Alfred University alumna wins prestigious glass science award

ALFRED, NY – Alfred University alumna Jennifer Hunt, who earned a master’s degree in materials science and engineering in spring of 2022, has been named recipient of the prestigious Oldfield Award, presented annually by the Society of Glass Technology in recognition of students’ theses and research projects.

The Oldfield Award honors excellence in students’ undergraduate project theses and taught master’s theses. It is open to students in the United Kingdom—where the Society of Glass Technology is based—and international students from around the globe.

Hunt was presented with the overall first prize. It marks the second straight year an Alfred University alumnus has won the top honor in the Oldfield Award competition. In 2021, Brian Topper, who earned a master’s degree in materials science and engineering in December 2020, was awarded first prize.

Hunt’s master’s thesis—On the structure of lithium and strontium borate glasses modified with yttrium and rare-earth cations investigated by vibrational spectroscopy—compared the structure (using IR and Raman spectroscopy) and properties for a series magnesium- and barium-alumosilicate glasses. It found that the field strength of Mg2+ and Ba2+ is very different and that has a significant impact on the coordination of aluminum and the connectivity of the glass network and also on the properties of the glass. Hunt was supervised in her thesis by Doris Möncke, associate professor of glass science in Alfred University’s Inamori School of Engineering.

Hunt, who has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Mansfield University, earned her master’s degree at Alfred University while working full-time at Corning Incorporated, where she is an optics scientist.