Machine Shop

In the three decades that Tom Gasmire has been building items for Pitt scientists, he has contributed to a lot of groundbreaking research by creating equipment that doesn’t exist. It’s one of the things he likes best about working for a university: the opportunity to build a piece of apparatus that assists a professor or graduate student while also stretching the bounds of Gasmire’s own creativity.

So when doctoral student Eden McQueen told him she needed a brothel for fruit flies, he was more than up to the task.

Few events in nature are as chaotic as a volcanic eruption. So if your job is to capture thermal images of that eruption, it’s critical that the equipment be foolproof enough to work without constant adjustment.

That was the problem facing Michael Ramsey, a professor in the Department of Geology and Environmental Science, when he approached machine shop supervisor Tom Gasmire about building him a mechanism that would hold the filters Ramsey uses to take those images.

Jesse Knotts is our newest ULS Senior Site Specialist for the University of Pittsburgh. Unity Lab Services (ULS) is a division of Thermo Fisher Scientific. Contact Jesse via Pitt@thermofisher.com and  412) 624-2012.

Please join us in welcoming Kyle Bussard to the team and to the Machine Shop.  Kyle comes to us from Coshocton Industries in Ohio and comes with a strong background in both CNC machining and welding.  

Machine Shop featured in Pittwire

https://www.pitt.edu/pittwire/features-articles/dietrich-school-machine-shop

Congratulations to Shawn Artman who will be assuming the mantle of Machine Shop Supervisor.  Shawn has over twenty years of machining experience, the last eight of which are with Pitt, and has served in various supervisory and leadership roles throughout his career.  I am confident he will provide a steady hand and continue to offer the outstanding service you have come to expect from the shop.  A special thanks to Tom and Dave Emala for helping to sift through our talented and deep pool for this position.  Tom will remain in the shop through 4/11 to assist with the transition.