The glass society International Commission on Glass (ICG) has elected Prof Alicia Durán as its newest president.

Alicia Durán was elected as the new ICG president for 2018 - 2021 at it’s meeting in Yokohama, Japan.

Prof Durán is a Research Professor of the Institute of Ceramics and Glass (CSIC), the Spanish Research Council and has a PhD in Physics.

It is the first time that Spain has accessed this role in its 85 years, and Prof Durán is the second woman to be awarded the role among the 25 presidents of the association.

Her new objectives will include: the promotion of Education through the ICG Summer School, the ICG Winter School, and a new ICG North America School; the continuing support for the initiative on Young Scientists and Technologists, and the reinforcement and promotion of the activities of the Technical Committees, accepted as the backbone of the ICG. She will also promote the ICG2030 project as the tool to adapt the structure of the association to the new challenges of the world of glass and develop a new initiative for the Promotion of Women in the field of glass and in the ICG.

The ICG meeting took place on the 25th September 2018.

Prof Durán is the leader of the glass research group in the Department of Glass. She has also been Secretary of the Glass Section of the Spanish Ceramic and Glass Society for more than 25 years.

In 1988, she received the Gottardi Award dedicated to the promotion of young researchers in glass. Soon after, she assumed the scientific secretariat of the 16th International Congress on Glass held in Madrid in 1992.

She has participated in the association’s Technical Committee on Education (TC23) for more than 20 years. She is also part of the Editorial Board and has published several books on the history of the ICG, three editions of ‘Making Glass Better’ and ‘Teaching Glass Better’.

In 2002, Prof Durán was appointed as Honorary Treasurer, which involved moving the ICG headquarters to Madrid. She took on the role until 2015, when she was elected as Vice-President.

Pictured: ICG Ex-presidents with the new president Alicia Duran (right)