SGT
Alastair Pilkington
Award
Press Release
Key Points
Rules and Criteria for the Award
Contacts
Press Release
Dated Monday 5th September 2011 at 11.45am
This morning, at its International Conference held at Oxford University, the
Society of Glass Technology announced the inauguration of its Early Career
award intended to promote creativity and excellence in studies related to
glass. In association with the Mushroom Trust, the Society plans to make this award biennially and thereby commemorate the most significant Glass
Technologist of the twentieth century, Sir Alastair Pilkington.
At the Conference Opening ceremony, David Martlew (Chairman of the
Society of Glass Technology’s Board of Fellows) explained why Sir
Alastair was the perfect role model for this award. Within four years of
entering the field of glass studies, Sir Alastair made the invention which
would transform the windows of the world. His revolutionary concept of
forming flat glass by floating on molten metal made perfect window glass
feasable - and affordable. The skylines of today’s cities proclaim the huge
social impact of this quiet engineer’s inventive genius.
Not content with the brainwave, Sir Alastair overcame many obstacles and
by determination, hard work and integrity, brought his concept into
commercial reality, to the benefit of all. He was honoured by the
conferring of the coveted Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1969, and his
service to society was recognised in his knighthood in 1970. Success never
“turned his head”: he remained an unassuming man always willing to help,
encourage and mentor those around him. He led by example, and so earned
the respect of the men who worked for him. President of the Society, Brian McMillan, said that the whole arena of glass
studies needed to promote and develop creative researchers of this calibre.
But not only the hard sciences and engineering aspects. Sir Alastair was
sensitive to beauty in glass and to its long and stunning history as a material.
He encouraged those whose field lay in the archaeology and conservation of
glass, its history and its heritage significance. He played a major part in
developing the Pilkington Glass Museum, and encouraged it to portray not only the glass artefacts but also the glassmaking techniques used in history.
This award is intended to stimulate creativity and determination in any field
of glass studies. It is open to all researchers newly engaging with the study
of glass, irrespective of age, nationality, or field of study. Candidates will
submit three published papers explaining their work, and the award will be
made at an international conference in Europe. Sir Alastair’s daughter, Mrs
Rosalind Christian, was present at the announcement: she declared it to be a
very fitting memorial to her late father.
o The SGT - Alastair Pilkington Award is designed to encourage and recognise excellent
work in glass research achieved by someone who has come into the field of glass studies
relatively recently.
o Sir Alastair Pilkington provides a role model for all in the glass community - young or
mature, established practitioners or folk who have but recently joined the glass field.
o It was his personal qualities which gained Alastair Pilkington a place in the famous glass manufacturing company, not his surname - he was unrelated to the glassmaking family.
o His introduction to working in glass came in 1947 after an arduous period of military service
in war-torn Europe. For several years of that time he had been held prisoner of war in
Crete.
o It was a mere four or so years later that he made the key inventive step associated with his
name, though he always acknowledged the role of his colleague Ken Bickerstaff in this.
o Within a dozen years his creativity, persistence, inventiveness, hard work, and dogged
determination had resulted in the greatest glassmaking invention of the twentieth century -
the Float Process.
o This man was no mere manager - his was the intellectual and academic prowess which
created the idea and then brought it to fulfilment - recognised by the award of Fellow of the
Royal Society in 1969.
o The following year his achievement was nationally recognised when he received the honour
of knighthood.
o In Cambridge they say that if you want to know the man, don’t ask his professor, ask his
“Bedder”. The college servant gets to know the personal qualities which underlie the
academic exterior. Tommy Grundy, foreman in charge of the plant operators during the
development of the Float Process, was one who called a spade a spade - but he always spoke
of Alastair Pilkington the man in terms of utmost respect. Alastair Pilkington worked
alongside his men and earned their allegiance, loyalty and respect.
o In the Board Room, Alastair Pilkington was not to be intimidated. He persuaded money to
come out of the personal pockets of the family members who owned the business - large
sums for seven years - a feat which itself bears witness to his personal qualities and strength
of purpose.
o Sir Anthony Pilkington wrote “Alastair Pilkington encountered numerous setbacks during
his seven years of hard labour. People, he recalls, kept asking him: 'When will you succeed?'
All he could say was: 'We will know the answer to that only when we have succeeded.' The
cost was far higher than anyone had bargained for, and it took considerable courage for the
board of directors to go on supporting him.”
o The glass community needs to encourage folk of this calibre to devote their abilities to
furthering the study of this fascinating material. Hence the idea of an Early Career award,
to be offered biennially to workers who have achieved important results within seven years
of entering the field of glass research.
o Not restricted to hard science or engineering - this award spans all dimensions of glass
studies, creativity and research; the arts as well as the science, conservation and museum
studies as well as engineering, history and design as well as
molecular dynamics.
o In the early nineties, Sir Alastair spoke about the work of the Pilkington Museum, in which
he had a very considerable interest. He was clearly sensitive to the heritage and history
attached to glass, and equally obviously appreciated the beauty capable of being expressed
by glass artefacts. His vision which he expressed with a kind of longing was that the
Pilkington Glass Museum could become culturally as significant at the famous Corning
Museum of Glass
o Inspired by Sir Alastair, this award will we trust be an encouragement for able researchers to make their mark in the diverse fields of glass studies, and also provide a fitting memorial to
an extraordinarily gifted man who changed the way we all think of windows
Rules and Criteria for the Award
In accordance with the Rules of the Society of Glass Technology, the process of judging the
submissions and making a decision about which candidate deserves to be the recipient of the Award
shall be under the aegis of the Society’s Board of Fellows. The Board may form a sub-committee
to consider the entries in detail and make recommendations, to assist the Board in making this
Award. The judgement of the Board of Fellows in making this award is final and non-negotiable. If
in any given year the Board judges that none of the entries is of sufficiently high standard to merit
the Award, then no award will be made that year.
The Rules and Criteria for this Award are:
1. Applications may be from any glass field where publication in refereed journals is the norm,
including glass science, technology, history, archæometry, conservation, design, museology,&c.
2. There is no absolute age limit, but under normal circumstances it is expected that applicants
are under 40 years of age (this allows those who come into the glass field later in life to
compete). Candidates must demonstrate that they have been employed in the glass field
(industry, laboratory, research institute, university, &c.) for no longer than 7 years following
training.
3. Each applicant must provide the names, addresses and contact details (telephone numbers
and e-mail address) of three referees.
4. Each applicant is restricted to submitting a MAXIMUM of THREE papers, on which the
applicant should normally be listed as the SOLE or FIRST-NAMED AUTHOR, or be
DEMONSTRABLY THE PRIMARY AUTHOR; that is to say the author should submit his
or her three best papers in terms of quality and of substantial personal contribution.
5. The papers MUST be in English and be sufficiently well expressed to be readily
understandable.
6. Each paper MUST have been refereed before publication
7. Each paper shall be submitted electronically as a file in pdf format corresponding to the final
printed version in the journal concerned.
8. Each paper MUST be accompanied by a statement clearly
defining the applicant’s contribution. (This is especially important if the applicant is not the
first author.) The applicant must understand that the SGT reserves the right to contact the
other authors of a paper to verify such statements.
9. The papers submitted MUST all have been published within a period not exceeding 5 years.
10. Any given applicant shall be limited to a maximum of 3 attempts as a candidate for this
award.
11. In making a submission for this award, each candidate accepts these rules and agrees to be
bound by them.
Further details may be found on the Society of Glass Technology website at
www.sgt.org
Contacts:
Professor Adrian Wright: <A.C.Wright@reading.ac.uk>
Dr David Martlew: <David.Martlew@gmail.com>
Mr Brian MacMillan: <bmcmillan@allied-glass.com
Issued by the Society of Glass Technology, 9 Churchill Way, Chapeltown, Sheffield S35 2PY
phone 01 142 63 44 55