Panel Discussion: Future Directions for Applications of Ceramic Science and Applications

Panel members

• Arthur Heuer, Case Western Reserve University: MEMS, biomimetics
• Jeff Brinker, Sandia National Lab (tentative): self assembly 3-D structures
• David Wilcox, Motorola (tentative): new applications in communications technology
• to be announced: new applications in opto-electronics & storage technologies

Questions to include the following

1. Self Assembly is a pie-in-the-sky dream and will not be realized
2. Self Assembly will be the most important processing route.
3. Combinatorial approaches for finding new ceramic properties is anti-intellectual and brute force.
4. Combinatorial approaches will produce amazing new properties at unprecedented rates
5. Will the emerging requirements of technology pass the ceramic science community by?
6. Have we focussed too much on structural properties?
7. Will ceramic science have any impact on biomedical materials or will we be animated onlookers?
8. What is useful, if anything, to compute accurately? Is it even possible?
9. What ceramic properties can be tailored for the telecommunications industries?