CNN  —  Born in the Italian town of Brescia, Roberto Beltrami grew up just a few hours’ drive from Venice and the island of Murano, world-famous for producing beautiful glassware. But it was nearly 4,000 miles away in Boston, Massachusetts, that he first came across the art of glassblowing. “I was just so struck by this material, the colors, the transparency, the shapes,” recalled Beltrami. It was 2011, and Beltrami, then a sophomore physics student at Boston University, was captivated by an