Senior Scientific Glassblower
Finger Lakes University — Department of Chemistry Glass Shop · Ithaca, NY
Jun, 2019 · Present
Design and fabricate 120+ custom borosilicate and fused quartz pieces per year for 60+ research groups, including vacuum manifolds, Schlenk lines, and photoreactor vessels.
Built 18 dual-manifold Schlenk lines with high-vacuum PTFE valves, saving the department ~$54,000 versus catalog purchases.
Cut average repair turnaround from 9 business days to 3 by introducing a triage queue and pre-stocked joint and stopcock inventory.
Fabricate graded glass-to-metal (Kovar and tungsten) seals and quartz-to-Pyrex transitions for UHV and spectroscopy setups with zero field leaks in 2024–2025.
Program and maintain annealing ovens and polariscope inspection; trained 40+ graduate students yearly in glassware safety and handling.
Scientific Glassblower
Chemung Valley Lab Glass Co. · Elmira, NY
Jul, 2014 · May, 2019
Produced 1,500+ standard and custom lab glassware units annually on Litton and Heathway glass lathes to ±0.2 mm tolerance.
Fabricated fused quartz reactor tubes and boats for semiconductor customers, growing quartz line revenue 35% over three years.
Reduced breakage scrap from 7% to 2.5% by standardizing anneal schedules and polariscope stress checks on every order.
Quoted and built 200+ custom vacuum manifolds and distillation assemblies from customer CAD sketches with a 97% first-fit rate.
Mentored 3 apprentices and wrote 25 shop SOPs covering lathe setup, flame safety, and grinding.
Apprentice Glassblower
Southern Tier Optics & Glassworks · Corning, NY
Jun, 2011 · Jun, 2014
Completed a 6,000-hour apprenticeship in bench and lathe glassworking, graded seals, and precision grinding.
Fabricated 400+ optical cell, cuvette, and Dewar components under senior glassblowers with less than 1% rework.
Ran kiln and annealing oven loads and logged thermal profiles for 100% of shipped parts.
Repaired 300+ broken flasks, condensers, and stopcocks, saving customers an estimated $40,000 in replacement cost.