where everyone is welcome to come and do research. I would like to give special thanks to Esther for her help hosting the workshop as she made the organization “easy peasy”.

The success of the workshop relied on the strong interaction during the workshop. The poster session, as well as the lab tour, were a very good opportunity for interaction and relaxed chat with any of the attendants. The good atmosphere present during the whole day would have not been possible without the kind participation and contribution from our plenary speakers, who are first class worldwide well know researchers in the field of energy ceramics, who enlightened the audience with superb presentations and latest developments on the field. Topics discussed during the workshop covered different aspects of energy applications in advanced ceramics, from the importance of crystallography on the different oxide phases present in Uranium Oxide nuclear fuel (Dr. Maulik Patel) to the wide presence of thermoelectrics in our world to generate energy and how its performance has improved over the last years (Prof. Robert Freer), or study of dual composites for solid oxide fuel cell, in which one phase is responsible for the electronic transport and the other one for the ionic transport and the effect this have on the interfaces (Prof. Stephen Skinner), or from an experimental perspective in the study if different-ion batteries and their implications (Dr. Sian Dutton) to how Density Functional Theory could be used as a predictive tool for development of novel battery materials (Dr. Matthew Dyer), or from a discussion about a real market product based on solid oxide fuel cells and challenges involved to scale up to their strategies to become more efficient than their competitors (Dr. Subhasish Mukerjee).

Finally, the UK Chapter presented its first award for the best poster to Mr. Bernhard Leube for his poster, “Sulphide based high-entropy rock salts as potential Li+ conductors”.  As it was said above, during this second year the UK Chapter has the goal to support the UK Ceramic students and there is no better way than give the opportunity to Bernhard to deliver the plenary opening lecture, an experience that I am sure will enlighten the audience. I would like to say big congratulations to Bernhard and I am really looking forward to listening to his lecture in the next UK Chapter workshop.

UK Chapter’s  Workshop on Sustainable Manufacturing of Advanced Ceramics Proves Popular 

The UK Chapter of The American Ceramic Society and the University of Sheffield co-organized a workshop on “Sustainable Manufacturing of Advanced Ceramics” held at the Materials Science & Engineering department of the University of Sheffield on September 12,  2017. This is the second event for the UK Chapter since its formation in October 2016. This workshop was well-attended with approximately 60 participants. It was remarkable that more than 50% of the attendees came from out of Sheffield (35), from either academia or industry. Universities from different UK locations were represented, such as Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Leeds, Loughborough, Birmingham, Oxford, Surrey, University College of London, Queen Mary University of London and Imperial College London. Also, there was an increased attendance from companies staff compared to our first meeting and 30% of the attendees (18) were coming from industry and 10 different companies were represented, such as Johnson Matthey, Morgan Advanced Materials, Lucideon, Precision Ceramics Ltd, Heraus Electro-Nite UK, Precision Ceramics Ltd., NovaMat Limited, Washington Mills Electro Minerals Ltd., Thales UK, Deregallera Ltd. and Refracto-Ceramics Consultancy Ltd.   Read more here.

Click here to view photos of the event.

Check back soon for upcoming meetings and events!