The article's title would be better if it was something like "the Vermont farmer who was the first to photograph snowflakes". The article isn't about the chemistry / physics, it's about how he collected lots of pictures. It's a cool achievement, just not reflected in the title
Some various coverage on Professor Libbrecht and his snow flakes...
KEQD: https://www.kqed.org/science/1536955/identical-snowflakes-sc...
Quartz: https://youtu.be/N2oJaW7Xiek
Veritasium: https://youtu.be/ao2Jfm35XeE
And if you want to dig deep: http://snowcrystals.com