Glass: The Science of a Shape Shifting Solid
Taught by Dr. Glen Cook
Dr. Glen Cook is the Chief Scientist at The Corning Museum of Glass (CMoG) in Corning, NY, where he is responsible for researching and sharing scientific and technical topics about glass. He informs exhibitions, programs and publications, and also serves as a technical resource for the broader museum community, museum guests and the general public, as well as artists working in glass today. Prior to coming to CMoG, Dr. Cook worked for 17 years as a research scientist for Corning Incorporated, where he made fundamental contributions to the process for making glass for LCD displays, monitors, and hand-held devices, and is named inventor on over 30 patents and applications. Dr. Cook holds a PhD and MS in metallurgical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a BS in materials engineering from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.
The power of glass to assume myriad roles in culture, art, and technology has roots in glass’s fundamental chemistry and physics.
These concepts can be taught via analogies to everyday situations to help us understand the science and to more deeply appreciate its wonders, as well as assist artists to work glass more confidently.
In this lecture, Dr. Cook will describe how, over 35 centuries, we’ve harnessed extreme temperatures to transform humble rocks into masterpieces of color, clarity, and form, and into the high tech devices that surround us.
Some of the questions we'll explore include:
- What is glass – solid or liquid: what we know now; dispelling myths and misconceptions ·
- Why does it look “like that” – clear, colored, translucent, opalescent
- What does it take to change its shape – The sciences of glass flow and fracture
