Inside the Lederle Graduate Research Center on the campus of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, you’ll find research labs, conference rooms, classroom, and offices. These college mainstays support the many departments that make up the College of Natural Sciences. What you may not expect to find is a glassblowing studio, but the studio plays an important part in supporting the research work done at UMass.
Inside the Scientific Glassblowing Lab, master glassblower Sally Prasch blends scientific precision with artist flair-and a lot of heat-to craft custom scientific instruments. Prasch works directly with researchers and labs to fix, design, and create scientific instruments that meet their instructional and research needs. Producer Dave Fraser visits glassblowing studio to see some of these specialty scientific instruments come to life.