Dr. Mauro earned his B.S. in Glass Engineering Science (2001), B.A. in Computer Science (2001), and Ph.D. in Glass Science (2006), all from Alfred University. He joined Corning Inc. in 1999, where he served in various capacities, including senior research manager of the Glass Research department. Dr. Mauro is the inventor or co-inventor of several new glass compositions for Corning, including Corning Gorilla® Glass products. He is a pioneer in the use of physics-based modeling for the design of new glassy materials and is the inventor of new models for supercooled liquid and glass viscosity, glass structure and topology, relaxation behavior, and thermal and mechanical properties. In 2017, Dr. Mauro joined The Pennsylvania State University as professor of Materials Science and Engineering.
Dr. Mauro is currently a world-recognized expert in fundamental and applied glass science, statistical mechanics, computational and condensed matter physics, thermodynamics, and the topology of disordered networks. He is the author of over 340 peer-reviewed publications and has given over 300 presentations at international conferences and seminars. His publications have been cited over 17,000 times, with an h-index of 57. Dr. Mauro has 72 granted U.S. patents and has many more additional patents pending. He is the co-author of Fundamentals of Inorganic Glasses, 3rd ed. (Elsevier, 2019), the definitive textbook in glass science and engineering. Dr. Mauro is the author of Materials Kinetics: Transport and Rate Phenomena (Elsevier, 2021), the most comprehensive textbook in the field of materials kinetics.
Dr. Mauro is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. He is Editor-in-Chief of Journal of the American Ceramic Society.
This faculty member is associated with the Penn State Intercollege Graduate Degree Program (IGDP) in Materials Science and Engineering (MatSE) where a multitude of perspectives and cross-disciplinary collaboration within research is highly valued. Graduate students in the IGDP in MatSE may work with faculty members from across Penn State.
Building on more than eighteen years of industrial research experience, Dr. Mauro uses a combination of theoretical and experimental approaches to address fundamental problems in glass science and engineering.
One key area of focus is the glass transition, which is known as one of the most challenging problems in condensed matter physics. It is also a problem of great technological importance, since the properties of a glass depend on its thermal history, and glasses spontaneously relax with heat treatment. This problem is especially critical for the high-tech glass industry, since glass transition/relaxation behavior is one of the most important properties for flat panel display substrates, optical fiber, and chemically strengthened glass. Hence, problems related to glass relaxation offer the opportunity to obtain solutions that both advance fundamental physical understanding and are directly applicable to practical problems of industrial concern. Dr. Mauro’s group uses a combination of modeling and experimental techniques to address key problems related to the thermodynamics and kinetics of glass transition and relaxation phenomena in inorganic glasses.
Another area of focus is predictive design of new glassy materials by “decoding the glass genome.” To be suitable for a particular application, a glass must meet stringent requirements for all properties of interest, including both product-related attributes and properties that are important for manufacturing. Optimization of the glass involves a careful balancing of the chemical composition to achieve these desired attributes. It is therefore critical to conduct fundamental research to develop a detailed understanding of the effects of composition and processing on material structure and its relationship to macroscopic properties. Dr. Mauro’s group addresses these issues through a combination of physics-based and empirical approaches, including novel statistical mechanical descriptions of glass structure and bonding, topological constraint theory, and machine learning techniques.
Other areas of focus include (a) high-strength glasses, with particular emphasis on chemically strengthened glasses, (b) nucleation/crystallization in glasses and glass-ceramics, and (c) glass melting and processing.
- Member, National Academy of Engineering, 2022
- Wilson Award for Excellent in Teaching, The Pennsylvania State University, 2022
- Wulff Lecturer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2022
- Fiat Lux Award, Alfred University, 2022
- Faculty Scholar Medal, The Pennsylvania State University, 2021
- Fellow, National Academy of Inventors, 2020
- Paul F. Robertson Award for Research Breakthrough of the Year, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, 2020
- Fellow, Society of Glass Technology, 2019
- Faculty of the Year Award, Penn State Materials Science and Engineering, 2019
- Program Chair, International Congress on Glass, 2019
- Editor, Journal of the American Ceramic Society, Since 2017
- Executive Committee Member, Glass and Optical Materials Division, American Ceramic Society, Since 2017
- Volume Organizer, MRS Bulletin, 2017
- Honorary Member, Sigma Pi Sigma, Coe College, 2017
- Ethnically Diverse Group of Employees (EDGE) Excellence Award, Corning Incorporated, 2016
- Karl Schwartzwalder Professional Achievement in Ceramic Engineering (PACE) Award, National Institute of Ceramic Engineers, 2016
- CEB R&D Leadership Academy, 2015
- W.H. Zachariasen Award, Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, 2015
- Fellow, American Ceramic Society, 2015
- Richard M. Fulrath Award, American Ceramic Society, 2015
- Outstanding Publication Award, Corning Incorporated, 2015
- Specialty Chief Editor, Frontiers in Materials: Glass Science, 2014-2018
- Associate Editor, International Journal of Applied Glass Science, Since 2013
- S. Donald Stookey Award for Exploratory Research, Corning Incorporated, 2013
- Outstanding Service to Specialty Materials Award, Corning Incorporated, 2013
- Associate Editor, Journal of the American Ceramic Society, 2012-2017
- Sir Alastair Pilkington Award, Society of Glass Technology, 2012
- Outstanding Publication Award, Corning Incorporated, 2011
- Vittorio Gottardi Prize, International Commission on Glass, 2011
- Editorial Board Member, Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, Since 2011
- Woldemar A. Weyl International Glass Science Award, The Pennsylvania State University and International Commission on Glass, 2010
- Program Chair, American Ceramic Society Glass and Optical Materials Division Meeting, 2010
- Alfred R. Cooper Fellow and Distinguished Speaker, American Ceramic Society, 2009
- Outstanding Publication Award, Corning Incorporated, 2009
- Corning Optical Fiber Excellence Award, 2007
- Norbert J. Kreidl Award, American Ceramic Society, Glass and Optical Materials Division, 2006
- Corning Optical Fiber Excellence Award, 2002