Warren Wolf – a distinguished career

Warren Wolf has over 40 years of glass experience and is still going strong, despite having retired five years ago. He gives us an insight into what drives his continuing enthusiasm

Warren Wolf has a long and distinguished career in glass. He retired from Owens Corning in 2001 after a career spanning 33 years with them, for which he received a lifetime achievement award. He holds 15 patents in the areas of glass fibre process and composition, and has been instrumental in establishing, through many years of research, that glass fibres are not harmful to human health if inhaled into lung tissue; he continues to chair a Technical Committee of the International Commission on Glass on the biosolubility of glass fibres.

Warren has been a consultant for the US Department of Energy and the Glass Manufacturing Industry Council, where he is an Emeritus member. He was recently president of the American Ceramic Society and serves on advisory boards at three US universities. He has served as the president of the National Institute of Ceramic Engineers in the USA and is also a member of the International Commission on Glass. And in 2006 Wolf received the Phoenix Award, which is given to one individual each year for their achievements and contributions to the international glass industry.

Origins

Warren was born in 1941 in Oakdale, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh in the USA and grew up in Avella. After taking a scholarship from the Ceramics Department at The Pennsylvania State University, he stayed involved in glass and decided to make it his career.

After working for the Ferro Corporation for a couple of years, then taking a break to gain his PhD, Warren worked from 1968-2001 in a number of positions for Owens Corning, including Senior Research Scientist, Manager of Glass R&D, R&D Director and VP of R&D, and then Chief Scientist until his retirement.

Warren´s professional influences include Dr Henry Blau, who taught glass science and engineering when he was at The Ohio State University. "His perception of understanding basics and getting your hands dirty in the real world of glassmaking was exceptional," Warren recalls, "and influenced how I tried to approach work in the glass field."

Dr Guy Rindone at Penn State University persuaded him to go into the glass field and Dr Fay Tooley, who was the first winner of the Phoenix Award, was also an influence. "Fay taught me a lot about views on life as well as on glass technology," Warren says.

Family support

Warren´s first wife, Ruth, died in 2001 and in 2004 he remarried to Linda. He has seven children from his extended family, as well as five step-children. "My family support me by just being there when I need them, and also making me feel good when I get asked for advice," Warren laughs.

His advice to his children was to follow their desires, and he is obviously proud of all of them. "One is a PhD in Communications, two have masters in environmental science and human development, and another has two degrees in music theory and computer science," he says.

"A fifth has a degree related to computer science and although two dropped out of college, one is a successful entrepreneur and the other has a very successful career in animation art. All have grown to be good citizens of this world, which is the key criteria I wanted each of them to achieve."

Outside interests

In his spare time Warren enjoys keeping fit, travelling, reading, listening to music, and going to movies, plays, opera, concerts and art and natural history museums. He follows college football and also enjoys watching his grandson play soccer and his granddaughter play softball.

He reads mostly non-fiction, keeping abreast of world affairs as well as natural history, science and the history of religion or philosophical and historical books. Favourite places to visit include France. "Paris and southern France are special, as is Venice," he explains. "However, my favourite place in the world is Big Sur in California."

Warren is also involved in community work. "I am a President of the Board of The Humanist Institute that certifies ministers, rabbis, ethical culture senior leaders and non-clergy and secular leaders in Humanism over a three year certification programme," he explains.

Thoughts on the glass industry

Since retiring five years ago from Owens Corning, Warren has continued consulting in glass and ceramics. "My consulting interests have covered energy and environmental issues with glass, encapsulation of nuclear waste in glass and promoting new technology to help the glass industry," he states.

In a career spanning over 40 years in it, what does he see as the major changes in the glass industry during that time? "It has gone through globalisation like most of the world and its industries, and has changed as a result of automation, sensors and control systems," he says. "There are less and less differences as developing countries such as China and India have the latest glass process technology in glass. Globalisation has made all the world similar or more homogeneous in glass."

"Container struggles more in the US than in Europe, since in the US we are more willing to tolerate the poorer quality and taste of plastics," he continues. "I worry with so many new float furnaces being built in China, the world could soon see a world capacity glut in flat glass. I think glass wool insulation is healthy, speciality glass is healthy in the Pacific Rim where LCD displays are being made, but of course small screen TV glass is dead in most of the world and totally in the US."

The industry´s future

Despite these warnings for traditional glass markets, Warren sees three areas of strong growth for the industry. "These are in communications where the photonic properties of glass are not surpassed by any other material, and likewise in medical and biological fields where the hygienic and malleable capabilities of glass give it significant advantages as a component for future communication, health and biology needs," he says.

"The third area for growth," he continues, "is the ability for glass to be a great substrate for coatings that add value or could even make glass a device that serves a particular need, such as a solar device. The unknown area is whether we can overcome the current strength limitations of glass, or make glass lighter and stronger through composite techniques that are economically feasible. I think the answer will be yes, so the question is when?"

Warren continues on the theme of glass strength: "Glass has two competitive disadvantages in that it is brittle and breaks and can cut people, and it is heavier than many plastics and metals such as aluminium. The glass industry needs to focus in two directions on the strength improvement issue, and then likewise on correcting problems involving the weight disadvantage."

Industry collaboration

For the glass industry to move forward on such issues, collaboration would seem to be desirable. What thoughts does Warren have on industry representation and collaboration?

"In the US I know the North American Insulation Manufacturing Association and the Glass Manufacturing Industrial Council both do good work in representing the interests of their constituents on environmental and other group problems, and the GMIC has also been a focal point in advancing new technology and research consortiums within the industry, such as on submerged combustion melting," he says.

"The glass industry should be trying to collaborate on as much pre-competitive work as it can, such as has been done on the submerged combustion melter," he continues. "The glass industry, to a large extent, does not have the large internal R&D labs of the past and that means that to succeed, collaborative work must go much further than basic research that many universities do or did in the past.

"The biggest challenges facing the glass industry are potential over capacity, such as in float glass, and as a whole adapting to a revolutionary energy picture over the next 10-15 years," he summarises, "and the only way to adapt is to collaborate, collaborate and collaborate."

A final thought

So in a career that has spanned more than 40 years and with so many professional achievements, what has been the highlight?

"My proudest professional experience was receiving the Phoenix Award in 2006," Warren states. "I looked at the many winners over the last 36 years that included Dr Fay Tooley, Bill Boeschenstein and Sir Alastair Pilkington, as well as artists and technologists such as Labino and Chihuly, and I felt very humble. We should not only recognise the great companies who manufacture glass, but also acknowledge the very important role suppliers and vendors have provided to making glass what a great world adventure it has become!"