The IOM3 Ceramics Group (formerly the Ceramics Society) is a community of professionals with a shared technical interest in ceramics, led by a team of volunteers. The Ceramics Group is home to the Cementitious Materials Subgroup and covers the interest of the former Ceramics Science Committee. The group provides a peer support network for members and is the source of the expertise that underpins IOM3 activities in this area. On this page you will find the latest news, relevant technical content, professional development opportunities and information about upcoming events.
Andrew McDermott
Dr Andrew McDermott is the Deputy Chief Executive at Ceramics UK, where he represents and promotes the collective interests of UK ceramic manufacturing companies to policymakers, regulators and stakeholders. His key areas of interest include energy policy, security, costs, and emissions, particularly in decarbonisation, emissions trading, and environmental permitting. He also collaborates with the industry to identify, develop, and implement energy and carbon reduction measures. Currently, he is leading a £6 million DESNZ-funded research program to demonstrate the use of 100% hydrogen for firing ceramics.
Previously, he has held several technical roles within ceramics manufacturing, working with both traditional and advanced ceramic materials. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) and the immediate past Chair of the IOM3 Ceramics Group.
Dr Emma Claxton
Dr Emma Claxton has worked for Rolls-Royce plc for twenty-eight years. She is currently working on the UltraFan® Project as Programme Manager for Composite Fan rig testing. She has a PhD from Imperial College for work on glass-ceramic composites and previous technical roles have involved working with ceramic matrix composites for high temperature turbine applications and with monolithic ceramics and glass-ceramics for fuel cell stacks and sealing.
Dr Claxton, who has been involved with the IOM3 for many years as part of the previous Ceramics Society, became a Fellow of the Institute 2020, and received the Verulam Medal & Prize for Ceramics in 2022
Dr. Yi Cui
Dr. Yi Cui is a senior materials engineer at Morgan Advanced Materials, specializing in cemented carbide, ceramic, cermet, and powder metallurgy processes, including pressing, extrusion, and injection molding. With a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Metallurgy from the University of Cambridge, Dr. Cui has spearheaded numerous innovative projects. Notably, he developed a low-firing oxide grade that reduces carbon emissions and production lead times, an innovation that secured funding from UKRI and Morgan Advanced Materials.
Dr. Cui's expertise extends to resolving critical production issues, such as die fouling and discoloration in cold-isostatic pressing, significantly improving yield rates. At Cambridge, he developed novel testing procedures for rubber-based composites mixed with alumina particulate or short fibres. His professional experience includes significant roles at Sandvik Machining Solutions, where he managed R&D initiatives and conducted mechanical and non-destructive testing.
A Chartered Engineer and active member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals, and Mining (IoM3), Dr. Cui is proficient in various programming skills. He effectively combines technical expertise with practical industry experience, making significant contributions to reducing carbon emissions and saving energy within the ceramic industry.
Spencer Jeffs
Spencer is an academic at Swansea University, a member of the aerospace department and based in the Institute of Structural Materials as part of the Materials Research Centre.
Spencer’s research interests align predominantly to the fundamental characterisation of materials for gas turbine applications, with a particular focus on ceramic matrix composites material systems investigating relationships between processing, microstructure, and properties. Research is conducted employing a range of advanced experimental, analysis and computational techniques including acoustic emission, digital image correlation, and X-ray CT alongside close collaboration with industrial and academic partners.
Professor Jon Binner
Professor Jon Binner is the Chair of Ceramic Science & Engineering in the School of Metallurgy and Materials, at the University of Birmingham, a post he took up on 1st Jan 2014.
Jon has published about 260 peer-reviewed research papers, as well as editing or contributing to 24 books, given around 80 keynote, plenary and invited talks at international conferences and holds 7 patents. His H-index is 45. He has won ~160 research grants totalling about £24.1M, many have been international in nature. He is a Fellow and ex-President of both the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (IOM3) and the European Ceramic Society (ECerS); a Fellow and Global Ambassador for the American Ceramic Society (ACerS) and has been the UK’s representative on the International Ceramics Federation since 2011. The IOM3 awarded him the Holliday Prize in 1995, the Ivor Jenkins Medal in 2007, the Verulam Medal & Prize in 2011 and the Pfiel Award (2017) and in 2016 he was awarded an Innovation Award by MBDA, a major European defence manufacturer.
The focus of his research is the generation of both the necessary scientific understanding and the required engineering solutions for the development of processing routes for ceramic materials that display technical and/or financial advantages over existing processes and which yield new or improved materials. He has worked on almost every process and advanced ceramic material, but major focuses for his recent work include ceramic matrix composites, including some that can survive ultra-high temperatures, nanostructured ceramics, ceramic armour and porous ceramics. He has had a number of process routes commercialised by industry and for a few years had his own spin out company, Ceratronics. He has supervised 44 PhD students and 2 MPhil students to successful completion and 51 postdoctoral researchers. A further 7 PhD students and 6 postdocs are currently being supervised. He is proud that since the start of his career ~40% of his research team has been female and ~50% of them have been BAME. He is constantly looking to improve the fraction that is female.
Prof. Dong (Lilly) Liu
Prof. Dong (Lilly) Liu joined the University of Oxford in January 2024, as Associate Professor in Engineering Science and Tutorial Fellow in Trinity College. Prior to this, she was an Associate Professor at the University of Bristol where she was Lead of the Materials and Device Theme in the School of Physics, and Head of the Experimental Mechanics of Advanced Materials group (EMAM). She joined the University of Bristol as Lecturer in July 2018 from Oxford University (2015-2018) where she held an 1851 Exhibition Royal Commission Fellowship (Brunel) and an EPSRC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship. She was also awarded a Junior Research Fellowship (2016-2018) in Mansfield College whilst at the University of Oxford. Prof. Liu’s research interests lie in the area of multiple-scale nano-/microstructural and mechanical characterization of advanced engineering materials in extreme conditions, including ion/neutron/proton irradiation, elevated temperatures and cryogenic environments with applications across nuclear fission, fusion, aerospace, power electronics & RF devices, hydrogen storage, space and concentrated solar power. The primary materials of interest include carbon/graphite composites, TRISO fuels, ceramic-matrix composites, GaN-on-diamond, Ga2O3, high entropy alloys and environmental/thermal barrier coatings.
Richard Weber
Richard Weber founded Materials Development, Inc. (MDI) in 2006 and he is the company president. MDI develops, uses and sells innovative instruments for processing and investigating materials in extreme environments. MDI performs contract research for customers in industry, academia and government laboratories. In addition to commercial work, current research and collaborations include measurement of the atomic structure of molten oxide materials including nuclear fuels, microgravity measurements of thermophysical properties of molten metal oxides on the International Space Station and development of amorphous pharmaceuticals. Prior to forming MDI, Weber was VP for Research at Containerless Research, Inc. a company that he co-founded and where he led the team that developed REAl(TM) Glass. The glass technology was sold to a fortune 50 company in 2006. Weber is an Argonne Associate at DOE’s Advanced Photon Source where he collaborates to develop beamline experiments to measure the structure of materials in extreme conditions. He earned a BSc first class in Metallurgy from Sir John Cass College London in 1983 and a PhD and DIC from the Department of Materials, Imperial College London in 1986 and became a Chartered Engineer (CEng) in 1990. He has authored/co-authored about 250 publications and 7 patents.
Cynthia Adu
Cynthia is a Sustainability Manager at Hide Biotech, an innovative startup developing sustainable alternatives to traditional leather. Cynthia holds an Engineering Doctorate (EngD) and MSc in Sustainable materials and manufacturing – jointly awarded by Cranfield, Exeter, and Warwick university. Her research focused on implementing a circular business model to convert industrial by-products into value for other industries such as construction, textiles, packaging, and composite materials. She also spent the first half of her professional career as a sustainability consultant at Accenture UKI sustainability services. Cynthia worked with businesses to support the transition to a Net-Zero future, her core competency was focused on Life Cycle Assessments (LCA), which involves the development of tools to help model environmental impacts associated with products and services.
Cynthia first became involved with IOM3 as a member of the Student & Early Career Committee in 2018 and is now currently a strategic advisor to IOM3, supporting the technical committee on skills and professional development. Cynthia is very interested in implementing sustainability knowledge in STEM courses. She has contributed to several panels and public outreach, like skills and capacity building for the circular economy, volunteering with the United Nations University on implementing sustainability assessment methods in post-graduate courses of developing countries, and mentorship to young black school students to show representation and importance of sustainability in STEM subjects.
Cynthia oversees the Ceramics Group, the Polymers Group, and the Sustainable Development Group.
