International Year of Glass includes Thursday’s Bergren Forum: "The history of glass science and technology"

In keeping with the United Nations’ declaration of 2022 as The International Year of Glass, Alfred University began its 2022 Bergren Forum series with a lecture by Doris Möncke, Associate Professor of Glass Science and Engineering, that provided a 45-minute overview of the history of glass.

Möncke traced the development from glass from its apparent beginnings in the Mesopotamian region in the fourth century BCE to its modern uses in everyday life.

“We have glass in all aspects of our lives,” she said during Thursday’s Bergren Forum. “It touches every aspect of our lives.”

Early discoveries of naturally occurring glass – obsidian – took advantage of its propensity for forming sharp edges. Glassmaking as a craft and art developed as artisans identified the raw materials, including sand, that could be baked into glass. Useful, and beautiful, glass bowls were created by wrapping strands of semi-molten, ductile glass around a clay mold, then scraping out the clay interior. Glass blowing, using hollow iron pipes, revolutionized the glass-making process. New recipes for glass developed in the mid-18th century and paved the way for the numerous technological applications of different glasses in the modern age.

Locally, in 1900, the New York Legislature approved formation of “a State School of Clay-Working and Ceramics" at Alfred University, which would develop into the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Today, Alfred University is the only educational institution in the U.S. that offers the BS, MS and Phd in glass engineering.

The University’s School of Art and Design and Inamori School of Engineering are planning numerous programs celebrating glass craft, art and technology as the International Year of Glass continues.