First off, I graduated at the end of October (*cheers*). I am now a Master’s in Science Communication!
But the biggest news is…
I got a job!
I was offered the job in September, but I officially started working after my graduation. I moved to Columbus, Ohio and began on November 5, so have been working for a little over one month now. This blog is dedicated to explaining who I work for and what my job entails.
The American Ceramic Society
In September, I was offered the job of Science Writer with The American Ceramic Society. The Society, or ACerS, is a nonprofit professional organization for the ceramics community. A professional organization (or professional association) is a group with three main goals, to further: a particular profession; the interests of individuals engaged in that profession; and the public interest. Essentially, a professional organization acts as the network hub through which people in a profession can keep in contact with and learn about other people in their profession, and receive support with communication and marketing tasks, like organizing meetings. Examples of professional organizations based in the United States include the Authors Guild (professional organization supporting working writers and protecting authors' rights) and the American Bar Association (professional organization supporting lawyers and law students).
For ACerS, we support people involved with ceramic and glass materials, with a focus on scientific research, emerging technologies, and applications of these materials. We do not conduct any of the research ourselves—we simply help get the word out about what our members do, both to the public and within the field itself. |
My job: Science Writer
How many people does it take to run an organization consisting of over 11,000 members? In the case of ACerS, less than 40! We are split into several teams, including Membership, Meetings and Technical Publications, Communications and Marketing, and Ceramic Publications. Each team runs a different aspect of the professional organization, and I am part of the Communications team.
As the Communication team’s Science Writer, I keep the thrice-a-week blog Ceramic Tech Today filled with stories covering recent academic and industry research going on in the ceramics and glass fields. However, since the online blog is meant to be more public-friendly, we throw in the occasional fun topic as well, like the science of Stan Lee. For those interested, you can sign up here to get the CTT newsletter, which is free and comes out every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday and contains links to the stories I publish. | The front page for our online blog, Ceramic Tech Today. Starting in January, I will be consistently writing three articles each week. |
But…what are ceramics?
Of course, I can’t end this post without answering a question that probably a lot of you have—what actually are ceramics? To be honest…even I’m not a hundred percent sure.
If you Google “ceramic definition,” you will get a description along the lines of “a ceramic is a solid material comprising an inorganic compound of metal, non-metal or metalloid atoms primarily held in ionic and covalent bonds.” That is not very helpful. Instead, it is easier to define a ceramic by what it is not. A ceramic is not a metal. A ceramic is not a glass. And a ceramic is not a polymer. Usually, if you see a material that ends in the words “nitride,” “oxide,” “boride,” or “carbide,” you can assume that material is a ceramic.
We have a webpage on our site that gives examples of where ceramics are used in our everyday lives. You can check it out here, but be warned it is not quite a finished product. We are missing images to go along with the ceramic examples, and that is a secondary project I am working on during my free time between article writing. If all goes well, we will have images to accompany each description by January.