The scientific glassblower making one-of-a-kind equipment: 101 Jobs That Change The World (Ep 17)

Meet Terri Adams. She's the Glass Design and Fabrication Facility Manager for the University of Oxford and also one of the last scientific glassblowers to work in-house at a university.
When she first started training as a scientific glassblower, the first thing people said was 'Oh, so you make test tubes', but her work is so much more than that. She helps turn scientists' ideas into bespoke complex and functional laboratory equipment that is necessary for their research.
Terri says: "I think, for me, the most satisfying thing has been able to produce something with my hands. Something as well which you know, you know is going to be used for research for good, and it's going to help not only the person you're making it for but hopefully beyond that at some point, the wider world. There's my little bit of influence on history."
Explore more on Terri's story and how she came to be a scientific glassblower: www.chem.ox.ac...
Learn more about scientific glassblowing, a beautiful and endangered craft: / scientific-glassblowing
See more world-changing jobs like Terri's on our playlist: • 101 Jobs that change t...
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Welcome to 101 Jobs That Change The World - our campaign to highlight some of the many roles that contribute to success of the research and innovation system. In these videos you’ll meet the people who work - often behind the scenes - in a wide variety of fulfilling and interesting roles beyond the traditional image of a researcher or innovator.
Our 101 Jobs profiles offer a glimpse into the lives of the varied people who are working across the research and innovation system, some in remote or unusual locations. Their jobs are essential to the creative, dynamic research and innovation system we need to tackle huge challenges like Covid-19, climate change, how we’ll live and work in the future - and they really do change the world.
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[@alanlamb8027]

Always found glassblowing fascinating. Back when I was a kid you could visit the back of the Caithness glass store in our town and see some glassblowers at work making paperweights, vases and so on. On holiday in Italy it was also great to see the master glassblowers of Murano at work.
So, was pretty lucky to do my PhD at Oxford where someone like Terri was on hand. In amongst all the the basic repairs she made me an absolutely lovely custom made high pressure hydrogenation kit. Can't recall if the chemistry worked (probably not, there's a reason I'm not in the lab any more!) but if it didn't it certainly wasn't any fault of the glassware, and who knows maybe it has found some other uses after I was gone. Decorative glasswork is fantastic, but a well designed piece of lab kit has its own beauty. Definitely an art form and hopefully one that doesn't completely die out.
Thanks Terri!

[@hammerth1421]

I cannot fathom how chemistry faculties can operate without an in-house glassblower. As a mere undergrad, they've saved me quite a bit of cost by repairing some of the bigger pieces of glassware I broke (breakage happens, that's just the reality of working with things made of glass). Repair often isn't feasable but unless it's literally in a thousand pieces, it's worth at least getting it looked at.

[@researchsolutions1803]

You cannot make everything using a computer, you need practical skills, A pleasure to watch

[@adnanmahmud8691]

Undoubtedly!

[@MarsOneBeatz]

I don't know why, but the end of this video made me tear up, glassy eyes aye?