On Wednesday, May 23, the University Laboratory Safety Committee (ULSC) at The Ohio State University recognized the second annual winners of the “Excellence in Safety” Award. The award, in three categories, recognizes a university faculty or staff member (Individual Award), an undergraduate or graduate student (Student Award) and a laboratory research group (Group Award) who has made a considerable contribution to improving laboratory safety on the Ohio State campus. Such contributions can be defined as, but are not limited to, actions taken to prevent injury or illness, outstanding response and cooperation given to resolve unsafe conditions, consistent improvement during laboratory inspections, or any other consistent and proactive demonstration of efforts in support of a positive laboratory safety culture.
Award winners were congratulated by Tina Bogac, Director of Research Safety & Biosafety (Environmental Health & Safety), Dr. Jan Weisenberger, Senior Associate Vice President for Research, and Chris Glaros, Assistant Vice President, Compliance Operations and Investigations (University Compliance & Integrity).
Congratulations to all of the 2018 award winners! Thank you for making The Ohio State University a safe working and learning environment for everyone!
Faculty/
Staff Award - Dr. Katie Moga, the General Chemistry Lab Supervisor in the School of Arts & Sciences, Natural & Mathematical Sciences, received the 2018 Staff Award. Dr. Moga oversees general chemistry labs taken by more than 4,000 students each term and ensures that the learning goals and safety standards are communicated and enforced. Most recently, Dr. Moga collaborated with the College of Arts & Sciences Technology Services Studio to create a series of exemplary safety and technique videos to provide the students in the general chemistry labs with current safety information for each experiment they perform.
Student Award - William DuPont, a graduate student in the Kinesiology program at Ohio State was the recipient of the Student Award, which was added to the list of awards in 2018. William voluntarily took on the role of “safety officer” in his research lab, maintaining training records for laboratory staff, updating the chemical inventory and proactively monitoring overall safety compliance. His fellow graduate students are very appreciative of the work that he has done to keep their lab running safely and smoothly.
Group Award - The research laboratory of Dr. Hannah Shafaat was the recipient of the 2018 Group Award. Dr. Shafaat, a faculty member in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department in the College of Arts & Sciences, Natural & Mathematical Sciences, has led the effort to create a culture of safety, both within her laboratory group and the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry. The Shafaat group has spearheaded the continued success of the Joint Safety Team (JST), which was formed and directed by departmental graduate students and is currently chaired by one of Dr. Shafaat’s graduate students, Shelby Behnke.
