The professors here who utilize our services respect our work and let us know it. In addition to providing tangible services to their customers, Morris, Henderson and Kent also teach graduate and exceptional undergraduate physics students a course that introduces students to a machine shop environment and emphasizes safety, Morris said. Rick Marshall, who administers the machine shop, along with the physics department's electronic and computer services, sings his staff's praises. Himself an alumnus of the department's post-doctoral program, Marshall explained that there are three levels of machinists. They're especially good at welding and fabricating high-vacuum systems, which is important for physics research, he said.
Systems are clean and welds are sound, something that's hard to accomplish.
Though the shop's primary focus is equipping labs in the physics and chemistry departments, it provides service to departments throughout the Grounds and to companies and organizations affiliated with U.Va. The shop's work can be found as far away as Switzerland and at nuclear and particle physics labs worldwide.