Can Ceramics and Glasses be Advanced Materials in the Next Century?

Several years ago, ceramics and glasses were recongnized as one of the top stars in the field of advanced materials. Ceramics for internal combustion type engines were believed as key materials for making advanced diesel engines and such materials were called as fine ceramics. New glasses were also foot-lighted several years ago. Almost all ceramic related companies in Japan started their own research projects in fine ceramics and almost all glass related companies were fevered in new glasses. The situation has been changed quite a bit for these years, and Japanese companies are now busy in reducing the size of fundamental research projects in these fields. Taking account of this situation, I would like to critically re-examine the ceramic projects in the past in our country, and try to find out the true reasons why these projects have been ended or will end unsuccessfully. I would like also propose what are the key concepts and technologies in the near future in the field of ceramic research, if we want to make ceramics and glasses named as advanced materials in the next century. These key concepts and technologies include intelligent methods of material design, which will reduce work load of researchers in material development, and thus they will be able to spend their time for true innovative work. In addition to the ordinary boundary conditions in the field of materials, we have to regard sincerely the global scale environmental problems. All materials and products should be critically re-evaluated in terms of the total impact on the earth.