Lehigh Professor Wins Top Prize for Glass Science

Himanshu Jain, who first compared the movements of atoms in glass to the wiggling of jellyfish in water, received the top prize for glass research this month. Jain, director of the International Materials Institute for New Functionalities in Glass (IMI) at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., received the Otto Schott Research Award July 2 at the International Congress on Glass in Strasbourg, France. The biennial award, with its cash prize of €25,000 (approximately $34,400), is the most valuable prize for glass research. Jain, a professor of materials science and engineering at Lehigh, was cited for "outstanding work towards advancing fundamental understanding of the movements of atoms inside glass." Jain's jellyfish model, developed from his work in the US and Germany and validated in computer simulations, has applications in cell phones, satellites and other devices that contain glass and rely on microwave frequencies, he said. The Donors’ Association for the Promotion of Science in Germany, which administers the Schott award, also noted Jain’s research into unique light-induced phenomena in glass, his studies of the corrosion of glass in nuclear environments, and his work with sensors, infrared optics, waveguides, photolithography, nanolithography and other photonic applications of glass. Jain shares the award with professor Walter Kob of the University of Montpellier in France.