Jo Wu

Jo Wu is the scientific glass specialist in the Fabrication Technology Office at NIST. She is responsible for the Glass Fabrication Workshop comprising the Glassblowing Shop, Optics Shop, and Glass Lab, where she makes commercially unavailable glasses with specific compositions or properties. In addition to over 12 years of professional experience in technical glass industries, Jo has a BA in Economics (Wesleyan University), AAS in Scientific Glass Technology and AFA in Fine Arts (Salem Community College) and is currently completing a BS in Physics (Australian National University). Her current undergraduate research is focused on the development of ultra-high purity NaI(Tl) crystals for the SABRE dark matter detector to be sited at SUPL, a new underground lab in Australia.

Prior to joining NIST in March 2019, Jo lived and worked abroad in Australia as a scientific glassblower at the Australian National University from 2011 - 2016. She also organized and chaired the 2014 Scientific Glassblowers Society of Australia New Zealand Symposium, hosted by ANU.

From 2016 - 2019, Jo was the owner and lead glassblower of JW Glassworks, an Australian technical glass company focused on bespoke scientific instrumentation. Whilst working in Australia, Jo maintained an ongoing collaboration with ANSTO and Princeton University, visiting the scientific glass shop at Princeton regularly from 2011 – 2019 to produce aluminosilicate glasswork for polarized 3He and 129Xe applications. Jo has collaborated with and produced glasswork for Princeton University, ANU, ANSTO, J-Parc, CSIRO, UNSW, Monash University, and University of Melbourne, amongst others.