This virtual special issue in Advances in Applied Ceramics comprises selected papers from the conference Piezo2017:Electroceramics for End Users IX , that took place in Cercedilla (Madrid, Spain) on 19-22 February, 2017 at the “Lucas Olazabal” Forestry Residence of the “Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM)”. There were 80 participants from academia and industry, from France, Spain, Germany, Mexico, Denmark, Slovenia, Norway, Italy, Switzerland, Finland, Uruguay, Czech Republic, Portugal, USA, Latvia, Israel and Belgium. The conference was organized by the European Institute of Piezoelectric Materials and Devices (Piezoinstitute), the “Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid (ICMM).CSIC” and the School of Telecommunications Systems and Engineering (ETSIST) of the UPM. The conference was also made possible through the support of the companies Meggitt Sensing Systems (DK) and Aixacct Systems (DE).
The sessions covered studies on piezoelectrics, ferroelectrics, relaxors and tunable materials, applications, new processing techniques, lead-free ceramics and other sustainable materials, modeling and advanced characterization. The invited talks were given by N. Setter (EPFL, CH) - who spoke in homage to Prof. L. E. Cross, from The Pennsylvania State University (USA) who passed away on December 2016 - F. Montero de Espinosa (ITEFI-CSIC, ES), M.E. Villafuerte-Castrejón (UNAM, MX) and D. C. Sinclair (Sheffield Univ., UK). The scientific program consisted of 32 oral and 20 poster presentations. PIEZO2017 provided an opportunity to discuss challenges and future trends in this area. The conference was of high scientific level and technical quality.