 Tom H. Burritt
Distinguished Staff Award
Department: Research Engineer, Department of ;
four years at UW.
On the Job: Lead technician on the physics department's Sudbury
Neutrino Observatory project. Also serves as a mentor to six graduate students
in the area of design and mechanical innovation.
Achievements: Solved a problem getting uniform coatings of metal
on quartz tubing. The solution required the rotation of the quartz inside
a vacuum vessel. Using a battery-operated rotisserie devised from a very
small motor he found in a surplus parts catalog, Burritt figured out a way
to insert the motor and battery in the vacuum vessel and achieve uniform
coatings, getting a final product much faster than expected.
Quote: "Tom suggests and develops innovative solutions to
difficult situations. His designs and constructions are highly innovative
and elegant. He has earned the reputation as one to ask concerning mechanical
design and assembly. Once he has worked out the solution to a problem, he
is able to train our other employees to execute the job. This then makes
him available to contribute to the next complicated problem."--Physics
Research Professor Steven Elliott | 