About Scientific Instrument Services

Jeffrey Forthofer

Associate Director, Scientific Instrument Services

In 2020, Scientific Instrument Services was created to manage and coordinate multiple services under Jeff’s leadership. Jeff joined JAX in 1998, using his experience as an electrical engineer to establish the Equipment Repair Service at the Bar Harbor campus. Jeff’s role then expanded to include the management of the Glassware Service. With the growth of JAX’s increasingly diverse research capabilities over the years, he has been diligent in identifying the unmet needs of the JAX research community for scientific instrument support. Consequently, Jeff established the Equipment Repair Service at the Farmington campus in 2012. In 2014, he founded and subsequently expanded the Fabrication Service, which provides professional mechanical and electro-mechanical device design and fabrication capabilities to investigators on all campuses. In 2020, Jeff established the Automated Liquid Handling Service to provide cost-effective protocol development and professional expertise on all aspects of liquid handling systems that are now commonly used for sample processing and analysis by a number of the Scientific Services. Since 2007, Jeff has managed the annual capital budget planning process for Scientific Services. Throughout this dynamic operation, he coordinates with stakeholders, guiding them through the initial proposal steps, consulting on the prioritization plan, and overseeing the final steps that proceed procurement.

Join Our Team

The Scientific Instrument Services team is composed of uniquely qualified individuals, each bringing their own specialized and complementary skillset. We currently have five Instrument Technicians, two Fabricators, and one Field Application Specialist. The diversity of team member backgrounds stimulates creativity and problem-solving in our design work, facilitates trouble-shooting when equipment malfunctions, and provides key experience in fabrication and repair. In our daily work, we are unified by our enthusiasm for understanding how devices operate, our satisfaction in doing hands-on work, and our pride in ensuring that research at JAX is performed with reliable and accurate equipment.

• A licensed electrician with 20+ years of experience on the JAX Facility Maintenance team, now bringing that electrical expertise and troubleshooting skills to repair and maintain scientific equipment.
• Scientific instrumentation designer and fabricator with 18+ years in tool design and 26 years in manufacturing background, who enjoys meeting with scientists to take their vision through pencil-on-paper sketch to CAD 3D modeling and finally a working instrument.
• Background in neuroscience and a passion for learning complex systems, contributing knowledge of instruments and procedures used in behavioral research, dexterity to work on sensitive equipment and creative problem-solving skills.
• Skills developed from an integrated background of 20+ years of repair and maintenance combined with 5 years of laboratory work focused on protein purification, cell culture, next-generation sequencing, and automation.
• A Research Assistant III with years of optimizing microbiome methodology then moved into laboratory automation.
• Experienced medical laboratory technician and phlebotomist.
• 15+ years working in the marine industry installing, calibrating, and servicing electronics and mechanical systems on a wide range of ocean-going vessels, now applying that technical experience to further the efficacy of scientific equipment at JAX.
• A designer and fabricator of novel devices for scientific research along with performing equipment repair, with a passion for taking back-of-the-napkin ideas, designing digital 3D concepts from them, and building them into physical objects.

Careers

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