Each summer the Department of Environmental Health & Safety recognizes a safety committee as Safety Committee of the Year for the Academic units and the Administrative units. Winners are chosen based on the annual reports submitted by the safety committee. The committee must have met all the minimum requirements established for safety committees as spelled out in University Policy 7-2. After meeting that requirement, the reports are evaluated on the content of the safety activities conducted in the past year.

We are please to recognize the Institute for Energy Conversion (IEC) as the Academic Safety Committee of the Year for 2006. IEC has a long standing reputation for safety having received this recognition in July 2001 and again rose to the top this year with the large number of safety related projects completed. Safety is integrated into all they do partially because the risks associated with their work can be very serious.

In addition to completing all the routine requirements for safety committees, they addressed the following major projects. Five new standard operating procedures (SOP) were developed for new research equipment put into operation this year. The SOP for replacing hazardous gas cylinders was revised for all the CVD systems. Their 15 year old hazardous gas detection system was replaced with a new system installed by IEC staff and Facilities Electronics shop. The system was tested and verified to be operational. They also replaced their old portable detector with a new one of they same type as used by EHS to standardize routine monitoring and emergency response. They installed MSDS notebooks in five locations adding to the central repository kept in their Library for better access in case of emergency. They moved their HF operation from a general Chemistry lab to a more restrictive fume hood and relocated an eyewash/safety shower station close by. Lastly, they installed two new laser operations involving Bill Fendt and Kevin Eichinger from EHS to assure all occupational hazards were addressed prior to operation.

I'm sure you will agree that this group is well deserving of this recognition and serves as a good example of being proactive relative to safety in the lab. Please join me in congratulating Bob Birkmire, Director, Steven Hegedus, Safety Committee Chair, the safety committee members and the entire IEC staff for their outstanding accomplishments.