Pioneers in Hybrid Glass Research

The development of MOF glasses

The 2025 Dalton Horizon Prize has been awarded for the discovery and development of hybrid glasses, a new family of glasses separate to known inorganic, organic and metallic families.

Hybrid glasses contain both inorganic and organic parts. They are a new category of glass, exterior to known inorganic, organic and metallic categories, and the first found since the 1970s. Applications in photonics, energy generation, gas separations, displays and memory storage may be possible.

"It is the first new chemical family of glasses formed since metallic glasses in the 1970s. The combination of organic and inorganic species within the same glass material will hopefully not only enable applications of metal-organic frameworks, but also open up new applications for glass science," said Professor Thomas Bennett.

The pioneers in this field of glasses are:

Prof. Thomas Douglas Bennett, Professor / ahorangi, School of Physical and Chemical Sciences | Te Kura Matū, University of Canterbury | Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha, New Zealand |Aotearoa

Prof. Frédéric Blanc, Professor, University of Liverpool, UK

Prof. François-Xavier Coudert, Directeur de recherche, Chimie ParisTech, PSL University, CNRS, Institut de Recherche de Chimie Paris, France

Dr. Mathew Cowan, Senior Lecturer, MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology & University of Canterbury, New Zealand

Prof. Sian Dutton, Professor, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

Prof. Pierre Florian, Professor, CNRS, CEMHTI UPR3079, Université d'Orléans, France

Prof. Sebastian Henke, Professor, Technische Universität Dortmund, Germany

Prof. Satoshi Horike, Professor, Kyoto University, Japan & Vidyasirimedhi Institute of Science and Technology, Thailand

Assoc. Prof. Jingwei Hou, Associate Professor, The University of Queensland, Australia

Prof. Kim Jelfs, Professor, Imperial College London

Prof. David A. Keen, Professor, ISIS Facility, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK

Prof. Shichun Li, Professor, Institute of Chemical Materials, China Academy of Engineering Physics, Mianyang, China

Prof. John Mauro FSGT, Professor, The Pennsylvania State University United States

Prof. Sanjog Nagarkar, Professor, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay

Prof. Morten Mattrup Smedskjær (above, left), Professor, Aalborg University, Denmark

Prof. Shane Telfer, Professor, MacDiarmid Institute of Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology & Massey University, New Zealand

Prof. Lothar Wondraczek, Professor, Otto Schott Institute of Materials Research & Center for Energy and Environmental Chemistry (CEEC Jena), University of Jena, Germany

Prof. Yuanzheng Yue FSGT (above, right), Professor, Aalborg University, Denmark