The applied science of producing, forming, processing, and testing ceramic materials.
The word ceramic comes from the latin word keramos which in Greek means burnt earth. As this historical tidbit indicates, ceramics are generally formed and manipulated at high temperatures. Typically, they are also very stiff and hard, but very brittle as well.
Glass, cement, refractory materials, many semiconductors, and "advanced ceramics" are all different types of ceramic materials.
Ceramic engineers are sometimes jokingly called, "toilet bowl engineers".
Ceramic engineers can employ a wide variety of methods for forming objects in a desirable shape including
- sintering
- slip casting
- sol-gel chemistry