As a student, streamlining your career path is the priority concern. The initiatives like Portes Ouvertes (“Open Doors”), is the well know event among the French community. The “Portes Ouvertes » event is an occasion where the university opens its doors to prospective students, parents, and the general public to provide an opportunity to explore the campus, learn about academic programs, meet faculty and staff, and get a feel for the university’s atmosphere. 

The department of ENSIL-ENSCI at the University of Limoges, participated in this event, opening their doors to meet and greet future, talented scientists and engineers. As an excellent opportunity to introduce refractory materials and their industrial applications to the general public, Professor Marc Huger, Andrea Salerno (PhD05), Kwasi Addo Boateng (PhD06) and Harikeshava Ranganathan (PhD08) were on hand to discuss the CESAREF project. 

The interactive demonstrations allowed students to understand the role of refractories in high-temperature applications. The general public were interested to discover the world of refractory materials and the students posed many questions about the latest research in field. They were impressed with the amount of exciting research that is ongoing in an industry that is relatively unknown to them. 

Using this platform, the DCs expressed the importance of progressing towards green processing in the steelmaking applications and spreading the efforts the EU is making towards achieving net zero emissions by 2050. We hope that such events bring more talented people into the field of refractories and ceramics. A sustainable future depends on the innovative minds of the younger generation.