As the president of student safety council at UF BME, I always want to promote safety awareness in our research labs. That’s why i felt super excited when I was selected to participate in ExxonMobil PALS (Partners in Academic Laboratory Safety) workshop in their Baytown facility. It was a really nice 3-day workshop, intense, but I learned a lot.
In the first day, we visited their industrial labs. They are highly organized and neat, comparing to our academic labs. My feeling is that there are lots of regulations that are also recommended in academic labs but we don’t force ourselves to obey. In the second day, we shared our safety systems and cultures among participating schools. It was really beneficial to learn what we could improve at our own school based on the success from other schools.
During the social events, I enjoyed Texas BBQ (maybe too much meat for me lol) and got a chance to talk to amazing employees from ExxonMobil and graduate students fellows from other schools. It was fun to learn Texas 2-step dance as well. (I may or may not tore the dance floor up lol)
After being back to UF, my plan is to share what I have learned to all the students at UF BME. Maybe have a seminar “How to prepare for the transition from academic laboratory safety to industrial laboratory safety”? Let’s see how it goes!
