BSSG 2017 Annual Symposium

摘要

I am used to being shouted at in London but not by a Norwegian scientific glassblower! It was Astrid Salvesen who spotted me getting on a train to Stratford-upon-Avon, the location of the 2017 BSSG Symposium. Astrid was with her colleague Sebastian Bete and they were following me since they assumed I knew where I was going. Indeed I did: I was ready to perform in a tent full of burners, dancing with flames, and sharing ideas, fun and entertainment with my peers. Stratford is famous for being the birthplace of Shakespeare who captured the world with his romance of plays and poems much as we scientific glassblowers do with our dazzling set pieces. The world of scientific glassblowing came together in England for the September heat wave - well that is how it seemed to me coming from a decidedly chilly Scotland. The torches may have raised the temperatures, but the friendships renewed warmed everyone's heart. It had been three years since the last BSSG Symposium, surely far too long.