Arun Varshneya_125x148Arun K. Varshneya is Professor of Glass Science & Engineering, Emeritus at Alfred University, Alfred NY and the President of Saxon Glass Technologies.

Born in India, he completed his first bachelor’s degree at Agra University, then went to Sheffield University to pursue glass technology. He secured his MS and PhD under the advisorship of the late Professor Al Cooper of Case Western Reserve University. Following 12 years of industrial experience at Ford Scientific Labs and GE Lighting, he joined Alfred faculty in 1982 and retired recently. As a teacher, he taught nearly all of the glass science and technology courses at Alfred including the engineering capstone that highlighted business basics for engineers. He is widely known internationally for his solo-authored textbook on glass entitled, “Fundamentals of Inorganic Glasses.”  He has over 140 research publications and eight patents, and is an invited author of the 13-page “Industrial Glass” entry in Encyclopedia Britannica. His entrepreneurial business “Saxon Glass Technologies, Inc.” delivers glass chemical strengthening service for pharmaceutical and personal mobile communication device applications; the most recognized being the strengthened glass cartridge for the EpiPen.

Arun chaired the Glass Division in 1986 and was the 2008-2010 Treasurer of the Society. He is a 1982 Fellow of the Society and a 1999 Fellow of the UK Society of Glass Technology. In 2007, he received the “President’s Award” for outstanding lifetime contributions to the glass profession by the International Commission on Glass. He delivered the Cooper Award Lecture in 2012 and in April this year, he received the Toledo Glass & Ceramics Award.

Arun and his wife Darshana and their three daughters, Pooja, Kajal and Rupal, have endowed the annual “Darshana and Arun Varshneya Frontiers of Glass” lectures at the Society.

A Festschrift in Varshneya’s honor took place at the 25th International Congress on Glass, June 9–14, 2019, in Boston, Mass. Read the Festschrift in PDF and e-book formats.

PDF     e-book