OMAHA, Neb. -- A Creighton University professor is $100,000 better off, and he did it the old fashioned way—he earned it.

Joel Destino is one of 25 nationwide winners of the prestigious Cottrell Scholar Awards.

Professor Destino was recognized for investigating the “Growth and Glass-Forming Properties of Germania-Containing Collaids.”

That mouthful of chemistry allowed him to put together new glass-forming particles that can be used to print optical quality 3-D glasses.

Before arriving in Omaha, Destino received his B.S. in chemistry and history from Syracuse University in 2008 and his Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from the University at Buffalo in 2016. He also worked in the Optics and Materials Science and Technology group at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as a postdoctoral staff member. Destino is one of just two Cottrell Scholar Award winners from a Nebraska institution.