Glazed new world

In-Depth

Global collaboration into glass technology is opening up new areas of application and aims to make the material a fashionable area of research.

One material that can be found sitting quietly and unremarked across the spectrum of engineering achievement is glass.

Glass technology has its roots in ancient history and in its simplest form has become an essential part of daily life.

Glass may be taken for granted but it is far more than a kind of ‘enabling’ technology. It has many unique properties, which over the past 20 years have been developed and coaxed forward by researchers across the globe.

In the US and UK that research is beginning to bear fruit and has created a window on a new world of applications. The US in particular has recently put a significant amount of money into glass research. The International Materials Institute (IMI) for New Functionality in Glass, a collaboration between Lehigh and Penn State Universities, is to receive $3.25m (£1.8m) from the National Science Foundation over the next five years.

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