Dr Clare Thorpe
Senior Lecturer at the University of Sheffield
Chemistry · Materials Science · Engineering
Glass is a material that is never far from arm's reach in our homes, but through her research Clare Thorpe sees beyond the material itself to the hidden stories it contains: how it was made, how it behaves and how it changes over time.
Clare is fascinated by what happens to glass over years, centuries and even longer timescales. By understanding how glass degrades and interacts with its environment, she can uncover clues about the past while helping to tackle challenges for the future.
In her own home, a century-old bottle discovered beneath her patio became a scientific clue, revealing how glass changes over decades and connecting materials science with archaeology, local history and environmental processes.
Clare challenges the idea that glass is a simple, familiar material, showing instead how different "recipes" for glass can be used to tackle a wide range of real-world problems. By altering the ingredients, she can create glasses with very different properties, from safely containing radioactive waste to releasing nutrients to plants and helping prevent microbial growth.
For Clare, sustainability is closely linked to understanding how materials change throughout their lifetime. Whether preventing harmful substances from entering the environment or designing materials that work with natural processes, her research explores how a material we encounter every day might help address some of society's most complex environmental challenges.