ChEMS Seminar: THE GLASS OF WINE, an Intersection of Two Industries

Abstract: A career spent focusing on glass science at UC Davis, which is also home to the premier wine science program in America, has led to a simple observation: wine is a rare beverage that is still predominantly stored, shipped and consumed in glass. Once produced through fermentation typically in wooden barrels or stainless steel or concrete vats, wine is transferred to glass bottles for further aging, storage and shipping to the consumer who will then likely enjoy the wine in glass stemware. Strongly tannic wines might be aerated in glass decanters before drinking to “soften” them. While today beer may be commonly found in aluminum cans, soft drinks in both aluminum cans and polymer bottles, and milk in polyethylene-coated cardboard cartons, wine typically sees only a glass surface over its entire journey from the winery to our lips.

The intersection of two multibillion dollar industries (glass and wine) is the subject of a new book, The Glass of Wine, by J.F. and P.L. Shackelford, published by Wiley in conjunction with the American Ceramic Society. This seminar will review the historical intertwining of glass and wine along with discussions of the culture and tradition of glass bottle and stemware designs. Such discussions lead to issues of sustainability that further raise questions about the continuing dominance of glass as the material of choice for this popular beverage.

Bio: James F. Shackelford has bachelor's and master's degrees in ceramic engineering from the University of Washington and a doctorate in materials science and engineering from UC Berkeley. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at McMaster University in Canada, he joined UC Davis, where he is currently Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. For many years, he served as the associate dean for undergraduate studies in the College of Engineering and later as the director of the university Honors Program that serves students from a wide spectrum of majors. Shackelford also served as associate director for education for the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Center for Biophotonics Science and Technology and as faculty assistant to the director of the McClellan Nuclear Research Center at UC Davis. He teaches and conducts research in the structural characterization and processing of materials, focusing on glasses and biomaterials. His current focus in teaching is doing so through online technologies. A member of the American Ceramic Society and ASM International, he was named a fellow of the American Ceramic Society in 1992, a fellow of ASM International in 2011, and received the Outstanding Educator Award of the American Ceramic Society in 1996. In 2003, he received a Distinguished Teaching Award from the Academic Senate of UC Davis. In 2012, he received the Outstanding Teaching Award of the College of Engineering at UC Davis, and in 2014, he received an Outstanding Service Award from UC Davis Extension. In 2016, Shackelford accepted the inaugural Award for Outstanding Contributions to Materials Education at the North American Materials Education Symposium held at UC Berkeley. He has published well over 100 archived papers and books including Introduction to Materials Science for Engineers now in its 8th Edition and which has been translated into Chinese, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish and the CRC Materials Science and Engineering Handbook now in its 4th Edition.

Host: Julie Schoenung