The International Materials Institute for New Functionalities in Glass, in association with the Engineering Conferences International, is sponsoring a conference Jan. 6–11, 2013, under the theme of “Functional Glasses: Properties and Applications for Energy and Information” in Siracusa, Sicily, Italy. I note this, in part, because we we given and published some incorrect information about the date in the calendar of events contained in the October–November issue of ACerS’ Bulletin.
To be sure, Sicily sounds to like a great place to be in January, as does Orlando (Electronic Materials and Applications Conference) and Daytona Beach (International Conference and Expo on Advanced Ceramics and Composites), Florida.
But, if advanced glass research and manufacturing is up your alley, you might want to check out the events in Sicily. Himanshu Jain, director of IMI-NFG, told me today that besides presenting cutting-edge research, the event is designed to bridge the research and manufacturing communities. Indeed, a brochure (PDF) on the conference indicates presentations from academic researchers, such as ACerS new president Richard Brow (Missouri Univ. of Science & Technology), Steve Martin (Iowa State Univ.), Satoshi Yoshida (Univ. of Shiga Perfecture) and Mario Affatigato (Coe College), as well as from industrial researchers, such as Mehran Arbab (PPG Glass), Michael Dolezal (3M), Surya Ganti (Qualcomm) and Sean Garner (Corning).
Topics at the conference range from roll-to-roll thin glass to glass strengthening to battery technologies, and there appears to be a lot of focus on coatings, nanostructuring, photonics/lasers and novel fibers.
Jain also mentioned to me that IMI-NFG has several scholarships worth over $1,500 that it can award to US students/postdocs wishing to present a poster at this conference. He says more information and a scholarship application form is available via a special web page. Jain notes that the scholarship application deadline is Nov. 15, 2012.
The IMI-NFG is a collaboration between Lehigh University and Penn State University, established in 2004 as one of several NSF-sponsored International Materials Institutes.