Scott Bankroff is not an artist – at least that’s what he claims.
But looking at some of his one- of- a- kind pieces and the intricate detail crafted into each piece of glass, you might think otherwise.
“Beakers, Petri dishes, those are machine-made. Just about anything you can find in a catalog, I don’t make,” he says.
Bankroff has been a glassblower at the university for the past 25 years, where he has created or modified scientific instruments out of glass to be used in all sorts of scientific disciplines.
Professors and students in entomology and chemistry and other scientific fields have come to Bankroff with unique requests to develop tools to help them conduct their research.
“So many times with one-of-a-kind pieces, the first effort may not work,” he says. “We’ll either try to modify it or try plan B. There have been many times we’ve had to go to plan C. We’ll just keep going until it works.”
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