{"id":127600,"date":"2022-04-05T08:00:53","date_gmt":"2022-04-05T12:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=127600"},"modified":"2025-06-17T14:42:01","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T18:42:01","slug":"ucf-helps-world-recognize-glass-is-vital-to-art-and-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-helps-world-recognize-glass-is-vital-to-art-and-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF Helps World Recognize Glass is Vital to Art and Technology"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United Nation\u2019s Year of Glass kicks off its United States celebrations today (April 5) with a host of activities at our nation\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n

The American Ceramic Society organized the Year of Glass Conference, which runs April 5-7. UCF College of Optics and Photonics Professor Kathleen Richardson, who helped lobby and plan events for the international kickoff in Switzerland in February<\/a>, chaired the group that planned the Washington, D.C. conference.<\/p>\n

The event brings together heavyweights in private industry, such as the CEO of Corning, Inc, with academic institutions, such as UCF and MIT, government agencies, such as Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the U.S. National Science Foundation, as well as artists like Dale and Leslie Chihuly, known for their beautiful glass sculptures. The goal is to showcase and educate the community about the important role glass plays in the world.<\/p>\n

The U.N. has designated International Years since 1959 to highlight industries, concepts or ideals that promote its objectives. The proposal for the year of glass was led by the International Commission on Glass, an international association of scientists and technologists, research centers, universities, and companies working to promote technical understanding and cooperation in the field of glass. Yearlong activities are planned to celebrate and to showcase the technical, economic, cultural and artistic impact of glass.<\/p>\n

While glass is often thought of in artistic ways, it has applications critical to advancing technology. For example, today glass provides the optical fiber backbone of the internet and phone communications, energy efficient windows, lenses for cameras, electronic device displays, wound healing treatments, and much more.<\/p>\n