Lehigh University of Bethlehem, Pa., has received a five-year, $3.25 million grant from the National Science Foundation of Arlington, Va., to establish a center for glass research.

The International Materials Institute for New Functionality in Glasses will sponsor research into areas such as functional coatings; glasses engineered for strength; ionic, optical and biological functionality; and glassy metamaterials, including novel glasses and nanocomposites. Applications include micro- and nanolens arrays, 3-D information storage, optical sensors and displays, and glass for DNA analysis.

Lehigh will contribute additional funds to the institute, which represents a collaborative effort between Lehigh and Pennsylvania State University. Institute director Himanshu Jain has studied glass for 25 years, working with researchers in Germany, Greece, India, the UK and the Czech Republic.