Scott Cooper

The beauty of ceramic and glass art captivated Dr. Scott Cooper’s imagination before he graduated high school. While he was an undergraduate in materials science at the University of Arizona, his projects continually led back to glass. Scott majored in German in parallel to his technical studies and in 2006 was selected to conduct an internship in Germany, where he worked as a lab technician at the specialty glass company Schott AG. Larry Hench convinced him to pursue a graduate degree at the University of Florida studying bioactive glasses – which is exactly what he did! Scott was awarded an NSF Graduate Fellowship to research sol-gel bioactive glass for drug delivery and graduated with a PhD in 2011. After graduation, he began as a scientist at O-I, the world’s largest manufacturer of glass containers. His work at O-I focused on novel approaches to melting and manufacturing glass, for which he earned 13 US patents. In 2017, he began leading the Global Glass & Materials Science team at O-I – with responsibility for laboratories, glass properties, melting R&D, and manufacturing worldwide. Scott has been a board member of the Glass Manufacturing Industry Council since 2019 and has served two terms as president.

Today, Scott is Technical Director of the US office for Celsian, whose mission is to “be a partner in future-proof glass”. As a vocal advocate for the glass industry’s transformation to a sustainable future, Scott believes that a vibrant glass industry is vital to a well-functioning society. When Scott and his wife are not raising two boys, he enjoys traveling and collaborating with glass artists.