The 1st Joint Meeting of DGG – ACerS GOMD took place in Aachen, Germany May 25 – 30, 2014 and included the Glass & Optical Materials Division Annual Meeting (ACerS GOMD) and the 88th Annual Meeting of German Society of Glass Technology (DGG) together with the 10th International Conference on Advances in Fusion and Processing of Glass (AFPG), Glass Trend Seminar and the 2nd International Glass Fiber Symposium and the Symposium on Nuclear Waste Forms – Fundamentals and Application. There were about 670 glass scientists, engineers, students, and technologists there from 33 countries around the world. Reinhard Conradt, conference cochair from DGG, noted with some delight that German attendees comprised a 49 percent minority!
The conference opened Monday morning with formal welcomes from Conradt, GOMD conference cochair Steve Martin, DGG president Hansjürgen Barklage-Hilgefort, and Marcel Philipp, mayor of Aachen. (Philipp was tired but happy, having stayed up late to follow Sunday’s election returns and his re-election victory.)
The opening ceremony included formal presentations of awards including the DGG’s Otto Schott Memorial Medal and Otto Schott Award, as well as the GOMD Stookey award, Morey award, Kreidl award, and Varshneya awards in Frontiers of Glass Science and Frontiers of Glass Technology. The lectures that accompanied the awards were presented as plenaries throughout the week, with the exception of the lecture for the Otto Schott Memorial Medal, which was presented as part of the opening ceremony.
Instead of programming technical sessions, organizers arranged tours of local plants, labs, and educational institutions.