As an academic scientist working at the intersection of chemistry chemical engineering and materials science, I see that my primary responsibility is to train students broadly in the soft materials science research with a keen attention to safety considerations in planning and executing new experiments. My view of this issue is based by numerous conversations with my former graduate students and collaborators working in the chemical industry, all of which highlighted the significant resources directed toward (re)training fresh hires in chemical hygiene and basic safety issues. As a principal investigator at the University of Minnesota, I am deeply involved in numerous aspects of the day to day safety activities of my group including conducting hands on demonstrations in annual lab-specific safety trainings, conducting laboratory walk-throughs to identify and rectify safety issues as they arise, safety contingency planning related “unusual experiments,” and keeping my co-workers aware of their surrounding and exercising their emergency preparedness reflexes through one-on-one training. And, as accidents do happen, we also diligently work to understand what went wrong and why so that we can augment our Standard Operating Procedures to avoid future incidents.

Making safety second nature at the University of Minnesota

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.