Himanshu Jain: A lifetime of impact in glass science research

Himanshu Jain, Lehigh University’s T.L. Diamond Distinguished Chair in Engineering and Applied Science and Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, has been named as the winner of the 2020 N.F Mott Award, among the most prestigious in the field of glass science.

The award, sponsored by the highly regarded Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids (JNCS), is granted once every two years to a senior scientist who has provided extensive and impactful contributions to glass science–or, more formally, the science of non-crystalline solids–over the course of a career in research.

According to the award citation, “Professor Himanshu Jain has contributed extensively to understanding the electrical properties of glasses, chalcogenide glasses, bioactive glasses, and laser-induced crystallization. He stands among the twenty most prolific researchers of the glass community and is also one of the five most active authors of the JNCS.”

Recently, Jain has served as a founding director of Lehigh’s Institute for Functional Materials and Devices (I-FMD), which pursues innovative new materials and devices that underpin many of society’s greatest challenges, from detecting and treating disease, to implementing large-scale renewable energy sources, to securing food and fresh water for all. I-FMD brings together Lehigh’s interdisciplinary expertise in the synthesis, fabrication, processing, and materials characterization as applied to sensors, actuators, and other devices that have critical functionality across mechanical, electronic, photonic, and chemical domains.

The award, named after Nobel laureate Sir Nevill Francis Mott (1905-1996), was virtually presented to Jain in late September by the editors and publisher of the Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids.

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About Himanshu Jain

Dr. Jain is the author of 12 patents and more than 390 research publications, and editor or author of 10 books or special journal issues on glass science and technology. Over the past three decades he has focused on introducing new functionality and novel processing of glass through fundamentals, and making glass education available worldwide freely. Among other significant recognition, Jain is a recipient of the Otto Schott Research international prize for his ‘jellyfish’ model of atomic fluctuations in glass, the Zachariasen international award for his discovery of isotope mass effect in lithium transport in glass, and the American Ceramic Society’s Varshneya Frontiers of Glass Science Award and its George W. Morey Award. Professor Jain has been supported by a Fulbright Fellowship for lecturing and research at Cambridge and Aberdeen universities in UK, as well as a Humboldt Fellowship for research in Germany. He is also a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society.

Related Links:

• Rossin College Faculty Profile: Himanshu Jain
• Lehigh University: Institute for Functional Materials and Devices
• Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids: N.F. Mott Award