Earlier this year, the LMB was delighted to appoint Adam Fowle as the new Head of the Mechanical Workshop, a key support service to many across the LMB. Adam took over from Steve Scotcher upon his retirement after over 40 years at the LMB.
The Mechanical Workshop was initially established to design and build X-ray generators and detectors used for crystallographic studies in the early days of the LMB. Today, the facility provides a hugely diverse range of services, including bespoke design and manufacture of working equipment from scratch plus modifying and repairing existing items. While staff in smaller workshops are likely to need to specify into a specialist field, the wide array of skills and experience in the LMB’s Mechanical Workshop means they are capable of assisting a huge variety of research projects.
As an in-house facility, the workshop is able to provide these services to groups across the LMB much faster and at a dramatically reduced cost in comparison to relying on an external company. This means that there are fewer impediments to research progress.
Adam first joined the LMB’s Mechanical Workshop as an apprentice in September 1993. Coming straight from school with no previous professional experience in design and manufacturing, he spent four and a half years developing and finessing the required skills. After this period at the LMB, Adam moved to join the workshop at the University of Cambridge’s Clinical School, before ultimately returning to the LMB in 2011.
He has been involved in several large projects over the years, and particularly enjoys the opportunities to work on equipment shared by researchers across the lab. This has included working with electron cryo-microscopes and developing light microscopes. Now, as Head of the Mechanical Workshop, Adam is responsible for making sure the LMB has the necessary equipment, staff and skills to fulfil these requests and all other asks of the team.
Looking to the future, Adam is keen to continue the workshop’s success in providing apprenticeships, offering training and development of machining skills to young people so they become highly skilled professionals capable of producing the diverse array of jobs the team undertake.
Further references
LMB Workshops
Meet the Mechanical Workshop (film)
Apprenticeship success in the LMB workshops
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