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The Australian Ceramic SocietyNewsbulletin - Volume 24, Number 1, June 2009 |
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A Message from the Editor
I would like to thank all those that have contributed to the newsbulletin in the past and would encourage them to continue to do so. This issue is dedicated to the first of our Honorary Fellows and has included a short biography of some of them. We also encourage all members to become involved with the Society. If you have any stories, experiences, reports, or thoughts that you'd like to share with the other members, please feel free to e-mail them through. Melody Carter |
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In 2009 the Australian Ceramic Society awarded the following members the title of Honorary Fellow:
The title of Honorary Fellow is the highest award that can be bestowed upon a member of the Australian Ceramic Society. It is awarded to members in recognition for their outstanding contributions to their field during their professional careers. It is open to members of industry, related to ceramics and the Ceramic Society, academia, potters and government representatives and is decided upon by their peers.
To be elected as an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Ceramic Society any person who has been a member of the Society for 5 years may apply with a comprehensive curriculum vitae and names of two referees.
To be elected as an Honorary Fellow a person would be expected to have suitable qualifications in ceramics, materials science or engineering or equivalent and have at least 10 years of professional experience after graduation. Fellows would normally be expected to have published a number of well regarded articles in appropriate professional journals or occupied a senior leadership position in industry or Government service or be a highly recognised potter. The selection will be made by the Federal Council and/or a committee appointed by the Council a maximum of twice a year.
More details are available on the Australian Ceramic Society web site.
Dr. Dan Perera is the Managing Director of the International Foundation for the Advancement of Technology Ltd. He is a Chief Editor of the Advances in Technology of Materials and Materials Processing Journal (ATM). Dan's expertise is in high temperature materials processing and geopolymers. He consults in these and related fields. For the past 19 years, he worked at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation and was a Research leader in the Institute of Materials Engineering. Currently he is a Visiting Professor at universities, both in Australia and overseas. Dan has been an invited and plenary speaker at many international conferences. Dan was the Co-Chairman of the Materials and Austceram 2007 International Materials Conference, which was held in Sydney. He was served as the Federal Secretary of the Australian Ceramic Society from 1995-2004 and the Federal President from 2006-2008. He was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (UK) in 1981.
Eric R. (Lou) Vance is a Chief Research Scientist in the Institute of Materials Engineering at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) in Sydney, Australia. His current research interests include the design and performance of ceramic, glass-ceramic and geopolymeric nuclear waste forms, utilising a variety of spectroscopic techniques. Lou received a PhD degree in solid state physics from Monash University, Melbourne, Australia in 1968. He occupied a variety of postdoctoral positions in the United Kingdom, Australia and the US. He was a researcher with Atomic Energy of Canada Limited from 1982-7 before joining ANSTO in 1988. He has more than 280 peer-reviewed publications. He is an academician of the World Academy of Ceramics, and a fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, the Australian Institute of Physics, the Australian Ceramic Society and the American Ceramic Society. He received the biennial award of the Australian Ceramic Society for his work on ceramic design for immobilisation of surplus plutonium in 2004. He is on the Advisory Editorial Board of the Journal of Nuclear Materials and a co-editor of the Journal of the Australian Ceramic Society.
Dr Keith Reeve's long ceramics research career began with a PhD in metal-ceramic bonding at Leeds University followed by his appointment as lead ceramist at the new Australian Atomic Energy Research Establishment (now ANSTO) in 1956. Over his years there he researched and led teams on beryllium-oxide based nuclear fuels, non-nuclear advanced ceramics and ceramics for nuclear waste disposal. He led the start-up of research on Synroc and became Synroc Project Manager. On his partial retirement from ANSTO in 1992 he stayed on as a Senior Fellow until 1996. He is currently an Editor of the Advances in Technology of Materials and Processing Journal (ATM). His many awards and honours include Membership of the Order of Australia (AM) (1997), Foundation Membership of the International Academy of Ceramics (1990), Fellowship of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (1979), Honorary Life Membership of the Australian Ceramic Society (1981) and the Australian Ceramic Award (1996). He is a Foundation Member of the Society and served as Founding Editor of J. Aust. Ceram. Soc. from 1965 to 1985, Federal President 1974-1976 and Federal Secretary 1976-1995. In 1996 he led the International Advisory Committee of PACRIM 2, the Second Pacific Rim Ceramic Conference held at Cairns in July of that year.
Over the last three decades, Associate Professor Ben-Nissan has worked and contributed to the production and analysis of various advanced ceramics, sol-gel developed thin films, biomedical materials, nanoceramics and finite element analysis of material structures. He has MSc degree in Ceramic Engineering and PhD both from the UNSW. Since early seventies he has made significant contributions in the field of advanced ceramics and successfully developed materials for implant technology (bioactive materials including conversion of Australian corals to hydroxyapatite), bone graft production and bio-composites, and conducted investigative research on biomechanics (jaw bone, knee and hip joints), reliability and implant design (modular zirconia ceramic knee prosthesis, femoral head and taper stresses and contributed to the bionic eye research). He has expertise in sol-gel developed oxides and hydroxyapatite ceramics, nano-bioceramics, transformations and measurement of micro-mechanical stresses in thin film ceramics and biomaterials. He is involved in consulting work related to various patent litigations in ceramic biomaterials and devices areas.
Professor Ben-Nissan was also one of the principal investigator of the DIST-supported "Design of a Ceramic Modular Knee Prosthesis" project, which involved three Universities (University of Sydney, UNSW, UTS), and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization (ANSTO), a ceramic manufacturing company, (ICI Advanced Ceramics). The research outcomes were selected by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to tour South-East Asia 2000 and were listed as one of the 100 Australian Inventions.
In addition to numerous ARC grants he has also been granted the Australian Academy of Science and Japan Society for Promotion of Science grants for collaborative work in Japan. He is the recipient (together with other collaborators) of various grants over three million dollars during the last 20 years, mostly in the bioceramics related field. Over the past ten years, Associate Professor Ben-Nissan has published over 200 papers in journals and proceedings and written numerous book chapters. Since year 2000 he has been one of the co-editors of the Journal of the Australasian Ceramic Society.
He was awarded The Australasian Ceramic Society Award during the year 2000 for his "sustained contribution to the Ceramics Research & Development and Education in Australia".
He has worked as an educator in the University of Technology, Sydney since 1976 and will be retiring from teaching early July 2009 but as many of his students will agree he will be continuing with his research in the fascinating world of ceramics and continue serving the Society.
Richard Bowman is Managing Director of Intertile Research Pty Ltd, a specialist tiling system and slip resistance consultancy. Richard is a ceramic engineer and spent 30 years at CSIRO where his research focused on slip resistance, moisture expansion of ceramic tiles, and how the characteristics of tiling system components affect the performance of the system. He has chaired the Standards Australia committee on fixing of ceramic and natural and reconstituted stone tiles for over 20 years, as well as the ceramic tile, ceramic tile adhesive and slip resistance of pedestrian surfaces committees. Richard has led the Standards Australia tiling delegation to 30 ISO International ceramic tiling standards meetings. He is a past President of the Australian Ceramic Society and the International Ceramic Federation. He has published extensively, been an invited speaker at several international conferences, as well as being on numerous international advisory committees. Although Richard has investigated a wide range of tiling problems throughout Australia and in several other countries, his focus is on preventing their occurrence through improved specifications. Richard is also the Technical Director of the Full Frontal Tile & Stone Expo, http://www.fullfrontalexpo.com which again focuses on ensuring the sustainability of the tiling industry.
David Phillips served as Vice President on the original Western Australian Ceramic Association (WACA) for the period 1978-83 in the days when Keith Terry was President. From the time that the WACA became the WA Branch of the Australian Ceramic Society (after that the Australasian Ceramic Society), David has served on that Committee continuously to the present day. He has been Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and combined Secretary/Treasurer of the WA Branch at various times. That adds up to some 26 years of unbroken service to the Ceramic fraternity in Western Australia.
David has been at the very heart of the two highly successful Austceram conferences held in Perth. He played a major role as Secretary/Treasurer/Budget Coordinator in Austceram '90 held in Perth in 1990, the first time that the Society's biennial conference had been held outside Sydney and Melbourne. Again he was a major player in his role as Secretary/Technical Program/Proceedings Editor in the highly successful Austceram 2002 held in Perth.
David served as a Federal Council Member for the period 1994-97 when the Society was presided by Rod Stead in Western Australia. In that role, he took over as Editor of the Society's Newsbulletin, and helped rescue what was a rapidly ailing and disappearing publication in the Society. He produced a thoroughly professional standard Newsbulletin, the pro-forma for which is still maintained today.
David has maintained full contact with the Society since his retirement as a full-time academic in 1998, and continues to serve the WA Branch as its Secretary. There are only 2 people remaining on the WA Branch mailing list from the halcyon days of 1978 - Mike Kusnik, who regrettably can no longer attend Society functions due to illness, and David Phillips who remains the only active person in the WA Branch from those days.
The Victorian Branch End-of-Year Dinner and Honorary Fellow presentations on Wednesday the 3rd of December at Santorini restaurant in Hawthorn. Richard Hannink and Richard Bowman were awarded their plaques at the dinner.
Jeff Sellar (left) presenting Richard Bowman with his Honorary Fellow plaque.
Jeff Sellar (Right) presenting Richard Hannink with his Honorary Fellow plaque.
NSW Branch Christmas Dinner 2008 and Presentation of Fellowship Awards was held at Pasha's restaurant on the 10th December. A Middle Eastern banquet was enjoyed by all. Cathy Inglis presented Honorary Fellowship plaque to Dan Perera, Lou Vance and Keith Reeve.
Besim Ben-Nissan was not able to join us for the NSW Branch Christmas Dinner 2008 & Presentation of Fellowship Awards to accept his Honorary Fellowship plaque. He had Cathy Inglis accept it on his behalf. Cathy presented the following.
"I am humbled with this honour given by the Society and the Federal Council. I can not believe how the time has passed -so fast- since my acceptance in 1977 to the Australian Ceramic Society which I always considered as my family.
I was a new immigrant married to a lovely Australian lady and was venturing into the wild world of science in an extremely lucky but -at that time- economically bothered sun burnt country.
The Society and it's members opened their arms to make me feel at home and part of Australia.
I couldn't be where I am now without your help, your sincere friendship and timely encouragement and rewards.
While writing these sentences a number of faces belonging to our members are coming to my mind, intelligent and creative minds, good human beings, some unfortunately not with us anymore... Would I be here without their help, encouragements and friendship?
But I would like to add that I was also one of these members that has served the Society; by organising conferences, including our first international conference, a number of meetings, serving in the NSW Branch committee and as one of the Federal Presidents and later as the Federal Council member and as one of the editors of the Journal of the Australian Ceramic Society and other publications such as the newsletter. And not to forget to mention that many of my past students are still serving this lovely Society.
It was fun and a great honor to serve a Society that has given a lot to all of us.
Today if someone would ask me to restart the journey again, without hesitation I would do it again. Thanking you, for good time and lovely memories.
I would like to take this opportunity to wish you and your loved ones a very happy holiday season and a very successful new year."
Besim
December 2008
Cathy presenting Dan Perera with his plaque.
Cathy presenting Lou Vance with his plaque.
Keith Reeve giving his acceptance speech .
Bluglass are a green Australian public company established to commercialise an exciting breakthrough in semiconductor technology.
Evolved from more than 15 years research at Sydney's Macquarie University, BluGlass have invented a novel process using Remote Plasma Chemical Vapour Deposition (RPCVD) to grow semiconductor materials such as gallium nitride (GaN), crucial to the production of high efficiency devices including next generation lighting technology Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) at a fraction of the current cost.
Ten members of the NSW branch visited Bluglass Gallium Nitride (GaN) Light Emitting Diode (LED) facilities on the 27th May 2009. We met with Stefanie Winwood (Investor Relations and Marketing Coordinator) who showed us around the plant after we had an in-depth information session given by Conor Martin, Manager Equipment Design and Development.
Once LEDs replace inefficient current technologies such as incandescent bulbs and environmentally harmful technologies such as CFLs, much less electricity will be required to light our lives. Less energy consumption directly equates to less greenhouse gas production in our atmosphere.
"It is estimated it is possible to alleviate the need for 133 nuclear power stations in the US by the year 2025 if (LED) lighting is implemented" - Professor Shuji Nakamura
NSW Branch members standing outside the cleanrooms at Bluglass.
One of the Bluglass cleanrooms.
For more information listen to the podcast interview with Giles Bourne, CEO of Bluglass.
The first two members to guess who is the dashing young man standing in the picture below will win a bottle of Red (2007) or White wine from the McLEISH Estate (Hunter valley). The picture was taken in the 1960's and is a picture of one of our long-standing members. (Hint look closely at our Fellows). Email you answer to mailto:melodycarter@iinet.net.au%20?subject=%20Guessing%20Competition
The Australian Ceramic Society would like to welcome the following people who have recently joined up.
Ordinary Members
Remember, the Australian Ceramic Society recently changed its membership rules so that now you only have to pay a once off joining fee, with no recurring annual fees. That's right, pay a low joining fee of AUD$50, and your in for life. And for people living in Australia, you can claim this as a tax deduction! For students, we let you join for free. It doesn't get any cheaper than that.
If you know someone who is involved in the ceramics industry, or has in interest in ceramics, please forward this newsbulletin to them and encourage them to join.
More details and membership forms are available on the Australian Ceramic Society web site.
JOIN NOW SO YOU CAN INCLUDE THIS IN YOUR 2008/09 INCOME TAX DEDUCTIONS
The Australian Ceramic Society also welcome corporate members who can proudly have their logos displayed on the ACS web site.
Synroc, a titanate-based ceramic for geological immobilisation of high-level radioactive waste, was invented by Professor Ted Ringwood at the ANU 30 years ago. The basic idea is to incorporate the waste ions in the crystalline lattices of synthetic mineral phases which are known to survive in Nature for millions of years. Since 1979 ANSTO has had an R&D program to study phase assemblages (crystal chemistry), radiation damage effects, aqueous dissolution and processing options. The initial synroc work involved scientific collaborations with national laboratories and nuclear plant operators focusing on high level wastes (HLW) from the reprocessing of spent nuclear power reactor fuel. However in 1995 this was refocussed on problematic nuclear wastes, such as those arising from US defence programs. A major milestone was the downselection by the US Department of Energy in 1998 of a synroc derivative to immobilise surplus impure Pu wastes in the US and Russia. Although actual implementation of this work was not progressed, the synroc program gained considerable kudos worldwide and beginning in 2001 we established ongoing commercial relationships with Nexia Solutions (originally part of BNFL and now the UK National Nuclear Laboratory) on immobilisation of orphan Pu-bearing wastes in the UK.
1. Synroc in Bellows.
2. Cutting open a Synroc containing sample in a glove box.
Jeff Sellar
Ending on June 5th, with its two-day Austen Angell Symposium and including the 2009 Annual Meeting of the International Committee on Glass, the American Ceramic Society's Eighth PACRIM Conference has been and gone. Surprisingly, a visitor to the Vancouver region can encounter ceramics in other unexpected places on the tourist trail as well. The old cement kiln at the magnificent Butchart Gardens near Victoria B.C. is one such place: the Gardens were once a disused limestone quarry, after all. The unexpected place I want to report on here, though, is the Koerner Ceramics Gallery, a wing of the Museum of Anthropology (MOA), situated on the grounds of the University of British Columbia, a remarkable find among the startling totem pole sculptures of Canada's Pacific Northwest.
The Koerner Collection contains approximately six hundred examples of European Ceramics ranging in date from the late fifteenth century until the early nineteenth century. The several styles on display in the collection - e.g., Italian maiolica, Anabaptist faience, Hafnerware, stoneware, Delftware - all developed separately, but with several points of contact over time. Tin-glazed earthenware began in Baghdad in the ninth century, but the later addition of tin oxide to a lead glaze produced a whiteness and translucency similar to Chinese porcelain, which the Europeans were unable to achieve before the eighteenth century, making do until that time with Ming designs painted on tin-glazed earthenware.
Dr. Philip Walls
Director
Hitech Materials Pty Ltd
email: mailto:philip.walls@hitechmaterials.com.au?subject=Science%20Meets%20Parliament%20(ACS)
web: www.hitechmaterials.com.au
SmP (organised by FASTS www.fasts.org, the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies), is held each year in the old and new parliament houses. It is a combination of seminars and workshops that cover how to communicate with politicians and the press, followed by an opportunity to meet with members from both the house of representatives and the senate, for discussions on an aspect of science and technology that interests you.
This year I attended along with Dr Leigh Sheppard from the University of Western Sydney as representatives of the Australian Ceramic Society. The event is held over two days, the first day concentrating on how to communicate with politicians, the second meeting with one to three house representatives or senate members.
The politicians choose which topics they are interested in from the following: 
The attendee ranks the top 3-4 they are interested in, in my case,
The topic I selected to raise with the politicians was to introduce them to the geopolymer a class of materials within the family of ceramics.
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REGISTER NOW Materials and Austceram 2009 (July 1-3 2009) - Materials Australia and the Australian Ceramic Society (ACS) invite you to attend their combined biennial international conference, Materials and Austceram 2009, to be held on the Gold Coast from July 1- 3, 2009. The International Conference and Exhibition on Materials and AustCeram 2009 (MA2009) will be held on 1-3 July, 2009 in Gold Coast. This the third time that Materials Australia (formerly Institute of Materials Engineering Australasia) and the Australian Ceramic Society have joined forces to run this biennial conference. MA2009 will bring together leading scientists, technologists and engineers from all the Asia-Pacific countries to discuss contemporary results on discoveries and innovations in the rapidly evolving field of materials science and technology. These topics underpin the existing and emerging materials and processing and will influence our near-term financial impact. The topics of this conference include:
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The inaugural Full Frontal Tile & Stone Expo (FFTSE) was held in April 2008 at Sydney Showground. Several thousand visitors with a prime interest in ceramic tile, natural stone, related machinery and allied products attended.
The second edition of FFTSE promises to be both bigger and better attended. The expo will be staged on 20-22 August 2009 at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre located at Darling Harbour, Australia's largest and most successful venue for conferences, exhibitions and special events.
Many of Sydney's major architectural practices are located within close proximity to Darling Harbour. The Exhibition Centre which opened in 1988 is the centrepiece of Sydney's exciting Darling Harbour precinct, located on the edge of the central business district. The Centre which was expanded in 1999 features six exhibition halls and a variety of meeting rooms.
This decision to stage FFTSE in Sydney was based on the fact that a considerable amount of exposure was given to the first edition of FFTSE in New South Wales courtesy of a consolidated programme of promotion of the event in the media, via direct mail and on radio.
UNITECR is a biennial international conference that is conducted by one of its four "Founding Member Organizations" in odd-number years. The official oversight body is the UNITECR International Executive Board (IEB), composed of representatives of the Founding Member Organizations and certain individuals, who are elected to the IEB as Distinguished Life Members. IEB is governed under bylaws established by its members.
The objective of the UNITECR IEB is to organize the biennial UNITECR and any other meetings with a view to maintain and develop its activities and generally to contribute to the progress and exchange of industrial knowledge and technologies concerning refractories.
MS&T'09 offers an unreplicated technical program addressing Structure, Properties, Processing and Performance across the materials community because it is organized by four leading materials societies: The American Ceramic Society (ACerS), the Association of Iron & Steel Technologies (AIST), ASM International (ASM) and The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (TMS).
Technical Program
MS&T'09 focuses on nine theme areas covering the breadth of materials science and engineering. You are invited to submit an abstract by March 15, 2009 for one of these symposia:
The Australian Ceramic Society and Materials Australia invite you to attend the 9th in the series of Pacific Rim Conferences on Ceramic and Glass Technology, incorporating MA2011, Materials and Austceram 2011.
The event returns to Cairns, Australia following on from the successful PacRim 2 conference held here in 1996. This truly international meeting and networking event will be held in the multi-award winning Cairns Convention Centre, between 10th to 14th July 2011.
Mark these dates in your calendar!
For scientific equipment manufacturers, service providers and other commercial organisations, this event presents a fantastic opportunity to showcase your products and services to a high quality audience brought together at a single venue.
The following symposia topics are under consideration:
More information will be circulated via your local ceramic society soon and a "Call for Papers" will issued in early 2010
Have you got recently taken some pictures while traveling relating to ceramics?
Has your company produced an interesting ceramic component that they'd like to promote?
Do you have some interesting ceramic images, micrographs or even graphs that you'd like to share with the other ACS members?
High-tech, low-tech, artistic, send them in and to mailto:Newsbulletin@austceram.com?subject=Conference%20report%20for%20ACS%20Newsbulletin and we'll post them in the next issue if we think they are suitable. Don't forget to tell us a little bit about your photo/s!
On a recent trip to Italy, Cameron Chai took this series of pictures of pictures of a talented glass artist who created a beautiful glass horse in a matter of minutes.
Click here for larger pictures.
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If you ever visit Venice, it is well worth a trip out to the islands, in particular Murano to witness the glass artists at work. Murano is famous for "Venetian Glass".
For those of you with a couple of spare minutes, here are some ceramic related videos.
If you have a video that you would like to share, please e-mail mailto:Newsbulletin@austceram.com?subject=Ceramic%20video%20submission%20for%20ACS%20Newsbulletin
Federal Council
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President |
C. Berndt |
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Vice President |
P. Walls |
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Secretary |
J. Low |
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Treasurer |
J. Sellar |
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Councillors |
R. Bowman |
C. Inglis |
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L. Vance |
M. Stuart |
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C. Chai |
D. Perera |
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M. Carter |
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Australian Ceramic Society
c/- Department of Applied Physics
Curtin University
GPO Box U1987
Perth, WA 6846
Australia
Tel. +61 8 9266 7544
Fax. +61 8 9266 2377
Branch Committees
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NSW |
Victoria |
WA |
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President |
P. Walls |
J. Sellar |
J. Low |
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Vice President |
C.Chai |
M. Curtis |
J. Parsons |
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Secretary |
M. Hoffman |
M. Sussex |
I. Davies |
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Treasurer |
A. Taylor |
S. Zsembery |
R. McConnell |
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Councillors |
I. Stewart |
R. Bowman |
D. Phillips |
Newsbulletin Contacts
Editor - Melody Carter, - mailto:newsbulletin@austceram.com?subject=ACS%20Newsbulletin
Contributing Editor - Jeff Sellar, Monash University - mailto:jeff.seller@eng.monash.edu.au?subject=ACS%20Newsbulletin
Contributing Editor - Dave Phillips, Curtin University - mailto:D.Phillips@info.curtin.edu.au?subject=ACS%20Newsbulletin
Newsbulletin Production - Cameron Chai, AZoM.com - mailto:cameronchai@azom.com?subject-ACS%20Newsbulletin
Tell us what you thought of the new version of the Australian Ceramic Society Newsbulletin. We'd love to hear from you, the members about what you liked, what you didn't like, what you'd like to see and any other ideas you might have that would help us improve the newsbulletin. And remember, you too can submit content for the next issue.
Feel free to tell us bout your research project, the company you work for, or if you have a technical question, let us know and we'll ask the members to see if we can get you and answer.
Please send all feedback to mailto:newsbulletin@austceram.com?subject=ACS%20Newsbulletin%20Feedback.
This copy of the Australian Ceramic Society Newsbulletin and the information within it may not be reproduced, saved, or otherwise copied into a database without the prior written consent of the Australian Ceramic Society.
