April 9th, 2008

The Australian Ceramic Society is an organization that works towards furthering all aspects of ceramics, including science, industry, trade and art. It’s standing in the global materials community just been further enhanced with its acceptance into the International Commission on Glass.

The International Commission on Glass (ICG) is a non-profit international Society of national scientific and technical organisations with particular interests in glass science and technology. It was founded in 1933 and has grown to become the recognised world-wide organisation in the field of glass with presently 28 member organisations bringing together the world's most respected universities, scientific institutions, companies of the glass industry and allied organisations.

The aim of ICG is to promote and stimulate understanding and cooperation between glass experts in the fields of science and technology as well as art, history and education.The ICG achieves these objectives by organising Technical Committee work (e.g. laboratoy round robins, comparative studies, topical meetings), compiling information on glass (e.g. publishing scientific and technical papers, reports and books) and by sharing and disseminating knowledge on glass in advanced educational courses and workshops.A further major role is to organise international meetings: every three years the ICG holds an International Congress on Glass. Annual Conferences take place during the intervening period often in conjunction with national society meetings. The ICG is determined to continue its high standards of quality and performance. It encourages national institutions to join as members (individuals are not eligible to join).

The ICG has accepted the Australian Ceramic Society as the national body to represent the interests of Australian glass companies, scientists, engineers and technologists working on glass. Our Society will be accepted as a member at the next meeting of the Council of the ICG, which will be held on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 at the City Congress Center of Trencin, Slovak Republic. This would enable ACS members to join international technical committees on glass related topics. The next ICG Congress will be held along with PCRIM 8 in Vancouver, Canada, 31 May – 5 June 2009.

ACS is a founding member of the International Ceramics Federation and after joining the ICG, it will continue to play a major role in a globalised materials world.