Emerging Opportunities in Ceramics: Reports from the 4th International Congress on Ceramics

The American Ceramic Society, in collaboration with the Ceramic Society of Japan and the European Ceramic Society, and under the leadership of the International Ceramic Federation, initiated a series of international biennial Congresses on Ceramics and Glass in 2006. The first Congress, held in Toronto, Canada, was a global event designed to facilitate discussion and planning concerning major issues that face the ceramic and glass industries, culminating in the development of a historic technology roadmap for ceramics, published by Wiley. Building on the success of the first meeting, two subsequent Congresses were organized in Verona in 2008 and Osaka in 2010, each with roadmap activities and proceedings. The 4th International Congress on Ceramics (ICC4), held in Chicago, Illinois from July 15 to 19, 2012, followed in the same vein. ICC4 was organized to address emerging opportunities in ceramics and glass disciplines in themes that included aerospace; biology and medicine; environment, energy, and transportation; electronic, optical, and magnetic ceramics and their devices; nanostructured ceramics; security and strategic materials; technology entrepreneurship; and workforce development. Ceramics and glass are key to enabling technology in all the aforementioned areas and offer the possibility of achieving greater efficiency, durability, and in many cases properties and functionality that cannot be attained with any other class of materials