The 19th European Inter-Regional Conference on Ceramics (CIEC 19) was held at the Technical University of Leoben from 11th to 13th February 2026. The conference takes place biannually in different European regions and was hosted this year by the Chair of Structural and Functional Ceramics (ISFK) under the direction of Univ.-Prof. Dr. Raul Bermejo.
The CIEC 19 brings together scientists from over nine European regions who work in the field of ceramics, glasses, and hard metals. The conference welcomed 57 participants from eight Europeancountries to the Technical University of Leoben, where 37 presentations and 7 posters were presented in ten sessions. The presentations covered topics ranging from the processing of ceramics and glasses and additive manufacturing to the characterization of mechanical properties and the presentation of novel testing methods, as well as applications in biomedical engineering and aerospace.
The Chair of Structural and Functional Ceramics was represented by Univ.-Prof. Dr. Raul Bermejo, who presented the chair's activities, as well as five scientific lectures.
Within the conference, a Best Presentation Contest and a Best Poster Contest were held for student participants. The prizes were sponsored by the Austrian Ceramic Society (AuCerS).
The winners of the Best Presentation Contest were selected by an international professional jury, with jurors not allowed to vote for their own research group. The well-deserved first prize went to Annalena Erlacher, MSc, from the Nanopowders and Ceramics Group at EMPA Dübendorf, Switzerland, for her presentation “Mechanical spectroscopy for probing microstructural and grain boundary evolution in alumina”. Second place went to Dipl.-Ing. Tobias Prötsch from ISFK, who impressed the expert jury with his presentation “Rapid sintering of layered ceramic multi-materials”. Dipl.-Ing. Maximilian Munz, also from ISFK, was awarded third prize for his presentation “Fracture toughness of silicon nitride measured on curved surfaces”. The Best Poster Award (first prize) went to Saghar Fooladi Mahani from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain, who won the most votes from conference participants with her poster “Length scale effects on the fatigue crack growth of WC-Co cemented carbides”. The best poster was chosen by a ballot vote among all participants. We congratulate the winners on their great achievements!
A pizza night for the participants, a gala dinner followed by a curling tournament, and a lab tour at the Chair of Structural and Functional Ceramics completed the intense but colorful program.
The CIEC 19 at the Technical University of Leoben was a full success and once again made an important contribution to the networking of European research groups in the field of ceramics, glasses, and hard metals, as well as a positive contribution to the scientific exchange of young researchers.
More information
CIEC 19 website: https://isfk.unileoben.ac.at/konferenzen/ciec-19
