He's not a chemical engineer, biology professor, viticulture expert or physicist; but, on any given day, he can be found consulting with a wide range of campus scientists about their work. Ultimately, much research that goes on at UC Davis couldn't take place without the help of Skip Huckaby - the campus glass-blower.

When Bill Cobb retired in January after three decades with the university, it left the campus without an official glass-blower. Huck-aby came on board in April to fill that niche.

His services - a melding of artistry and science - are available to the entire campus, but his workroom sits in 131 Chemistry, where much of his business is based.

Today, Saeed Attar, a visiting faculty member from CSU, Fresno, has stopped by. He's seeking help in making Fullerenes, bowl-shaped molecules also known as "Buckyballs." Learning ways to manipulate these enigmatic molecules could lead to better methods of delivering drugs or new magnetic materials, Attar says. But to create Fullerenes, various compounds and elements must be exposed to each other under just the right conditions.

So today, Attar needs Huckaby's advice on the technicalities of constructing a 3-foot-long, 2-inch-wide tube of glass that can withstand 1,200 degrees centigrade. There will need to be special valves at either end and a glass compound tray - like a ship in a bottle - that can move about freely inside. A method of propelling the tray - whether by magnet or push rod - also will have to be devised.

For Huckaby, it's a welcome challenge. "I'm a science guy," he says. "I like the process of picking variables and, one at a time, seeing the results by changing things."

Indeed, science played heavily into Huckaby's early career plans. He earned a bachelor's degree in biology from Humboldt State University in 1972 and was just a few units shy of a second degree in botany.

He had been doing a little experimenting himself back in 1969 when he took a one-unit junior college course in glass-blowing at College of the Redwoods. The class wasn't particularly demanding, he recalls, noting, "Everyone got A's just for showing up." However, it did end up cultivating an interest that proved career-changing. A few years later Huckaby was teaching the class.

His biology degree has, nevertheless, proven very helpful. "I can speak the language of scientists," Huckaby says, noting past coursework in physics, chemistry, organic chemistry and engineering. "Biologists come to my shop and when they talk about peduncles on a grape vine, I know what that is."

During the 1970s, Huckaby performed scientific glass-blowing for a Mountain View firm specializing in laser technology; and, since the 1980s, he has operated his own glass-blowing enterprises. The half-time UC Davis employee spends afternoons at his shop in Benicia - Orca Glaswerke - where the motto is: "We do killer glass."

Certainly his most challenging jobs over the years, he says, have included a whale of a chromatography column commissioned by a pharmaceutical firm. The cylinder was 8 feet long and 1 foot in diameter. He also designed tweezers made entirely of quartz glass, hinged by coiled glass, for a company seeking ultra-clean utensils for microchip handling.

• resident of Dixon for 10 years, Huckaby says he rarely feels the need to use his talents at home to create what most people might think of as glass art. "The apparatus is an art in itself - making it as pristine and pretty as it can be," he says. "When I'm on, you can't see the seals I make. That's the art. It's not in making one item; it's in making 10 in a row that look exactly the same."

Working within academia helps keep the work fun, Huckaby says. "It keeps you on the edge of your brainpower. You never know what you'll be working on next."

And then there are the smiles, he says. "People just light up when they see the apparatus they need."

What do you do when you're not glass-blowing?

• tie my own flies and make my own fishing rods and go chase steelhead. I usually head north to the Eel River or Smith River or any of the coastal wild rivers in Northern California. Fishing is Zen.

What's your guilty pleasure?

For some people it's chocolate, but for me it's peanut brittle; that and mint Oreo cookies - they're heaven. Oh, and Coke - it's my one vice - I'm addicted.

Who inspires you?

• have a deaf cousin. I'd have to say it's people like him - people who have disabilities - for their tenacity and persistence. Their willingness to overcome obstacles to be a contributor makes them 11's on a scale of one to 10.

What's your favorite book?

The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran. It's been a constant companion for five years now. It's just from the heart.

What's your favorite campus spot?

The arboretum because of my background in biology and my love of natural history. I've seen birds there you don't often see anywhere else. And I like the fact that the campus made it a botanical garden of such diversity.

What do you like best about your work?

• like knowing that I'm contributing to a large body of scientific knowledge.

And least?

Burns. They go with the territory, but that doesn't make them any easier to deal with.

What's something that a lot of people don't know about you?

I'm a blues guitarist. I learned by ear in high school. I've played with Buddy Guy and Albert King. During the late 1960s and early '70s in Eureka, I was a member of a band called Elesian Fields. We opened for Elvin Bishop, the Grateful Dead, Sweetwater and Ambrosia.

What's your personal motto?

Life is an opportunity. You have a choice - you can sit back and watch or you can participate. I've chosen to participate.