Advanced Ceramics III Volume 3

This volume is one in a series which attempts to bring together comprehensive articles on recent advances in ceramics. The volume is dedicated to Professor Shigeyuki Somiya on the occasion of his retirement from the Tokyo Institute of Technology; and it is a most fitting tribute. Professor Somiya has been one of the earliest and most persistent and versatile champions of research in ceramic materials in Japan. He has served this cause extraordinarily well by mixing two strategies. First, by making bridges to the entire international community of ceramic researchers in the US and Europe. Thereby, he kept a window for all of Japanese ceramic science on world class research in the field. It was largely through his efforts that the series of US-Japan International Cooperation Sessions in Ceram­ ics were started. I was honored to be US chairman of the first such in 1969. At Penn State we are delighted to claim Professor Somiya as an honorary alumnus. The high regard in which he is held is shown by the many of his colleagues from the University who have chosen to come over for this conference. He was also recognized with a Penn State MRL Bridge-Building award in 1988 to reflect his pioneering in establishing the two-way exchange with Japan.

1. A Strategy for Research on Synthesis of Ceramics Materials.- 2. Equilibrium Relations Involving Transition-Metal Oxides at High Temperatures.- 3. Preparation and Characterization of Ceramic Powders.- 4. Contributions of Sintering and Coarsening to Densification: A Thermodynamic Approach.- 5. Ferroic Materials and Composites: Past, Present and Future.- 6. Ceramics with Electrochemical Functions: The Role of Charged Interfaces.- 7. Sol-Gel Processing of Optical Waveguides.- 8. Advances in the Performance of Cement-Based Systems.- 9. Hydrothermal Synthesis in Acid Solutions—A Review.- 10. Hydrothermal Carbon: A Review from Carbon in Herkimer ‘Diamonds’ to that in Real Diamonds.- 11. Hydrothermal Preparation of Fine Powders.