2019 Posters

Steve Anderson – TBA

Steve Anderson began his education as a scientific glassblower at Salem Community College in 1986. He has been employed as a scientific glassblower with Greatglas Inc., Wilmington, Delaware – 1986 to 1988, Honeywell Inc., Bloomington, Minnesota – 1988 to 1989, Aldrich Chemical Co., Milwaukee, Wisconsin – 1989 to 1994, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska – 1994 to 1999. He is currently a Senior Scientific Glassblower with the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN. Steve has been a member of the American Scientific Glassblowing Society since 1987. He is currently the Awards Committee Chairman. He has been a member of the Midwest Section of the ASGS since 1989 and has held each of the officer positions.

Christian Côtè – “Promoting Change and Replacing Mercury Manometers”
Christian Côté is a laboratory technician in analytical and organic chemistry at Laval University since 2007. His passion to repair all sorts of laboratory apparatuses  led him, in 2011, to convince the chemistry department to let him learn scientific glassblowing and use the abandoned glass workshop  in his spare time. He learned  from books, information’s from a chemist colleague and  help from Réal Dubuc, then scientific glassblower from Sherbrooke University. He joined the American Scientific Glassblowing Society as associate member in 2016 and keep learning scientific glassblowing whenever possible.

Tracy Drier – “A Multi-Use Fixture for Accurate and Repeatable Results”

Following his studies in scientific glassblowing at Salem Community College, Tracy accepted a position at Aldrich Chemical Company in Milwaukee. Since 2000 he has been working for the Chemistry Department at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He is an accomplished presenter at ASGS Symposia, having presented papers, posters and demonstrations. Received the Karl Walther Award for best Fusion Article and the Helmut-Dreschel Achievement Award in 2012.

Ginny M. Grieb – “Ancient Lenses”

Jill Korgemagi – “Fabrication of a Three Inch Fritted Chromatography Column”
Jill Korgemagi started her career in Scientific Glassblowing when she landed an Apprenticeship at Scientific Glass Design in Ajax, Ontario in 2016. Since then, Jill has been learning from Master Glassblowers Ron and Philip Legge. As a Junior member with the ASGS since 2016 she has been the recipient of the Exhibitors Award and the Randy Searle Award. Jill is also the Chairperson of the Great Lakes Section and the Secretary of the Canadian Section. She continues to take part in workshops and advance her training in scientific glassblowing, despite no previous education or training.

Hideko Natsume – “Control System of the Lathe”

Hideko Natsume began working as a scientific glassblower in 1997 at Nagoya University in Japan. She is working mainly with borosilicate glass, specializing in glassware for organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry and biochemistry. Hideko is also the radiation safety officer for the department. In 2001 Hideko and her mentor fabricated the distillation system used by Dr. Noyori in his research which ultimately won him the 2001 Nobel Prize in chemistry.  As a glassblower Hideko is always looking to learn new techniques. 

Benjamin Revis – “Grinding Joints on a Machine Lathe”
When the need for a small quantity of ground joints are necessary in possibly a nonstandard material or size a machine lathe can be set up to grind the necessary components. This poster will outline the process used to make a quartz leur inner joint using a hobby (7 x 14) metal lathe and a high speed rotary tool.

Benjamin Revis graduated from Purdue University in 2002, Benjamin worked with John Pirolo at the Purdue University glass shop half-time learning techniques in scientific glassblowing. A job opportunity took Benjamin into the field of Nuclear Engineering for seven years before his current position at the University of Iowa. Benjamin has been at the University of Iowa and an active member of the American Scientific Glassblowers Society since 2011. Benjamin has served as the Midwest Director from 2013 to 2017 and the ASGS IT Chair from 2013 to the present, and is current President of the Society.

Mike Souza – “Constructing a High Resolution Spectroscopy Cell”

Mike Souza is internationally recognized as one of the top scientific glassblowers working in cutting edge research. He began his career in 1973 as an apprentice at Kontes / Martin Glass in Evanston, IL. For the past 27 years he has been the scientific glassblower at Princeton University and has consulted and worked for research institutes across the world. Souza is a Past President of the American Scientific Glassblowers Society. He manages and edits the ASGS Facebook site and has authored dozens of publications that have appeared in Glass & Scientific Journals and has been a lecturer demonstrator at Corning Museum of Glass, GAS, IFC and numerous universities across the USA. 

Mike Souza and Sally Prasch – “Glassblowing and Science – A History”
Many of history’s most significant scientific experiments have relied on the use of glass. Without the skills of the people who manipulate this material, our present world would be quite different. By highlighting the past, present and future of scientific glassblowing, we hope to illustrate it’s importance. 

Kazunori Watanabe – “Tips for Glassblowing on the Lathe”

Kazunori Watanabe began his scientific glassblowing career at Osaka Prefecture University (Japan) in 1997. He was mentored for 2 years before starting on his own. In his daily work he uses both borosilicate and quartz glass. His area of specialization is the high vacuum glass line, and the result of that work has been the miniaturization of the diffusion pump. Another area of specialty is glass grinding using a machining center.