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Dear Young Ceramists Community, 

 

My first words as new committee member will be to thank all of you to be part of the Young Ceramists Network! With more than 700 members on Facebook and around 500 on LinkedIn, the YCN is definitely the number 1 network in ceramics! I hope we will be able to meet all together very soon after this difficult period. 

 

While waiting to meet us, here are a few words to introduce myself and share with you my motivations. My name is Nicolas and I’m a Belgian chemist who studied in the University of Liège (Belgium) before starting a PhD at the Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France (France) under the supervision of Professor Anne Leriche. I’m part of an European project called DOC-3D-PRINTING whose goal is to train a new generation of young researchers and to develop the additive manufacturing of ceramics. You probably have met one of my 13 colleagues. My personal research concerns the synthesis and shaping of doped calcium phosphates for bone implants applications. For the shaping part, I am also working with the team of Dr. Fabrice Petit at the Belgian Ceramic Research Centre in Mons using their equipment and knowledge in additive manufacturing.

 

Since I started my PhD in 2018, I went to several conferences and scientific activities, especially the YCN student social event in Torino, and I have become addicted to that. These events are able to create special atmospheres where everybody can speak and share with people they would probably never have met otherwise. I like to think that Science is a team sport and you cannot definitely move forward without help and collaboration. For this, the YCN can be a bridge to promote meetings and also a tool to make life better for young researchers from a financial, social and motivating point of view. As new member, I really want to give my time to continue the fantastic work done by the former and current YCN committee members in order to continue to develop this strong global network. The YCN should maintain a strong social media communication to inform as many researchers as possible and not leave anyone in the dark about existing opportunities or events. Don’t hesitate to follow and join the YCN (even on Instagram, you heard well)! 

 

Let's put ceramic research in the spotlight! 

 

Sincerely yours,

 

Nicolas Somers