L. David Pye (standing) delivered the keynote address at the opening of the 23rd International Congress on Glass. This picture is from the recent PACRIM–GOMD meeting in San Diego, Calif. Credit: ACerS.
After wrapping up their meeting with the European Ceramic Society (see report from last week), ACerS president Richard Brow and executive director Charlie Spahr reached the next stop on their ceramic and glass ambassadorial trip to Europe—the 23rd International Congress on Glass meeting in Prague, Czech Republic.
The International Congress on Glass series, which is sponsored by the International Commission on Glass (ICG), occurs every three years with annual meetings in between. This year’s ICG 2013 was organized by the Czech Glass Society and the Slovak Glass Society and runs through Friday (July 1–5).
This congress, which expects to welcome more than 700 glass scientists, opened with a keynote address from L. David Pye, past president of ACerS as well as ICG. Also in the opening formalities, Brow accepted the ICG President’s Award from ICG president Peng Shou on behalf of honoree Delbert Day, who was unable to attend.
Titled “Glass and the nanotechnology paradigm,” Pye’s address was very well received, Spahr reports. In a news release from Alfred University, where he is emeritus professor and dean, Pye explains the glass–nanotechnology connection: “Long before nanotechnology became a buzzword, glass scientists were working on microcrack theory, amorphous phase separation, photosensitivity, photonucleation, ligand field theory, controlled crystallization, ion-exchange and resolution of glass theory, all processes that occur at the nano-level. Our understanding of glass at the nanoscale level has led to some remarkable applications in such diverse fields as energy, medicine, photonics, architecture, transportation and communications.”
It’s been a good couple of weeks for Pye, who, as founding editor of the International Journal of Applied Glass Science, received the news last week that the IJAGS’ first impact factor was an impressive 1.548, making it one of John Wiley and Sons’ (ACerS’ publishing partner) strongest new journals. IJAGS also did very well in terms of another metric, the “Immediacy Index,” which is the average number of times an article is cited in the year it is published. JACerS editor David Green provided context in an email: “This is an excellent result tor IJAGS, as a high immediacy index can be seen as a good indicator of future impact factors.”
Brow and Spahr also met with representatives from the Chinese Ceramic Society to discuss intersociety cooperation and the ICG 2016, which will be held in Beijing. Members of ACerS (led by Dick Brow) and Chinese Ceramic Societies led by Peng Shou, along with members of the ICG leadership team met for a lunch facilitated by Manoj Choudary and Fabio Nicoletti (representing ICG) , to foster stronger cooperation between ACerS and CCS.
“Both societies agreed on meeting more often—at least once per year—to support each others’ work, such as the upcoming ICG meeting in Beijing in 2016 and the 2019 meeting in USA, as well as other society activities,” according to Spahr. ACerS representatives will visit China for their Glass Expo in spring 2014 as a start.