UMR Ph.D. students receive research awards

Posted by
On October 24, 2003

Two UMR Ph.D. students each received research awards from the Glass and Optical Materials Division of the American Ceramic Society (ACerS) during a conference held Oct. 12-15 in Corning, N.Y.

Nate Lower, a Ph.D. student in ceramic engineering at the UMR, is working on his project.

Nathan Lower of Parnell, Iowa, a Ph.D. student in ceramic engineering, placed second in the student research poster contest for his research project, "Inert Failure Studies of Silicate Glass Fibers." Lower described the effects of glass composition on the failure characteristics of the fibers. He has developed a technique to produce glass fibers that are "flaw-free," and has found that common commercial glass may be more than one and a half times stronger than previously thought.

Brad Tischendorf of Green Bay, Wis., a Ph.D. student in ceramic engineering, placed third in the student poster contest for his research project, "Aqueous Corrosion of Phosphate Glasses." Tischendorf is researching the corrosion behavior of phosphate laser glasses, which is the same type of glass used in the world’s largest laser at the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He is working to understand how chemical reactions occur and how glass composition could be changed to make them more resistant to ambient conditions.

For the student poster contest, students displayed and explained their research project to judges from industry and national laboratories.

Share this page

Posted by

On October 24, 2003. Posted in News