PMIL Working with Princeton’s “Glass Guru” Michael Souza on an Upcoming Exhibit

PMIL is working with Michael Souza, who worked with Princeton University as their scientific glassblower for 30 years before retiring in 2022, to develop a one-of-a-kind scientific glassware exhibit. The project’s working name is Through a Glass Darkly, and will explore the development of glassblowing techniques and the corresponding impact that has had on innovation and ethics, from Newton’s prism and Galileo’s telescope, to Fresnel lenses and glass substrates for quantum computing.

Michael Souza has worked on projects ranging from glass 20 micrometers thick (about one-fifth the thickness of a human hair for nuclear targeting experiments to the world’s first jet-stirred reactor at supercritical pressures, designed to operate at 220 times atmospheric pressure for Professor Yiguang Ju ; and the world’s first Permanent Magnet Stellarator, a project for the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. Some of his projects have been launched into space!

Michael has partnered with museums in the past, including the Corning Museum of Glass to develop exhibits.

As a second generation glass blower, Michael is passionate about hands-on STEAM education, and looks forward to potentially doing some hands-on workshops with students at PMIL.