CU Green Labs Awards Program

2024 CU Green Labs Award Committee 

• Alannah Gregory, Lab Safety & Compliance Inspector, Environmental Health & Safety
• Ash Stephan, Undergraduate in Biochemistry
• Collin Sindt, Doctoral Candidate in Chemical and Biological Engineering & RASEI
• Theresa Nahreini, Biochemistry Cell Culture Facility Manager
• Kathryn Ramirez-Aguilar, PhD, CU Green Labs Program Manager 

Alison White, Individual Achievement
For more than eight years, Alison has volunteered as Lab Eco-Leader for the Luger Lab in Biochemistry while also contributing to building-wide lab sustainability efforts. She has led the Luger Lab to be one of the top scoring CU Boulder labs in the annual International Laboratory Freezer Challenge multiple times, promoted participation in ongoing lab waste diversion programs, worked to switch her lab away from methanol use to less toxic ethanol use for gel-staining and helped establish “eco-modes” on JSCBB autoclaves which is estimated to be saving 1,000 gallons of water each workday. Her unwavering commitment to promoting sustainable lab practices is having long-lasting, positive impacts to advance sustainability among campus researchers.

Bimala Lama, Individual Achievement 
Over the past several years, Bimala has led the work within the Department of Chemistry to set-up and establish the collection of helium from NMRs to be re-liquified and re-used. This work is important because helium is critical for both science and medicine and is becoming an endangered element. In fact, in recent years, the nation and world faced a shortage of helium. Bimala's efforts save research dollars while also saving this depleting and irreplaceable resource. 

Jose Escobar, Individual Achievement 
Jose has performed outstanding work and leadership with managing the BioCore shared instrumentation program despite challenging circumstances that the program has experienced in recent years. When the BioCore manager role became vacant and, despite a large cut in funding, Jose put his all into stepping into the manager role at 20% time to keep this shared research equipment program moving forward. Because of Jose’s efforts and his willingness to go above and beyond, the BioCore program is still alive today, providing equitable and inclusive access to resources by MCDB, EBIO and IPHY researchers, and benefiting efficiency and cost avoidance in scientific research. 

John Henderson and George Carter, Partnership for Lab Sustainability 
John and George's efforts are positively and significantly impacting the culture of lab sustainability within the Engineering Center. Their help and support has been instrumental in the success of various Green Labs efforts in the center including the recent fume hood sash contest. John and George not only organized a process for Green Labs student staff to access the fume hoods but they also helped with communication with the lab members which created a welcoming environment for the Green Labs student staff. Senior Assistant Dean Cherie Summers describes the hard work of John and George well: “Both of these gentlemen always go above and beyond in partnering with campus constituents and making the Engineering building and portfolio the very best it can be for our students, faculty and staff.”

CEAS Dean’s Office Lab Space Optimization, Leadership Achievement 
The Dean’s Office of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS) has made remarkable progress for laboratory space optimization. This effort is initiating a culture change in campus research and is of great importance for cost avoidance and climate action because lab spaces are not only expensive to construct but are also large energy users due to their ventilation needs. Cherie Summers has been the lead for this effort in the Dean’s Office. Data driven analysis of laboratory space use is enabling re-assignment of unused or underutilized lab space to meet growing research needs without the need to construct additional laboratories which costs at least $1 million for every 1,000 square feet. This effort by the College of Engineering Dean’s Office is serving as a leadership example of how lab space optimization could be achieved across all campus laboratories. 

2023 CU Boulder Green Labs Awards Committee 

• Kyungsun Lee, PhD, Teaching Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies
• Bimala Lama, PhD, NMR Facility Director, Chemistry
• Robert Allen, Recycling Supervisor, Facilities Management
• Estelle Lindrooth, Applied Math Graduate Student & CU Green Labs Student Assistant
• Kathryn Ramirez-Aguilar, PhD, CU Green Labs Program Manager

MIMIC Core Facility, Partnership for Sustainability 
Through creation of the MIMIC Core Facility in 2019, Virginia Ferguson and Wil Srubar of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences have opened up researcher access to equipment resources that otherwise would have been housed in their individual labs. Creation of this core facility is reducing duplication of research equipment resources on campus and leading to more efficient use of laboratory space and research dollars. Nearly 70 unique users across 13 departments in addition to external users are already benefiting from these shared equipment resources and access to the core director who provides expertise that saves significant researcher time.

Department of Biochemistry Shared Equipment, Departmental Achievement 
The CU Boulder Biochemistry Department has a long history of equipment sharing which is reducing the footprint of laboratory research on the environment, benefiting collaboration and training generations of future scientists to do the same. The forward-thinking vision by members of the Department of Biochemistry over the past several decades has resulted in multiple long-term, successful shared equipment core facilities and created a strong culture for equipment sharing throughout the entire department. Importantly, this culture extends beyond just the most expensive and complex instrumentation to also include more common research equipment which is often overlooked within science for sharing. The department’s investment in highly trained staff to run the core facilities has benefitted not only faculty and students within Biochemistry but also provided researchers campus-wide and beyond with training and access to the same instrumentation to avoid costly and unnecessary equipment duplication. Biochemistry’s actions for well-managed, shared equipment truly are advancing a culture of sustainability in the science community. 

CHEM 1021 Green Chemistry Integration, Partnership for Sustainability 
The Introductory Chemistry CHEM 1021 course now includes green chemistry content throughout the course curriculum thanks to the initiative of Dr. Matthew Wise and Dr. Alec Kroll who teach Chemistry 1021 to more than 600 undergraduate students annually. Dr. Wise invited the CU Green Labs Program to partner on a pilot to integrate green chemistry into CHEM 1021 during the spring 2022 semester.  Dr. Wise oversaw the pilot project where student assistants, Brinn McDowell and Jan Hu, created green chemistry modules with content aligning with the different units of the course. In the next semester, Dr. Kroll upgraded the modules as needed and moved the green chemistry modules from being extra credit to integrating them into the grading structure of the course. Both Dr. Wise and Dr. Kroll have gone above and beyond and demonstrated unwavering commitment to integrate green chemistry into this course. Students that enroll in CHEM 1021 are from a wide-range of majors. As a result, this effort is expected to have far-reaching positive impacts as these students enter a wide-range of fields of work.

2022 CU Boulder Green Labs Awards Committee 

• Matthew Wise, PhD, Director of Chemistry Instruction, Senior Instructor in Department of Chemistry
• Robert Blacker, Environmental Health & Safety Biosafety Specialist
• Kathryn Ramirez-Aguilar, PhD, CU Boulder Green Labs Program Manager

Physics Department Helium Facility, Partnership for Lab Sustainability 
Helium Facility Helium has become an endangered element. About a decade ago, the Physics Department had the foresight to establish a helium liquifying facility which enables re-use of this finite resource while saving research funding. As researchers in Physics, JILA and LASP use liquid helium, it is captured and sent to the helium facility to be re-liquified.

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering Space Optimization, Departmental Achievement
Since at least 2003, whenever the Chemical and Biological Engineering Department faces laboratory space constraints, the department faculty choose to conduct self assessments of lab space utilization and reallocation. Laboratories are one of the most energy-intensive and expensive campus spaces to build. As a result, this action for optimized use of lab space serves as a leadership example for achieving significant efficiency in scientific research.

JILA W. M. Keck Lab, Laboratory Achievement
The JILA Keck Lab demonstrates exemplary sharing of research equipment with scientists across campus and beyond. In addition to well-maintained, important fabrication and characterization equipment within the shared clean room and metrology lab, this core has established shared fume hoods. Sharing of fume hoods is a leadership example that can be copied in laboratory buildings across campus to reduce the need for more energy-intensive fume hoods.

2021 CU Boulder Green Labs Awards Committee 

• Mariel Sabraw, MS Candidate in Global Engineering
• Jason Tavares, Recycling Operations Center Manager
• Laurence Fairchild, MCDB STEMtech Resource Center Assistant
• Kathryn Ramirez-Aguilar, PhD, CU Boulder Green Labs Program Manager

JSCBB Autoclave Eco-Mode Project, Partnership for Lab Sustainability
This award recognizes the work of a group of engaged scientists who use the autoclave equipment in the Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology building. This award recognizes their effort to research and implement a successful water saving project for the JSCBB autoclaves. Autoclaves are used in science to sterilize research materials and biowaste. Those involved are Nicole Kethley, Dave Simpson, Alison White, Steve Haemmerlein, Annette Erbse, Laura Maguire, Tom Rivas, Elizabeth Stoneham and Abby Horn. When they learned that the building autoclaves use six gallons of water for every minute of drying, they began an extensive project to determine what could be done to minimize water use. They educated users and programmed the autoclaves with a water-savings mode option that is resulting in an ongoing savings of at least a quarter of a million gallons of water per year. The implementation of the project has been done in a transparent and professional manner which has resulted in a consistent user experience.

Emerson Grey, Individual Achievement 
As a graduate student and eco-leader in the Bryant Lab in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Emerson has stepped up to not only implement sustainability initiatives in the lab where he works, but also to help with efforts within the Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Building. At a time when CU Green Labs was experiencing contamination issues within its pipette box recycling collection, Emerson volunteered to routinely monitor the bins on multiple floors of the building and address contamination issues when needed. Additionally, he has been working to integrate information on the CU Green Labs Program into graduate student recruitment for the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering.

John Malecha, Individual Achievement 
John has consistently worked on sustainability efforts throughout his entire time in graduate school at CU Boulder. In addition to being the eco-leader for the Gin Lab where he implemented resources saving efforts, John has volunteered for five years to be the Chemistry Department Team Lead for the CU Green Labs Program. In that role, John has organized green chemistry webinars, promoted solvent recycling, shared green lab efforts at new graduate student recruitment and orientation events, helped create and distribute a CU Green Labs survey measuring undergraduate student interest in green chemistry education, and assisted with fume hood sash competitions. John’s commitment has helped to grow a culture of sustainability in research on campus.

Matthew Wise, Individual Achievement 
During the pandemic, the Chemistry teaching labs had to alter their approach to include the use of at-home lab kits supplied by a vendor. As the Director of Chemistry Instruction, Matt went above and beyond to enhance safety, minimize chemical and material use and avoid disposal of hazardous materials down the drain. Matt determined additional steps within each experiment where reduction of materials could be realized. He worked with the vendor that supplied the kits to provide them feedback regarding excess chemicals included in the kits. He included these topics within the coursework of the chemistry labs and provided a "teachable moment" to students regarding proper disposition of chemicals and the issues surrounding chemical disposal. Lastly, he and his colleagues established a process for students to return unused excess chemical reagents for proper disposal through EH&S. These efforts demonstrate Matt’s strong commitment to sustainability and ability to teach students about connecting sustainability to science.

2020 CU Boulder Green Labs Awards Committee 

• Theresa Nahreini, Cell Culture Facility Manager
• Robert Blacker, Environmental Health & Safety Biosafety Specialist
• Micah Stoltz, OAR Operations Manager
• Paul Rastrelli, CU Green Labs Team Lead
• Kathryn Ramirez-Aguilar, PhD, CU Boulder Green Labs Program Manager

Teisha Rowland and Lee Niswander, Partnership for Lab Sustainability
Teisha and Lee established the shared research facility, Stem Cell Research & Technology Resource Center, that decreases the spatial footprint and the carbon footprint of performing stem cell research across campus by reducing the need for each lab to purchase their own suite of equipment to perform this research. 

Benjamin Deming and Oana Luca, Partnership for Lab Sustainability
On behalf of the CHEMunity in the Chemistry Department and in partnership with the CU Green Labs Program, Oana and Benjamin worked to create the Green Chemistry Certificate Scholarship Program in 2018 which is providing CU Boulder students with the opportunity to receive green chemistry education through a nine month online program at the University of Washington. 

Margaret Ashton, Brad Denton, and McKenzie Statham, Departmental Achievement
By establishing reduction protocols and by working closely with campus labs to set-up clearly-marked, simple-to-use collections, and train users, the Radiation Safety Office in Environmental Health and Safety at CU Boulder is hugely reducing the volume of research-related solid radioactive waste going to low-level radiation landfills.

Cherie Summers, Individual Achievement
As the assistant dean for administration in the Engineering Dean’s Office, Cherie’s leadership and partnership are a demonstration of the significant positive impact that action and inspiration from an administrative role can have to grow sustainability on campus.

Benjamin LaFavor, Individual Achievement 
In addition to overseeing shipping and receiving at the loading dock of the Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Building and helping to assist the building manager, Benjamin goes above and beyond to make sure as much shipping materials as possible flowing through the loading dock area are recycled and reused which save the university funding in avoided landfill costs.

Mitchell Magrini, Individual Achievement 
In addition to conducting research as a graduate student in the Chemistry Department, Mitch has been volunteering to oversee the Cristol building collection of brown lab glass bottles and lab metal containers for recycling since 2017. 

2019 CU Boulder Green Labs Awards Committee 

• Dorothy Noble, Environmental Engineering Laboratory Manager
• Robert An, Environmental Health and Safety
• Theresa Nahreini, Biochemistry Cell Culture Facility Manager
• Kathryn Ramirez-Aguilar, PhD, CU Boulder Green Labs Program Manager

David Simpson, Individual Achievement
David Simpson has been instrumental in supporting and leading Green Lab conservation efforts in the Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Building on East Campus including managing an ice pack reuse pilot program, publishing Eco-Tips in the Lab Report newsletter, assisting with a building-wide autoclave project, and leading his lab’s participation in the Freezer Challenge for two years.

Carl Pierce, Jason Tavares, and Norm Van Esselstine, Departmental Achievement
CU Boulder Facilities Management Recycling has voluntarily aided the CU Green Labs Program by taking over lab recycling collections, which were previously conducted through monthly pickups by Eco-Cycle and required significant work on the part of CU Green Labs student employees to get the materials to a limited number of locations for the Eco-Cycle pick-up. 

Dustin Quandt, Individual Achievement
Within the first eight months as the manager of the newly formed BioCore shared laboratory equipment facility funded by CFO Kelly Fox for its first year through a seed-innovation grant led by CU Green Labs, Dustin became the manager of 85 shared instruments and through outreach and engagement, the BioCore shared equipment is now being used by 59 researchers within MCDB, EBIO and IPHY.

Micah Stoltz, Julia Granowski, Mark Lapham, Jon Reuter, Cher Masini, Theresa Siefkas, Joseph Gibbs, Holly Gates-Mayer, and Rachel Eastman, Partnership for Lab Sustainability
A partnership was formed between the Office of Animal Resources, Environmental Health and Safety, CU Green Labs and Facilities Management with the goal of exploring composting the nonhazardous animal bedding waste and in 2017 a successful pilot was implemented at one of the campus animal facilities followed by campus-wide implementation in 2018 to all campus animal facilities.

Cynthia Torres, Special Recognition
Since Cindy joined JILA in early 2018, CU Green Labs was able to establish lab material recycling in JILA for the first time and she has spread awareness through email newsletters and promoting zero-waste events within her department.

Megan Schroeder, Special Recognition
Megan co-led the Anseth Lab in Chemical and Biological Engineering participation in the 2017 Freezer Challenge which resulted in the retirement of an unneeded freezer and the consolidation of research samples, and co-leads an ongoing effort within the Anseth Lab to engage and onboard lab members to recycle foam, plastics, brown glass chemical bottles, ice packs and to compost lab paper towels.

2018 CU Boulder Green Labs Awards Committee 

• Jacqueline Richardson, Organic Chemistry Teaching Lab Instructor
• Joe Dragavon, Director of the BioFrontiers Advanced Light Microscopy Core
• Jennifer Ryan, MCDB Building Operations Manager
• Kathryn Ramirez-Aguilar, PhD, CU Boulder Green Labs Program Manager

Robert An, Linh Tran, and Ralph Bogle, Partnership for Lab Sustainability
The EH&S Chemical Redistribution pilot was a substantial process with 457 out of 713 chemicals being successfully repurposed, that is a 64% success rate, indicating the value chemical redistribution can have on a larger scale for our campus.

SEEL Environmental Engineering Laboratories, Partnership for Lab Sustainability
When moving from the Engineering Center to SEEL, eleven Environmental Engineering Labs took it upon themselves to pool their resources and shift their culture towards more shared equipment, setting up collaborative laboratories centered around research themes rather than the traditional approach of one principal investigator in one lab space. 

2017 CU Boulder Green Labs Awards Committee 

• David Simpson, Lab Manager - Palmer Lab
• Theresa Siefkas, EH&S Assistant Biosafety Officer
• Abigail Horn, Graduate Student - Goodrich Lab
• Rebecca Stossmeister, Compliance Officer - Office of Contracts and Grants
• Kathryn Ramirez-Aguilar, PhD, CU Boulder Green Labs Program Manager

Joe Dragavon, Individual Achievement
Joe Dragavon is the BioFrontiers Advanced Light Microscopy Core Director and over the past two years has helped to increase awareness of the campus' many shared equipment facilities by coordinating "open house" events, that featured lightning round presentations, and by launching the "Shared Instrumentation Network" website in collaboration with the Research and Innovation Office. 

Jennifer Ryan, Individual Achievement
Jennifer Ryan, the MCDB Building Operations Manager, is a long-time advocate of promoting re-use of equipment within her department and then offering up unneeded equipment to other departments on campus and was instrumental in helping CU Green Labs launch its first recycling effort for lab materials, a program that now extends to labs across campus.

Jacqueline Richardson, Individual Achievement
Jacquie Richardson, the director of the Organic Chemistry Teaching Labs, in collaboration with EH&S and CU Green Labs, has played a vital role in efforts to re-use solvents by making them clean again through distillation managing a solvent distillation unit which Jacquie has already utilized to recover 560 gallons of acetone which is re-used by teaching and research labs. 

2016 CU Boulder Green Labs Awards Committee 

• Karen Regan, Assistant Vice Chancellor of Research
• Jacqueline Richardson, Organic Chemistry Teaching Lab Instructor
• Stephanie Mayer, EBIO Instructor
• Chris Quattrociocchi, EH&S Hazardous Materials Manager
• Kathryn Ramirez-Aguilar, PhD, CU Boulder Green Labs Program Manager

Christopher Sneary, Individual Achievement
Chris Sneary, the JSCBB dock manager, goes out of his way to reuse and recycle the high volume of packaging materials received at JSCBB saving materials such as bubble wrap and shredded packing paper for reuse with outgoing shipments, collecting and bringing foam peanuts to Pack Mail (a local company) in his personal time, making sure “mail-back” foam shipping containers get shipped back to their companies, and recycling materials as much as possible using campus programs.

Christina Smith, Individual Achievement
Tina Smith, a graduate student in the Yin Lab in Biofrontiers, has given countless hours of volunteer time to the CU Green Labs Program to lead and organize efforts in JSCBB as a CU Green Labs Team lead and has been instrumental in helping the stockroom supply more sustainable pipet tips, which use less plastic and are packaged in more environmentally friendly materials. 

Bierbaum Lab, Laboratory Achievement 
Since January 2010, the Bierbaum Lab has been turning off five diffusion pumps at night and on the weekend for large electricity and water savings, it is estimated that the lab's efforts have saved six million gallons of water (the same as nine Olympic size pools) and 350,000 kWh of electricity (the same that eight inefficient Ultra Low Temperature Freezers would use in the same period of time).

Biochemistry Shared Instruments Pool, Partnership for Lab Sustainability
The Biochemistry Shared Instruments Pool is a collection of shared lab equipment assets, managed by Annette Erbse, started several years ago by the Biochemistry Division of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry which reduces the purchase of redundant instrumentation which saves researcher funding, reduces energy use that would result from redundant equipment, and benefits effective, efficient lab space utilization.

2015 CU Boulder Green Labs Awards Committee 

• Shane Frazier, Graduate Student
• Stephanie Mayer, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
• Ashlyn Norberg, CU Green Labs Student Employee
• Jacquie Richardson, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
• Theresa Siefkas, EH&S Biosafety
• Kathryn Ramirez-Aguilar, PhD, CU Boulder Green Labs Program Manager

Jessica Henley, Individual Achievement
As the lab manager and lab eco-leader for the Fierer Lab in EBio and CIRES, Jessica Henley strives to promote a culture of sustainability and implement sustainable practices in her lab and has reduced the lab's environmental impact by instituting practices such as raising their Ultra Low Temperature Freezer setting from -80 to -70⁰C; organizing and removing freezer samples no longer needed to reduce the need for additional freezer space; and establishing and maintaining a pipet tip box recycling site which otherwise would not exist for Cristol and Ekeley and which requires walking full toters of pipette tip boxes across a section of main campus multiple times a month.

Theresa Nahreini, Individual Achievement 
As the manager of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Cell Culture Facility and a lab eco-leader for the CU Green Labs program, Theresa Nahreini has been engaged and involved in numerous efforts for energy savings including the research and implementation of a policy in her facility in 2007 that blowers on the Class II A2 Biosafety Cabinets would be turned off when not in use, an action that continues today and has been promoted both across campus by CU Green Labs and shared nationwide.

Janet Fox, Individual Achievement
Janet Fox is the lab manager for the Winey Lab in MCDB and is one of the most engaged lab eco-leaders in the CU Green Labs program, she was the first to suggest the idea to CU Green Labs that we pursue an effort to raise the temperature of Ultra Low Temperature freezers from -80⁰C to - 70⁰C, an effort which she had implemented in her lab.

Jennifer Shannon Law, Individual Achievement 
Jennifer has been incorporating sustainability into her role as the operations manager for the IPhy Department for several years which is promoting a culture of sustainability in her department because of her regular interactions with department members and actions she takes on behalf of the department including when there is a new equipment purchase, she always recommends equipment that is energy efficient.