“Piezo2017:Electroceramics for End Users IX” and the JECS Trust funded Winter School on “Advanced Characterization of Piezoceramics” took place in Cercedilla (Madrid, Spain) on 19-22 February, 2017 at the Lucas Olazabal Forestry Residence of the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM). There were some 80 participants from academia and industry. They came from France, Spain, Germany, Mexico, Denmark, Slovenia, Norway, Italy, Switzerland, Finland, Uruguay, Czech Republic, Portugal, USA, Latvia, Israel and Belgium. It was organized by the European Institute of Piezoelectric Materials and Devices (Piezoinstitute), the Madrid’s Materials Science institute of the Spanish Council of Scientific Research (ICMM-CSIC) and the School of Telecommunications, Systems and Engineering of the UPM.

On Sunday there were three afternoon Winter School Lectures on “X-ray absorption study of functional materials” by M.E. Montero-Cabrera, “Numerical Characterization of Piezoelectric Discs Using Resonance Curves” by N. Pérez and “Implementation of advanced microscopies in an atomic force microscope” by J.J. Gervacio-Arciniega. Afterwards there was a lively welcome party with Spanish specialties as the famous “sangria”.

On Monday, the opening ceremony of PIEZO2017 was presided by M. Villegas, Director of the “Agencia Estatal de Investigación (MINECO, Gobierno de España)”. She welcomed all participants and spoke about her personal experience in the piezoceramics field and made homage to the recently deceased Prof. J.A. Varela, from “Universidade Federal de São Carlos”, Brazil, who was a leading figure for the Iberoamerican electroceramics community. In the opening they spoke also Mª T. González, UPM General Secretary; F. Soria, Director of ICMM-CSIC, who emphasized the long term relation between the ICMM and the Piezoinstitute researchers through European Projects and Networks, the key role of Spanish researchers in connecting European and Iberoamerican research communities and the importance of the cooperation with the industry for the materials science; G. Feuillard, Piezoinstitute Director, L. Pardo (ICMM-CSIC), PIEZO2017 Chair, and A. M. González (ETSIST-UPM), President of the Local Organizing Committee. All of them expressed to the participants their welcome to the UPM facilities and their best wishes for the scientific discussion and enjoyment of the site.

The first Invited Talk was given by N. Setter on “Insight into Structure, Properties, and Mobility of Ferroelectric Domain Walls”. Before her talk, N. Setter spoke in homage to Prof. L. E. Cross, from The Pennsylvania State University (USA), who recently passed away and was her Ph.D. mentor. She spoke about the approach of his scientific work towards applications and his contributions in a wide range of topics as the antiferroelectricity of NaNbO3, relaxor ferroelectrics, domain engineering and the role of lead-free ferroelectrics in flexoelectricity, among others. .

After this, the program comprised Invited and keynote talks, oral presentations, industry exhibition and a poster session. See the program here.

On Tuesday, celebrating the tradition of holding Electroceramics for End Users events in an snowy and mountain environment, two groups of attendees had the chance to have a walk, guided by organizers, to the nearby “Calzada Romana” and route towards “Mirador de la Reina”, on the one hand, and to Valdesquí Alpine Station surroundings, on the other hand, whereas other participants arranged their own walks in the many hicking possibilities and nearby touristic sites offered by the location.

Also on Tuesday, at the Conference Dinner two students were awarded with the first, Runar. P. Dahl-Hansen on “PiezoMEMS in realistic environments”, and second, Jirapa Tangsritrakul on “Phase transformations and chemical heterogeneity in KNNSBNKZ piezoceramics”, Best Poster prizes.

There were Winter School Lectures on Tuesday, “Mechanical Characterization of Piezoelectric Ceramics” by K. G. Webber, and Wednesday, “Venice, Symmetry and Characterization of Functional Materials” by L. E. Fuentes, which close the events.

After this, at the Wednesday Farewell session, L. Pardo and A.M. González gave a summary of the events and thank the labour of the Chairs of the sessions and the attendees and that of the members of the Organizing Committee, J.F. Bartolomé and P.Ochoa, Secretariat, A. Chala and A. I. González, Photographer, M. Maicas, and the kind logistic support of H. González, M. Morales and M.T. Durán. Here we would like as well to thank to all the personnel in charge of the UPM Forestry Residence and the catering for their kind attention to the participants and the assistance of G. Nadal at this webpage. To close the Farewell session G. Feuillard thanked the PIEZO2017 attendees for the high level of the contributions and active participation in the sessions and offered the announcement of the site for PIEZO2019 in brief at the Piezoinstitute web site.

See you again at PIEZO2019!

PIEZO2017 Organizing Committee.

You can access the photo album of the events here.

You are kindly invited to email us your own photos at