Corning’s Shawn Markham has dedicated her career to making glass out of thin air.
Since joining Corning more than 30 years ago, she’s explored feats of materials science engineering in roles all over the world. Today, she’s a leading expert in glass fusion, a process Corning invented to create large, pristine, flat glass – enabling products like huge display screens and durable, protective covers for smartphones.
Corning’s prized invention, the fusion machine, melts raw materials until molten. The lava-like substance pours powerfully into a specially designed trough. When the molten materials overflow, science seems like magic. The world’s most pristine, thin glass sheets form, harnessing gravity as the enormous substrates cascade to the ground. Robots collect the sheets and usher them toward infinite possibilities.
That’s fusion – physics in action. It takes the most basic elements and properties on Earth and turns them into a potentially infinite variety of complex, sophisticated products.
“Physics principles govern what we do every day,” said Shawn, who was named a Corporate Fellow in 2022, a title bestowed upon Corning’s most experienced and respected experts in their fields. For Shawn, the universality of fusion keeps her enthralled as she continues the legacy of Corning’s engineering pioneers.
She learned fusion from years of on-the-job training, mentorship, and Corning’s rich culture of innovation. Physics is the foundation college graduates need to start a career in fusion – a process so proprietary it’s not taught at universities. Those who join Corning can follow Shawn’s journey.
Shawn says being an engineer is an integral part of her personality, and it explains so much about her approach to life and work.
At the same time, though, she is widely known for her fun and energizing demeanor that helps motivate her teams toward success. Rather than large, organized team-building events, she opts for regular doses of informality that bring work teams together face to face.
Shawn's colleagues say her influence is evidenced in many solutions to technical challenges and in her mentorship to many Corning engineers around the world.
Shawn is also an active supporter of educational programs that bring science and technology opportunities to young students. She hopes to see some of those students grow up to become engineers who work for Corning one day.
"I've never been afraid of hard work," Shawn said. "I see younger people come in today and they want to work on the hard projects, the important projects. And I'm happy to help encourage them."
The agility and speed of fusion innovation advances glass by leaps, and it’s what keeps Shawn excited for the future.
“With every new display technology comes a new opportunity for fusion to show us what it can do. The next generation of engineers and materials scientists we have at Corning are ready to push the physics even further,” she said. “It all leads to Corning glass that’s bigger, thinner, and more vital to the world’s progress than fusion’s inventors could have imagined.”
