Remember that television show “MacGyver” that aired back in the 1980s? Faced with a dilemma, the main character would use his imagination and whatever materials were on hand (candy bar wrappers, old bike parts, and duct tape, to name a few) to solve the problem. That same MacGyver-esque ingenuity lives in the AAES under the direction of Charles Meadows.

Meadows is analytical instrument manager of Research Instrumentation, the AAES’ source of high tech assistance, a position he has held since 1982. Under his direction, Research Instrumentation has gained a reputation for working miracles on old equipment AND coming up with inventive new technology all on a shoestring budget.

A native of Tallapoosa County, Meadows grew up in Reeltown and graduated from high school there. He went on to George C. Wallace State Vocational Technical School in Dothan and earned a degree in electronics.

He then took a job in Union Springs repairing home entertainment equipment before eventually starting his own appliance sales and repair business in Dadeville. After 13 years of working for himself, Meadows was lured away by OrrTronics of Opelika, where he stayed until 1979. Later that year he joined the Auburn University’s aerospace engineering department as an electronic tech. There he worked on a variety of instruments, including a wind tunnel data acquisition system that helped AU researchers solve problems for the space shuttle program, among other high-profile projects.

Meadows came to the AAES in 1982 with the primary mission of keeping the mass spectrometer, a vital machine used by several AAES researchers to run chemical analyses, up to snuff.

“I was hired primarily to repair that one piece of equipment and keep it going, then do whatever else I had time to do in other areas,” he said. Meadows was so successful at keeping the mass spectrometer operating that he had time to help repair and improve many other pieces of equipment.

After about a year and a half, AAES administrators decided that these services were so valuable, they hired a second person to assist Meadows. Today there are three employees in Research Instrumentation: Meadows, Glen Wilson, and Don Herndon.

“We went from the expectations of keeping a few vital pieces of lab equipment going to, in the last five years, averaging about 1,100 work orders a year,” said Meadows.

In addition to being the fix-it whizz guys for all kinds of equipment—from personal computers to time domain reflectometers—the Research Instrumentation crew is legendary for helping develop new pieces of equipment for special projects.

Often AAES researchers have to create “new” forms of equipment or adapt current devices to accommodate their projects. When AAES researchers need help designing and building this unique equipment for their projects, they turn to Meadows and his staff. Through the years the Research Instrumentation staff has built a wide range of specialized contraptions from bat observation equipment to fish harvesting devices to a computerized cockroach monitoring station to an endangered turtle observation apparatus, and much, much more. Their most recent cooperative design and manufacturing effort is featured in a story of this issue of Highlights, “Inventiveness in the Air: AAES Researchers Develop Improved Method for Measuring Ammonia Volatilization.”

“If somebody needs something, we just try to help out,” said Meadows modestly.

Research Instrumentation manages all this at a minimal cost to the AAES, charging faculty only for parts. And, as with MacGyver, they have found ways to turn ordinary items into extraordinary devices. One way they accomplish so much on a tight budget is by using federal excess property. That surplus can often be acquired for the cost of freight, and Meadows and his crew know that a little ingenuity is all it takes to turn an old computer into a high tech bat monitoring device or an old oven into a seed germinator.

“The AAES takes advantage of a federal program that allows land-grant universities to screen and acquire federal property to aid in agricultural research,” said Meadows. Research Instrumentation maintains the database inventory of federal excess property. Meadows and several AAES research station superintendents have screened and acquired more than $7 million in federal excess property that is now in the AAES system.

“We support more than 200 Ph.D. research scientists,” said Meadows. “We could not do what we’ve done without student help,” added Meadows, explaining they often get part-time help from engineering students, which gives the students experience and provides Meadows and his staff with knowledgeable helpers.

He also highly praised the skills of Wilson and Herndon, noting that keeping people of this caliber is difficult because private industry is often trying to hire them away. “These two gentlemen are great team players and very competent and professional people in their field,” he added. “There’s no way we could do what we have done without good help, and we have that here.”

Meadows noted that he and his staff also stay educated on the latest technologies, which have changed drastically since Meadows first began working at AU. But he credits the basic knowledge that his staff possesses and their willingness to stay abreast of changes as a primary reason for Research Instrumentation’s exceptional success.

“I think the record would prove that we have been economical and beneficial and I’m convinced that decent in-house support will encourage and promote quality research,” said Meadows.

Meadows also praised the two men who have been his bosses over the past 18 years—Lavern Brown and David Teem—noting that they recognized the need for this type of in-house assistance and supported it fully.

For Meadows, his work has a greater meaning than just being a job. “I was raised on a farm and the average citizen has very little concept of what it takes now days to put something on the market that is beneficial to the producer and the consumer,” he said. “I’m thankful that I am, in some small way, a part of that process.”

In addition to his dedication to his job, Meadows is also dedicated to his seven grandchildren (“We know what it means to say ‘grand,’” he said with a smile). And he and his wife, Virginia, also are involved in community activities through their church, Lakeview Baptist in Auburn.