Environmental Health and Safety Partnership Award 2023

On May 18, 2023, the University of Utah College of Science held its 2nd annual College of Science Safety Day, which brings faculty, staff, and experts together for training and updates on laboratory, classroom, and workplace safety.

According to David Thomas, the Director of Safety at the College of Science, University of Utah, Dr. Armentrout received the inaugural "EHS Partnership Award," which is given to an individual who exemplifies what it means to partner with Environmental Health and Safety to create a safer work environment for themselves and those around them. Peter was selected by EHS personnel for this award.

Peter B. Armentrout, Distinguished Prof. & Henry Eyring Pres. Endowed Chair wrote, “My group and I are honored to have been awarded the inaugural Environmental Health and Safety Partnership Award. This is a testament to our continued commitment to conducting research in the safest manner possible. As our research utilizes high voltages, compressed gas cylinders, radioactive elements, and occasionally toxic compounds, we have tried to provide a safe environment for handling these items for all participants, which includes undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and national and international visitors. The partnership award shows that we have been responsive to suggestions from EHS regarding how we can improve our safety protocols. 

Brandon Stevenson, a Doctoral Candidate in the P.B. Armentrout Laboratory at the University of Utah, talked about his work in the lab and said the following “In the Armentrout research lab, graduate students, undergraduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and visiting researchers from all over the world come to the University of Utah to use the custom mass spectrometry instrumentation we have developed in our lab. This unique instrumentation facilitates the measurement of chemical reactions over a wide range of well-defined energies using high-voltage power supplies and massive vacuum systems. My individual research involves developing new expressions of this instrumentation, which necessitates being mindful of how these changes impact the safety of researchers and the research environment and how those changes are communicated with our Environmental Health and Safety Department partners. We proactively approach this communication as a research group, keeping the dialogue open and being as responsive as possible.”

Read here about Armentrout Research Group.