The 2019-20 Bridges Lecture Series presents The Glass Problem: Changing and Challenging Material Definitions. Despite thousands of years of history, glass still challenges our perceptions and definitions. Drs. Patrick Charbonneau and Katherine Larson tackle “the glass problem”, to explore and understand the mutable properties of a material which is, by definition, disorderly.
When man-made glass was invented more than 3,500 years ago, it was closely related to precious stones aesthetically, linguistically, and functionally. Gradually, people began to recognize and exploit the unique properties of glass. This ancient exploration helped stimulate the discovery of glass blowing and the widespread adoption of glass in daily life in the 1st century BCE. This phenomenological evolution, in which glass came to be recognized as a distinct class of materials with its own essential characteristics, eventually resulted in the development of the optical-quality glasses which enabled the Scientific Revolution, as well as the glass screens and fiber optic cables which power our contemporary Information Age.
Speakers
Patrick Charbonneau
Discipline: Chemical Physics
Patrick Charbonneau received a PhD in chemical physics from Harvard University and was then a Marie-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at FOM-Amolf in the Netherlands, before joining Duke University in 2008, where he is currently Associate Professor of Chemistry and Physics. An expert in numerical simulation and theory, Charbonneau studies the assembly of various colloidal and molecular systems, protein aggregation, as well as the glass problem.
Katherine Larson
Discipline: Art, History, Archaeology
Katherine Larson is Assistant Curator of Ancient and Islamic Glass at the Corning Museum of Glass. Larson’s research focuses on ancient glass technologies and changing practices of glass production and consumption over time. She serves as a glass specialist for archaeological excavations in Israel, Greece, and Turkey. Larson holds a Ph.D. in classical art and archaeology from the University of Michigan.
Bridges is sponsored by St. Jerome's University; University of Waterloo, Faculty of Arts; University of Waterloo, Faculty of Mathematics; University of Waterloo, Faculty of Science