Professor Jacques Lucas is a Ph.D. (University of Rennes, France) in solid state chemistry. He is a member of the French Academy of Sciences and Emeritus professor at the University of Rennes. He has co-authored several books on glasses, ceramics and optics. He has been involved in rare earths research (photonics) as well as teaching for more than 40 years .He published more than 450 articles and co-chaired several international conferences devoted to rare earths doped optical materials. He founded and headed the CNRS Glass and Ceramic laboratory at University of Rennes for 30 years. Three start-up companies were founded based on the laboratory discoveries. He has been associate professor at University of Arizona and invited professor at Kyoto University (Japan) as well as at Shanghai University (China). He is in close contact with Solvay, the world leading company in rare earth separation, as well as with the Chinese and Japanese rare earth scientific community.
