Joe lonjin, manager for research facilities
Lab Safety is One of Many Jobs for Joe Lonjin, Manager for Research Facilities
Safety is not a set of regulations that make it harder to do research, according to Joe Lonjin, who took over as MRI’s Manager for Research Facilities when Gaylord Shawver retired in 2008. Safety is a culture, a way of life that keeps people healthy as they do their research. “We are coming into labs to assist researchers in working safely, and to make sure they know the rules that now apply since OSHA began enforcing workplace safety at PSU last year. These are rules we all must follow in order to perform safe research,” he explains.
Joe’s background gives him a strong set of skills for managing the physical plant of a varied research enterprise such as MRI. In his senior year in the electronics program at Penn College, Joe was part of the first class in the Center for Nanotechnology Education and Utilization (CNEU) at University Park, an 18-credit program designed to give a hands-on immersion in nanotechnology for manufacturing. During the course of his CNEU program, Joe spent 50 percent of his time in the clean room of the Nanofab.
After graduation, Joe was offered a position as a technician in the Nanofab, which was then operated by the College of Engineering. He started at the end of 1999, repairing equipment and backing up the safety officer, eventually taking the lead on safety and facilities for the Nanofab.
In early 2003, Joe’s Army Reserve unit was called to active duty in Iraq. After the fact, it was a good life experience, he says, seeing the war first hand, travelling to nearly every city in the country. Iraq was a contrast in cultures. As he travelled from the Kuwait border northward, the land turned from desert to mountains. Primitive stone and mud hut villages gave way to nearly modern cities, most of the resources concentrated in the places where Saddam had his residences. Trained in Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Threats, which never materialized, he found himself spending most of his 15-month deployment as a specialty mechanic, supporting roving and fixed combat teams.
By the time he returned home, the Nanofab was transitioning from the College of Engineering to MRI. Dan Lehman was in charge of information technology for MRI and working with Gaylord Shawver to manage the MRI building. When Dan wanted to give up the building management to focus on IT, Joe took over managing MRI. In March of 2008, he heard Gaylord was retiring, and he applied for his position as Manager of Research Facilities.
“It was an easy transfer,” he says. “From the Nanofab I had a good working knowledge of the faculty and staff. Everyone has accepted me.”
With the assistance of Charlie Cole and Tim Klinger, he is responsible for equipment installation and deinstallation, lab and people moves, facilities coordination with the Office of Physical Plant, building and lab upgrades, and coordinating OPP construction projects. In preparation for the move to the new Materials building, Joe is streamlining processes and centralizing information to make it easier for researchers to come into the lab and do their research. Safety training is going online and the safety committees for MRI and MRL buildings have been combined. “We would like to be the point of contact for anyone with questions about working in the Materials Research Institute. Because we stay in touch with everyone in MRI, we can point you toward the answers,” he says.
Joe says he was drawn toward a career with Penn State from childhood, when he would often accompany his dad, an electrician for OPP, to work at University Park. His father retired recently after 30-plus years at the University. Joe has been married for ten years and has two children, Austin and Abigail. He commutes from West Decatur, a small community outside Philipsburg, where he and his family enjoy the opportunity to hike and bike, hunt, fish and camp out. He enjoys dirt track and NASCAR racing, fooling around with computers, and doing his own auto repairs for himself and friends. He calls himself a gadget and techno guy.
I question Joe about the issue of nano safety that is drawing so much attention in Canada and Europe, and is beginning to spark debate here. He is aware of the issue and gives a careful response. “New rules seem to be coming along about nanotechnology based on new rules in Britain. We are trying in the U.S. to fall in line with nanotechnology ethics and safety guidelines internationally. We will know more in a year or two as they assess the data.”
Having a safety officer with an extensive nanotechnology background should be a plus when those safety and ethical guidelines are put into practice in the U.S.
