Welcome to the Glass Age

220 Prof. Lothar Wondraczek Lothar Wondraczek obtained his Ph.D with Honors from Clausthal University of Technology (Germany) in 2003, studying mid-infrared sensing of pollutants in industrial glass melting furnaces. After that, he joined Corning’s European Technology Center in Avon, France, as a Senior Scientist. In 2008, he was one of the youngest German scientists to obtain a permanent professor position in the engineering sciences (Materials Science) at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. On his return to Germany, he started building-up what became a vibrant group of about 30 scientists, working on the broader area of glass science. In 2012, together with his group, he moved from Erlangen to Jena where he now holds the Chair of Glass Chemistry, a position unique in Germany. He has also been director of the Otto Schott Institute of Materials Research since 2016, and is a founding member of the board of Jena’s Center of Energy and Environmental Chemistry. His research covers experimental glass science with a focus on the optical and mechanical properties of non-crystalline solids, aiming to bridge traditional borders between the different classes of materials. He has received several national and international research awards, among them the Weyl, Dietzel, Zachariasen and Gottardi awards for research on glassy materials, and ERC Consolidator and Proof-of-Concept grants in 2016 and 2021. He has also been leading various multi-laboratory research efforts, for example, a priority program of the German Science Foundation aiming to develop “Ultrastrong glasses”, several international research and innovation actions sponsored by the European Commission, or, most recently, a focus action on stimulus-responsive materials supported through the Breakthrough- program of the Carl Zeiss Foundation. In 2022, he will serve as the program chair of the ICG’s International Congress on Glass, to be held in Berlin, Germany. Wondraczek has also been a long-term chair of ICG’s technical committee on glass mechanics.