The American Ceramic Society (ACerS) is a non-profit professional organization for the ceramic

Ceramic

A ceramic is an inorganic, nonmetallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous...

s community, with a focus on scientific research, emerging technologies, and applications in which ceramic materials are an element. It is located in Westerville, Ohio

Westerville, Ohio

Westerville, once known as "The Dry Capital of the World", is a city in Franklin and Delaware counties in the U.S. state of Ohio. The population was 35,318 at the 2000 census.-Early history:...

.

It comprises more than 7,500 members from 80 countries, with membership including engineers, scientists, researchers, manufacturers, plant personnel, educators, students, and marketing and sales representatives.

History

ACerS was founded in 1899 by nine members of the National Brick Manufacturer’s Association. The previous year at the association's annual convention in Pittsburgh, Elmer E. Gorton of American Terra Cotta & Ceramic Co. presented a paper entitled “Experimental Work, Wise and Otherwise." This paper was significant for being the first presented at the convention with a scientific focus, and motivated the formation of a non-commercial society dedicated to the exchange of ideas and research on the science of ceramics. The American Ceramic Society was officially formed on February 6, 1899 at its first annual meeting, which was held in Columbus, Ohio

Columbus, Ohio

Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...

http://www.ceramics.org/aboutus/history.aspx.

Organization

ACerS is organized into the following ten divisionshttp://www.ceramics.org/community/divisions/index.aspx:

• Art. D focuses on the decoration and design of consumer ceramic products and the use of ceramics for artistic purposes
  Ceramic art
  In art history, ceramics and ceramic art mean art objects such as figures, tiles, and tableware made from clay and other raw materials by the process of pottery. Some ceramic products are regarded as fine art, while others are regarded as decorative, industrial or applied art objects, or as...
  
  .
• Basic Science is concerned with studying the chemistry and physics of ceramics.
• Cements centers on the development and manufacture of cement
  Cement
  In the most general sense of the word, a cement is a binder, a substance that sets and hardens independently, and can bind other materials together. The word "cement" traces to the Romans, who used the term opus caementicium to describe masonry resembling modern concrete that was made from crushed...
  
  s, limes
  Lime (mineral)
  Lime is a general term for calcium-containing inorganic materials, in which carbonates, oxides and hydroxides predominate. Strictly speaking, lime is calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide. It is also the name for a single mineral of the CaO composition, occurring very rarely...
  
  , and plaster
  Plaster
  Plaster is a building material used for coating walls and ceilings. Plaster starts as a dry powder similar to mortar or cement and like those materials it is mixed with water to form a paste which liberates heat and then hardens. Unlike mortar and cement, plaster remains quite soft after setting,...
  
  s.
• Electronics examines ceramic materials for use in electronic devices.
• Engineering Ceramics deals with the use of ceramics and their composites
  Composite material
  Composite materials, often shortened to composites or called composition materials, are engineered or naturally occurring materials made from two or more constituent materials with significantly different physical or chemical properties which remain separate and distinct at the macroscopic or...
  
   as structural and mechanical components.
• Glass & Optical Materials centers on the design, manufacture and use of glass
  Glass
  Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...
  
  es.
• Nuclear & Environmental Technology concentrates on the use of ceramics in nuclear energy production
  Nuclear power
  Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...
  
   and medicine
  Nuclear medicine
  In nuclear medicine procedures, elemental radionuclides are combined with other elements to form chemical compounds, or else combined with existing pharmaceutical compounds, to form radiopharmaceuticals. These radiopharmaceuticals, once administered to the patient, can localize to specific organs...
  
  .
• Refractory Ceramics
  Refractory
  A refractory material is one that retains its strength at high temperatures. ASTM C71 defines refractories as "non-metallic materials having those chemical and physical properties that make them applicable for structures, or as components of systems, that are exposed to environments above...
  
  explores ceramics for use in high temperature and other hostile environments.
• Structural Clay Products is concerned with the manufacture of brick, pipe, and red-body tile.
• Whitewares and Materials concentrates on the production of whiteware products.

Keramos

Keramos was founded by ACerS in 1902 as a professional fraternity of ceramic engineering. It has active chapters at University of Arizona

University of Arizona

The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...

,
University of Florida

University of Florida

The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...

, Georgia Institute of Technology

Georgia Institute of Technology

The Georgia Institute of Technology is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States...

, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...

, Iowa State University

Iowa State University

Iowa State University of Science and Technology, more commonly known as Iowa State University , is a public land-grant and space-grant research university located in Ames, Iowa, United States. Iowa State has produced astronauts, scientists, and Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, along with a host of...

, Missouri University of Science and Technology

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Missouri University of Science and Technology is an institution of higher learning located in Rolla, Missouri, United States, and part of the University of Missouri System...

, Rutgers University

Rutgers University

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...

, New York State College of Ceramics

New York State College of Ceramics

The New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in Alfred is a statutory college of the State University of New York . It is divided into the School of Art and Design and the Inamori School of Engineering. Although the School of Engineering is nominally administered by NYSCC, the...

, Ohio State University

Ohio State University

The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...

, Pennsylvania State University

Pennsylvania State University

The Pennsylvania State University, commonly referred to as Penn State or PSU, is a public research university with campuses and facilities throughout the state of Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1855, the university has a threefold mission of teaching, research, and public service...

, Clemson University

Clemson University

Clemson University is an American public, coeducational, land-grant, sea-grant, research university located in Clemson, South Carolina, United States....

, and University of Washington

University of Washington

University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

http://www.ceramics.org/membership/Sections_Classes/keramos.aspx.

National Institute of Ceramic Engineers

The National Institute of Ceramic Engineers (NICE) works with the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology

Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology

ABET, Inc., formerly the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, is a non-profit organization that accredits post-secondary education programs in applied science, computing, engineering, and technology...

 to accredit collegiate programs in ceramics. Materials science and engineering programs that offer an option to specialize in ceramics are accredited by NICE in conjunction with TMS

The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS)

The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society is a professional organization for materials scientists and engineers that encompasses the entire range of materials and engineering, from minerals processing and primary metals production to basic research and the advanced applications of materials...

. NICE is also responsible for writing and administering the Principles and Practice of Engineering Exam

Principles and Practice of Engineering Exam

The Principles and Practice of Engineering exam is the examination that is required to be passed before one can become a Professional Engineer in the United States...

 in ceramics engineering.

Ceramic Educational Council

The Ceramic Educational Council was founded in 1938 with the goal of improving ceramics education. It is an associate member of the American Society for Engineering Education

American Society for Engineering Education

The American Society for Engineering Education is a non-profit member association, founded in 1893, dedicated to promoting and improving engineering and engineering technology education....

http://www.ceramics.org/membership/Sections_Classes/cec.aspx.