Del Day is receiving the 2010 Phoenix Award Glass for his
development of
radioactive glass microspheres.

Delbert Day, a past president of ACerS, will be given the 2010 Phoenix Award as “Glass Person of the Year,” the glass industry’s top honor. The Phoenix Award is given annually to a living person who has made outstanding contributions to the glass industry.

Day will be presented with the award Friday, Sept. 17, during a banquet in his honor in St. Louis.

Day played a pivotal role in developing radioactive glass microspheres that are being used at more than 100 sites around the world to treat patients with inoperable liver cancer. Day was also instrumental in forming Mo-Sci Corp. in Rolla, Mo. The company was formed to manufacture glass microspheres and other glass products used in the health care industry.

The company was founded in 1985, and found much success in using a different type of glass microspheres to deliver tiny amounts of strong radiation in cancer treatment. Mo-Sci’s sphere have been particularly successful in the treatment of cancerous liver tumors where the spheres can be targeted fairly precisely to deliver radiation – and have the secondary benefit of blocking the blood supply to tumors.

Mo-Sci has worked with medical institutions, such as the Cleveland Clinic and the Georgia Institute of Technology’s medical school.

An interview with Day discussing the microspheres can be viewed here.

Day holds 53 U.S. and foreign patents. The first U.S. glass melting experiments in microgravity (conducted aboard a NASA space shuttle) were directed by him. He is also a co-inventor of Glasphalt, a method to use recycled glass as part of the aggregate in asphalt in place of rock.

Day is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and professor emeritus of materials science and engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology

The Phoenix Award was established in 1971 by companies serving the glass industry for the purpose of recognizing individuals who have made significant contributions in the fields of science, manufacturing or education. Day is only the third person from academia to be honored with the award.

To read past stories on Mo-Sci and Day’s work, visit these posts below:

Mo-Sci licenses SRNL’s porous, drug delivering microballoons

Video of the week – Del Day on treating cancer with glass microspheres

Bulletin story on porous glass microspheres

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