Campus News  View Year  Juniata Chemistry Professor Makes
Cutting-Edge Instruments at Cut-rate Prices  (Posted February
25, 2002)  HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- When most scientists look at an
intricate scientific instrument, they see a tool for uncovering
the secrets of the natural world. When Juniata College chemist
Tom Fisher sees a scientific instrument, he sees a tool of
discovery, but he also almost immediately sees a way to use his
own tools to make the same instrument for less money.  Much less
money.  Fisher, who joined the Juniata faculty in 1976, teaches
the college's course in analytical chemistry -- essentially a
semester of learning how to use the scientific instruments
required in the world of 21st century chemistry. "When the
organic chemists want to know what kind of compound or material
they have, they put it into an instrument that I'm in charge
of," he explains.  Although he started his career as a
biochemist after earning a doctorate from Iowa State, Fisher
always found himself drawn to how machines