Dear Readers of AEM's Special Issue “Cellular Materials”

The 2nd International Conference on Cellular Materials—CELLMAT 2012—was held in November 2012 in Dresden, Germany. The 3-day conference started with an opening lecture, given by Peter Greil from the University of Erlangen. More than 215 participants from 27 countries have exchanged information and knowledge of processing, characterization, and applications of this highly interesting class of materials. In 18 sessions, 110 oral presentations have been presented including 4 keynote lectures and 11 invited talks. Furthermore, around 60 posters have been displayed during the conference; in comparison to the CELLMAT 2010 this is almost a doubling of contributions indicating a growing interest in cellular materials. The CELLMAT 2012 covered all aspects of cellular materials such as recent results in manufacturing, progress in physical, chemical, and mechanical characterization and new applications. An increasing number of contributions in modeling and simulation has been pointed out, and application-related contributions showed a strong progress in the area of energy management like heat storage and heat transfer. The field of bioengineering, biomaterials, and life science is of increasing importance; chemical and high temperature processes and prototypes in the automotive and aerospace sector with cellular materials play an increasing role in our community. Verena Reschke et al., Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg (Polymer derived ceramic foams with additional strut porosity). Frank Holleyn et al., University of Applied Science, Koblenz (Development of a ceramic filter disc for application in a centrifugal-membrane-filter during wine filtration). Tilo Sieber et al., Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg (Statistical and geometrical characterization of ceramic foam structures for MMCs based on CT investigations). The CELLMAT 2012 Awards for outstanding contributions in the manufacturing/application of cellular materials have been granted to the Alantum Corporation Korea/Germany and to the Pohltec metalfoam GmbH, Germany. Congratulation to all Awardees! A cultural highlight during the conference was a walk through the famous historical sites of the City of Dresden covering famous places like the Frauenkirche, the Goldener Reiter, the Semperoper, and the Dresdener Zwinger, and the conference dinner was celebrated at the famous historical restaurant Sophienkeller. The CELLMAT 2012 would not have been possible without sponsorship from industry and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), the conference office of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Materialkunde e. V. (DGM) and the professional conference organizer “Conventus.” Thus, we would like to express our gratitude to our sponsors who provided for CELLMAT 2012 Awards. We also thank all members of the program committee and the persons in charge from DGM for their support. Finally, we would like to thank all attendees for their contributions and their fruitful discussions! The papers in this issue of Advanced Engineering Materials reflect a small selection of the presentations at CELLMAT 2012. The next CELLMAT conference will be held in Dresden, Germany, in autumn 2014, and we look forward to seeing you there. Günter Stephani Michael Scheffler