Thanks for visiting, and keep the fire in your eyes!

MR MICHAEL OLSEN
Research Glassblower
Colorado State University
Department of Chemistry
Ft. Collins CO 80523-1872 USA
(970) 491-5229 (voice)
(970) 491-1801 (FAX; attn. M Olsen)

SCIENTIFIC GLASSBLOWING AT CSU:

Capabilities include:

Design, fabrication, modification and repair of experimental laboratory glassware
Technical advice to scientific and engineering staff regarding the function, properties and proposed design of glass apparatus
Consulting regarding the effects of vacuum and chemical environments on glasses, metals and ceramics
Prototype and production vacuum, distillation and electro-optical systems
Ultra-cleaning of glass, ceramic and metal surfaces
RF and conventional fusion of glass-metal seals, glass-ceramic and graded glass seals
Solder glass sealing of optics to glass, ceramics and metals
Equipment design for glass redrawing, straightening, coiling, and precision square-, rectangular- and tapered-bore tubing
Precision cutting of glass and ceramics
Glass fracture and polarascopic stress analysis
Optical pyrometry
Project definition, brainstorming, literature searching, technical writing, and product design and evaluation

These services are available by contract and at a cost. Inquire for details - I don't work for free, and neither should you!

Glassblowing classes and training are NOT offered, and there are NO employment opportunities in this one-man shop, so please don't ask.

OF INTEREST TO RESEARCHERS:

Schlenk 'Airfree' Manifolds
Grant Funding Applications

PUBLICATIONS AND TECH REPORTS:

In situ NMR spectroscopy of combustion [J. Am. Chem. Soc., 125, 13298 (2003)]

Review in Chemical and Engineering News [C&E News, 81, no. 44, 34, (2003)] of previous article.
Review in Nature [Nature, 426, 508 (2003)] of previous article in html or pdf format.
Review in la Recherche [la Rech., 372, 10 (2004)] of previous article (394 KB file, french language).

Devitrification of glass
What is the difference between black and brown Viton^®?
How do you seal a quartz Brewster's angle window to a tube?
What's the difference between glass etching and glass corrosion?
Why does glass change color when irradiated?
What is the role of oxygen in glass?
Survey of UV-setting adhesives.
Quartzlets.
'Singing' quartz?!?

MISC:

'Dihydrogen Monoxide Demonstration Devices', my entry to the colleges of Liberal Arts and Natural Sciences First Annual (2006) 'Art & Science Exhibition'
Home-made parallel jaw pliers for forming glass
A picture of me.
CAUTION! HUMOR: A history of the invention of ceramics.

Click on the links below to visit these other interesting sites. Please bookmark this site now before leaving - I'd hate for you to lose your way and never return!

A lab that employs optically pumped noble gasses for use as contrasting agents in magnetic resonance imaging - I do a lot of work for this lab.

Don't be a stranger

Let me hear from you! Write me at

If you are a Scientific Glassblower and are looking for kindred flames, consider joining the 'ScientificGlass' Yahoo discussion group. It was the bright idea of Wayne Archer (the Los Alamos Scientific Glassblower) and is a friendly place to get your arcane glass questions answered by a great bunch of experts worldwide!

This page ©2004-2007 by Michael Olsen. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to link to this page, but you may not copy, modify, publish, or display any of the content of this page, in whole or in part, without the express written permission of Michael Olsen.

Last edited 11-20-07