April Meeting

MN ACS Event - The Joint Safety Team at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities: A Model for Student-Led Safety

Presented by: Taysir Bader and Zoe Maxwell

When: April 29th, 7:00 PM

Zoom Webinar

Abstract: The Joint Safety Team (JST) was conceived in 2012 by the Departments of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and Chemistry at the University of Minnesota and the Dow Chemical Company as a model student-led safety organization. The JST initiative was aimed at improving academic safety through four core areas: compliance, awareness, resources, and education. Since its inception, the JST has taken great strides to develop a culture of peer-led safety at Minnesota. We describe the evolution of the structure of the organization over the last 9 years and the innovative methodologies employed by the JST to educate and evaluate safety in academic laboratories. The continuous efforts of the student members of the JST have enabled the organization to be recognized as a leader in peer-to peer safety. The Minnesota model of “inform and reform” is now being adopted at other academic institutions to develop safety organizations emulating the JST. We will also discuss our new committee, community connections, which is focused on safety related outreach to improve the culture of safety among our young MN chemists.

Registration: Zoom links for the event can be found here