High risk, high payoff applications for ceramics are numerous.Advanced turbine engines use ceramic thermal barrier coatings for high performance. Turbines with much higher efficiency for both aerospace and power generation applications require high temperature structural ceramics that do not fail in a catastrophic manner, but substitution of ceramics for metals in turbine hot sections is a radical departure from current practice. Maturation of these materials has been slow - much work has been done, but much work remains. High fossil fuel costs make these materials even more attractive. Other examples include: 1) Hypersonic aerospace applications that require ultrahigh temperature ceramics for thermal protection. 2) Electronic systems that operate at high temperature or high power without cooling, which require high temperature semiconductors such as silicon carbide. 3) Efficient electric power lines that use ceramic fiber cores for high stiffness and light weight. 4) Versatile high power polycrystalline ceramic lasers, which require precise attention to processing details to insure optical clarity.

Fundamental materials science challenges concerning advanced applications of ceramics will be addressed. Characterization of relationships between required physical properties, microstructures, and processing methods are one area of central importance. Prediction and modeling of these relationships are another. These issues naturally lead to basic investigations of oxidation mechanisms, deformation mechanisms in both brittle and ductile fields, stress corrosion, basic interface science, phase equilibrium, and the kinetics of grain growth and phase transformations.