A ceremony was held on November 28th at Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences(SICCAS) to confer CAS visiting professorships for senior international scientists certificate to Prof. S. Bernik. Prof. Yan Liu, the deputy director of SICCAS, presented to Prof. S. Bernik with the certificate, and acknowledged Prof. S. Bernik’s contribution on the international cooperation between Slovenia and China.

    After the ceremony, Prof. S. Bernik gave a lecture “Rare-Earth Oxides in the ZnO-Bi₂O₃-Based Varistor Ceramics”, which introduced the influence of rare earth elements, i.e., Y, La etc., on the ceramic microstructure and properties. His research work further reveals the synergic effect of rare earth elements and Bi₂O₃ on the microstructure and properties of ZnO varistor ceramics, and hence the necessity for the control of the doping content of rare earth elements according to Bi₂O₃, which aroused great interest and heated discussion.

    Prof. S. Bernik is the senior professor of Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia. His main research fields include electroceramics, high T_c superconductors, materials for SOFC, ZnO varistor ceramics, etc. In 1991, he received the national award for research of high T_c superconductors in the Y-Ba-Cu-O system in Slovenia. He is also the reviewer of many international journals such as J. Europ.Ceram.Soc., J. Amer. Ceram. Soc., J. Electroceram., J. Mater.Sci, Mat. Res. Bull., Mat. Lett., Mat. Sci. Eng. B, Phys. Stat. Solidi A, etc.

    Invited by Prof. Liaoying Zheng and Prof. Guorong Li of SICCAS, Prof. S. Bernik spent one month visit to SICCAS for academic exchanges under the China-Slovenia sponsorship of the science & technology cooperation program. He also discussed with Prof. Guorong Li and Prof. Hui Gu on the grain boundary characteristic of ZnO varistor ceramic and its research trend in the future.

A ceremony was held on November 28th at SICCAS to confer CAS visiting professorships for senior international scientists certificate to Prof. S. Bernik 

Prof. S. Bernik gave a lecture