Alloys: Metallurgy and Engineering

Ali, Saleem

This volume, titled Proceedings of the International Materials Symposium on Ce- ramic Microstructures: Control at the Atomic Level summarizes the progress that has been achieved during the past decade in understanding and controlling microstructures in ceram- ics. A particular emphasis of the symposium, and therefore of this volume, is advances in the characterization, understanding, and control of micro structures at the atomic or near-atomic level. This symposium is the fourth in a series of meetings, held every ten years, devoted to ceramic microstructures. The inaugural meeting took place in 1966, and focussed on the analysis, significance, and production of microstructure&#x3b; the symposium emphasized the need for, and importance of characterization in achieving a more complete understanding of the physical and chemical characteristics of ceramics. A consensus emerged at that meeting on the critical importance of characterization in achieving a more complete understanding of ceramic properties. That point of view became widely accepted in the ensuing decade. The second meeting took place in 1976 at a time of world-wide energy shortages and thus emphasized energy-related applications of ceramics, and more specifically, microstructure-property relationships of those materials. The third meeting, held in 1986, was devoted to the role that interfaces played both during processing, and in influencing the ultimate properties of single and polyphase ceramics, and ceramic-metal systems.

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The first International Conference on Ageing Studies and Lifetime Extension of Materials was held on th July 12-14, 1999 at St. Catherine's College, Oxford, United Kingdom. Over 230 delegates attended during the three days and heard nearly ninety papers, together with over thirty poster presentations. Sixteen of these papers were keynotes from invited speakers eminent in their field of research. The proceedings were organised into six separate sessions: observation and understanding of real-time and accelerated ageing&#x3b; experimental techniques&#x3b; modelling and theoretical studies&#x3b; lifetime prediction and validation&#x3b; lifetime extension&#x3b; and material design for ageing. In doing this, it was hoped to cover most issues of scientific concern inthefield ofmaterials ageing. One important aspect was that the conference did not concentrateon any particular group or type ofmaterial&#x3b; rather the aim was to attract contributions from workers engaged in ageing studies with as wide a range of materials as possible. In this way, it was hoped that delegates could interactwith and learnfrom those whom they perhapswould not normally come across and that metallurgists could learn from polymer scientists, ceramicists could talk to modellers, and so on, in this important field. A read through the diverse papers contained within these proceedings will confirm that this aim was happily satisfied. Why hold such a meeting? In the modem world, engineered systems are expected to last longer.

Sahoo, Susanta Kumar

Mitra, Rahul