The Society of Glass Technology (SGT) has appointed Angela Seddon as President.

Professor Seddon is the SGT’s 59th President and succeeds Dr Arun Varshneya, who held the position between 2022 and 2025.

She was elected President at the SGT’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) in May.

Prof Seddon said she was honoured to take up the SGT Presidency, and thanked Dr Varshneya for recommending her.

She added that she would work towards the continued success of the SGT.

She aims to widen the reach of the organisation to her Japanese colleagues and their networks, and beyond, and to promote glass science and technology to early-stage engineers and scientists alike.

Prof Seddon began her career as a British Telecom Research Fellow developing new mid-infrared fibreoptics in the Department of Materials at the University of Sheffield, England, UK.

Within the year, 1984, Prof Seddon was awarded a 'New Blood' Lectureship in Glass Fibreoptics at Sheffield.

She was the first female academic appointment since the Department of Glass Technology’s inception in 1937.

Prof Seddon joined the Society for Glass Technology in 1984 and was appointed Fellow in 1993.

In 2000, she became the first female professor in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Nottingham.

She now leads the Mid-Infrared Photonics Group with facilities for fabricating mid-infrared chalcogenide glass fibreoptics.

Her research vision is to create a new paradigm in real-time mid-infrared endoscopy for early cancer diagnosis, based on chalcogenide glass fibre-optics.

Towards this aim, her research group has made record transparency chalcogenide glass optical fibre for the mid-infrared, and the first mid-infrared fibre lasers operating beyond 4 microns wavelength globally.

One is now a commercially available product called Aurora Nordic Brand Light Solutions (NORBLIS).

Prof Seddon is the author of over 300 publications and eight book chapters, and has delivered over 100 invited lectures.

This includes the SGT WES Turner Memorial Lecture at the University of Sheffield in 2022.

She is also elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, and Fellow of the Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) for distinguished and valuable contributions to the field of optics and photonics using glass fibre-optics.

In 2020, Prof Seddon also became an elected Trustee of the Royal Institution in London.