The ICG 2018 Conference in Yokohama, Japan had the theme of Innovations in Glass and Glass Technologies.
A total of 588 delegates from 29 countries attended the four-day event held at the end of September.
The ICG Conference was run in conjunction with the 59th Meeting on Glass and Photonic Materials together with the 14th Symposium of the Glass Industry Conference of Japan.
The first morning included two Plenary talks. Prof Akio Makashima spoke on the subject ‘Scientifically really important or Technologically really important?’ while Takuya Shimamura of AGC Inc., Japan spoke on ‘The Past, Present and Future of Japan’s Glass Industry – Its contribution to our Sustainable Society.’
The opening session was concluded by a talk from the winner of last year’s Gottardi Award, Dr Ashutosh Goel, of Rutgers University. This year’s winner, Prof Shifeng Zhou of South China University of Technology, was unable to attend.
They were followed in turn by some 200 oral and 100 poster presentations.
The conference theme defined during the opening ceremony was further developed by four keynote speakers.
For the main programme, 60 invited speakers spoke on one of six sub-themes: Glass Production Technology; Radioactive Waste; Glasses for Photonic Technologies; Electric and Magnetic Functions; Crystallisation and Glass Ceramics and Atomistic Views of Glass.
A feature of the conference was its focus on young people. Every lunch time a room was set aside for a talk and to link students to available mentors.
The short talk by a different younger glass technologist each day gave a feel for available career paths and how to approach job hunting. Students then gathered in groups around an allocated table to discuss their thoughts and questions at a more personal level with an allocated mentor.
Of the delegates 376 were from Japan with 29 from China. Germany and the USA were close behind with 24 delegates each. A further 95 came from 17 European countries and 30 from other Asian countries while six were from Russia and four from Brazil.
ICG also held meetings of several of its committees and at the Council Meeting Prof Alicia Duran was elected as its 25th President. The previous incumbent, Prof Manoj Choudhary, had completed his term of office.
The final act of the conference was for the representatives of the American Ceramic Society to issue an invitation to all those present to participate in the 25th triennial ICG Congress in Boston, USA, from 9-14th June 2019.
Pictured ICG presidents past and present attended the conference
