News 2026

Turning Waste into Raw Materials for the Ceramic Industry.

Waste materials were once seen as a burden but are increasingly being redefined as valuable resources for ceramic production. Through advances in materials engineering, waste can be used as secondary raw materials in the ceramic industry. This shift enables more circular and resource-efficient ceramic manufacturing systems.

Implementing 3D-Printed Technical Ceramics in Regulated Medical Fields.

Bringing a new manufacturing technology into medicine requires far more than producing an impressive component. In highly regulated fields, innovation must be translated into repeatable processes, documented quality, reliable materials and, ultimately, evidence of clinical value. Lithoz has spent more than a decade building this bridge for Lithography-based Ceramic Manufacturing (LCM).

Sustainable perspective for solid oxide cell air electrodes.

Traditional solid oxide cell (SOC) air electrodes heavily rely on costly and scarce cobalt or rare earth elements, driving researchers to seek more sustainable and affordable material alternatives. Abundant calcium and iron oxides (Ca-Fe-O) have emerged as promising candidates, though their brownmillerite crystal structure suffers from low electronic conductivity, causing high polarisation and ohmic resistance. To overcome this drawback, strategies such as elemental substitution, composite formation, and tailored current collector layers are being deployed, yielding highly promising cell-level results for the development of high-performance, sustainable air electrodes.

Oxygen Non-Stoichiometry as an Active Processing Parameter in Perovskite Oxides.

Non-stoichiometric perovskite oxides can take up large concentrations of oxygen vacancies, and their oxygen content is routinely tuned to optimize functional properties — yet rarely as a variable to control processing itself. My research treats it as exactly that: an active processing variable. By tuning it through the atmosphere, I accelerate the sintering of PrBaMn2O6 at markedly lower temperatures. And because these oxides expand rather than shrink as they lose oxygen, I use that expansion to offset the shrinkage that drives constrained sintering.

High-Entropy Ceramics for Hydrogen Energy.

The global transition to carbon neutrality requires efficient technologies that can both store renewable electricity and produce clean hydrogen. My research focuses on developing advanced ceramic materials for reversible proton ceramic electrochemical cells (RPCECs), which can operate as both fuel cells and electrolyzers. By designing highly active and durable electrode materials, we aim to enable efficient hydrogen production, long-duration energy storage, and sustainable energy conversion for future net-zero energy systems.

Joining the Young Ceramists Network Committee feels especially meaningful to me after serving as the Spanish Representative during 2024–2025. For the past few years, YCN has shown me how powerful a scientific community can be, opening doors to opportunities I never expected, introducing me to inspiring people from different backgrounds, and fostering connections that extend far beyond research and academia.

Dear YCN Community, dear Colleagues, dear Friends,

Looking back on my time in the Young Ceramists Network Committee, I feel one thing above all else – gratitude.

When I first joined YCN, I was hoping to meet other young researchers who shared my passion for ceramics. I never expected it to become such an important part of my journey. Over the years, this community has given me so much more than I could have imagined.

As Finland’s and Serbia’s representatives within the Young Ceramists Network (YCN), we had the privilege of engaging with a diverse and dynamic community from both academia and industry. Organized by the ceramic societies of Germany (DKG), the Netherlands (NKV), and Belgium (BCerS), the event managed to create a vibrant atmosphere for knowledge exchange and networking by combining insightful talks, interactive poster and pitch sessions, and a get-together evening organized by YCN.

YCN’s participation at ceramitec 2026 in Munich from 24th to 26th of March 2026, represented a key step in strengthening ties between young ceramic professionals, academia, and industry. The exhibition provided an international setting where research, innovation and industrial application converge, enabling meaningful engagements. Our main objective was to position YCN as an active interface connecting early-career professionals with industry leaders.

Interface Engineering: High-Temperature Interactions Between High-Entropy Ceramics and Metals.

My research explores high-temperature interactions between high-entropy ceramics (HECs) and metals, with a focus on joining strategies for extreme environments. By understanding how metals wet and react with these advanced ceramics, I aim to design reliable interfaces for applications such as composites, coatings, and ceramic joining with functional properties. This work contributes to improving the performance and durability of materials used in demanding industries such as energy, aerospace, and advanced manufacturing.

From cold sintering to ultrafast processing: exploring non-conventional sintering of ceramics.

Non-conventional sintering approaches are opening new directions in ceramic processing by enabling densification beyond the limits of traditional sintering routes. From cold sintering at low temperatures to ultrafast processing within seconds, these methods aim to offer pathways to reduce energy consumption while tailoring microstructure and properties. Exploring these techniques across a range of material systems highlights how processing parameters influence densification and material behavior.

Strategies of Lynas in Rare Earth Oxides for High Temperature Fuel Cell Technologies.

The global push toward decarbonization is accelerating the development of high-temperature electrochemical systems such as solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) and solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOECs). These technologies offer unmatched efficiency, fuel flexibility, and the potential for reversible operation, making them central to future hydrogen and clean energy ecosystems.

A Ceramics Engineer’s Experience from R&D to Production in Powder Manufacturing.

As a ceramics engineer trained at the Engineering School of Limoges, my background combines materials science with advanced ceramics processing. My experience spans both research and development and industrial production, providing a comprehensive understanding of how materials are developed and implemented at scale.

Ensuring Certainty in Materials Analysis.

My professional background originates in the ceramics community, where the focus was on understanding structure–property relationships in complex functional oxides. In this field, material performance is intrinsically linked to microstructural features such as grain boundaries, phase distribution, defects and interfaces. [1] Early academic and professional experience clearly demonstrated that high‑quality sample preparation is a prerequisite for reliable materials characterization, whether for microscopy, spectroscopy, or mechanical testing. Without a reproducible and artefact free preparation process, even the most advanced analytical methods can lead to inaccurate or misleading results. This fundamental understanding of materials preparation remains central to my work in industry today.

My part of the story started in XII ECerS 2013 held in Limoges, where I participated in the traditional student speech contest of ECerS. There I met with Dominique Hautcoeur and many other colleagues who became my life-long friends. Having such a great time with the speech contest group, there was a need to keep in touch after the conference. A social media group called ‘Ceramic Social Club’ was initiated in Facebook (it was still used by young people at that time :D). 

Dear YCN Friends and Colleagues,

As my term on the Young Ceramists Network (YCN) committee comes to a close after a journey that began in December 2021 and ended this January 2026, I want to take a moment to share a few personal reflections and heartfelt thanks.

Dear Young Ceramists Community,

It is my great pleasure to briefly introduce myself and my ideas to you.

My name is Petar Kotevski, a first-year PhD candidate, working on a collaborative project between INSA Lyon and 3DCERAM, under the main supervision of Prof. Jérôme Chevalier.

Dear YCN community, dear colleagues, dear friends,

After an incredibly rewarding journey since 2022, the time has come for me to step down from the Young Ceramists Network (YCN) Committee. Writing these lines comes with mixed feelings of gratitude and pride for what we achieved together, and a little nostalgia as I hand over the baton to the new committee.

My name is Aliya Sharipova. I am a Senior Researcher at the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS in Dresden. My work focuses on cold sintering for functional biomaterials and biomedical devices.

As “founding father” of YCN, I am pleased to see that YCN's activities continue to grow.

It all started with the foundation of JECS Trust (The Journal of the European Ceramic Society Trust), which was formally set up in December 2007. At the founding meeting in 2008, it was made clear that one of the main focuses in the expenditures of JECS Trust money is to support activities for students and young researchers.

The human body utilises electrical signalling for cellular communication, and exogenous electrical fields can be used to direct healing of both soft and hard tissues, such as bone. By harnessing the electromechanical properties of lead-free piezoceramics, we can design functional implants that supply electrical stimulation to bones and improve healing outcomes. In our work, we design sodium potassium niobate ((K,Na)NbO3, KNN)-based systems as bioactive ceramics targeted for orthopaedic applications. Through stoichiometric modifications, KNN-based systems can be engineered to have biosimilar electromechanical properties, in vitro stability, and excellent biocompatibility.

My research focuses on the design of advanced ceramic–polymer composite scaffolds and 3D in vitro models to address major challenges in regenerative medicine and cancer therapy. Through vat photopolymerization and biofabrication technologies, I develop gradient biomaterials that mimic complex tissue interfaces and investigate innovative therapeutic strategies for pancreatic cancer. My work bridges materials chemistry, additive manufacturing, and biomedical engineering to create functional systems with real clinical impact.

Bioactive glasses have been of interest in bone regeneration due to their ability of bonding with hard tissue and releasing ions, which stimulate bone healing processes like osteogenesis and angiogenesis. The field of ionic medicine utilizes these ion release mechanisms to enhance cellular responses, improving bone repair and regeneration. In my PhD studies I have mainly focused on optimizing bioactive glass compositions to understand their biological effects and bioactive behaviour.