Education & Outreach
Brazil has significant and increasingly important research power in the field of glass and glass-ceramic science, and it is one of our CeRTEV’s principal missions to enhance Brazil’s role in the technological innovation sector and secure its appropriate place in the huge global market of glass and glass-ceramic products.To achieve this, we need to increase significantly the numbers of qualified personnel who is appropriately educated and trained in this area, to replace the current “in-service training” still widely practiced in the Brazilian glass industry. We need to attract more talented students to this field and train them appropriately to become accomplished glass and ceramic scientists. Therefore, we must increase the public awareness of the significance of glasses and glass ceramics in modern society. Because of their special esthetic appeal and their importance in nearly every aspect of everyday life, glasses and glass ceramics are particularly well-suited for attracting public attention and inspiring scientific curiosity. They are also well-suited for demonstration experiments – using inexpensive and non-toxic materials – showing how small alterations in composition and thermal treatment affect their properties. Finally, because of its highly interdisciplinary nature, glass research is well-suited for conveying fundamental scientific concepts to classrooms, at exhibitions and at presentations for the general public.