, 2010, at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China.
In the fall of 2008, Jain and Pantano co-taught a short course on glass to 15 students at Tuskegee University, a historically black school in Alabama that has now joined IMI-NFG as a partner school. The institute has also formed a collaboration with Arizona State University, which is funding an inner-city program for students. And it conducts hands-on demonstrations and other educational programs at the Da Vinci Science Center, a local science museum.
The IMI-NFG is guided by an industry board of advisers that includes representatives from the world’s six largest glass companies—Corning and PPG Industries Inc. (U.S.), Schott (Germany), Saint Gobain (France), and Asahi Glass and Nippon Glass (Japan)—as well as the Glass Manufacturing Industry Council (GMIC).
An international board of advisers contains members from Brazil, China, Egypt, France, India, Japan, Portugal and the United Kingdom. A U.S. board of advisers includes representatives of eight U.S. universities in addition to Lehigh, Penn State and Tuskegee.
The IMI-NFG’s outreach programs and the scientific exchanges, says Jain, are aimed in part at boosting the number of people choosing to pursue careers in science and engineering, especially glass science and technology. In the last few decades, he says, glass research has become "fragmented" as industrial labs have shut down and funding has shifted to nanotechnology and bioscience. As a result, no single school can boast a strong roster of glass experts or a a wide array of courses in glass science.
"Our web-based courses represent an effort to overcome the fragmentation of glass education," says Jain, who has studied glass for more than a quarter-century while collaborating with peers in Europe, Africa, Asia and South America. "Fifty to 60 students typically enroll in these courses. Our goal is to globalize the idea so that students around the world can enroll."
Story by Kurt Pfitzer
Posted on Friday, October 09, 2009