[Entm-researchstaff] New Chamber/cold room facility

[Rick Redak]

All,
We are getting ready to begin moving into the new chamber facility/cold
room (located between Entomology and Genomics).  Several things to be aware
of before we do.  Nobody is authorized to check the place out yet. I will
let you know when.  Here are some general guidelines.

*Incubator Side of the Building.*

   - Access and use of any departmental incubator in the building will
   require permission and scheduling through the space committee Chair (Erin
   Rankin).  Wait until we are moved in before you ask. Incubator space will
   be on a first come/first serve basis. All assigned space will be temporary
   for the period of time required to complete an experiment.
   - Access to the Conviron environmental chamber requires approval from
   Matt Daugherty. It is his.
   - There MAY be space to house a few PI-owned incubators.  In the future,
   I will put out a call and we will go from there.
   - There will be a washing machine in the building.  Use it like it is
   your own and be cognizant of other users. Clean up after yourself.  Do not
   use it for your own clothes.  It is for washing bee suits and workwear.  It
   is *not *for washing lab coats or other possibly chemical contaminated
   clothing.
   - There is both an inside sink and an outside sink.  Neither are for pot
   washing/ soil disposal.  Do not put anything other than liquids down the
   sinks.  Hot and cold water are both available.
   - There is a very small amount of shared cabinet storage space to use
   while you use the incubators (e.g. a few petri dishes, forceps, some
   glassware, etc).  Nothing should be permanently stored in the facility.
   There is no chemical storage space so do not store any.  You should not be
   storing much of anything in the building.  Whatever you may store for
   ongoing experiments, you are to remove upon the completion of the
   experiment.
   - There will be one or two large trash cans available.  When you notice
   if either is full, empty it.  Do not rely on somebody else to deal with
   it.  Kee the place clean.
   - There will be a refrigerator in the building for community use to
   store diet components on a temporary basis.  Remove your materials when
   experiments are complete.

*Cold Room side of the building*

   - The cold room is set to 4 C.  It is not to be adjusted.
   - The purpose of the room is to *temporarily *store materials that need
   to be refrigerated.  Neither its purpose or design is to permanently store
   samples or diet components of any kind.
   - You will notice 6 large grey insect cabinets. These belong to the
   museum. They are working through specimens continuously.
   - If you are temporarily storing insect samples to process,  in no case
   should you be using moth balls (napthalene) in your samples.  Somebody had
   done this previously and pretty much gassed the room out.  If you have
   samples to be moved back into cold storage, be sure there are no moth balls
   or similar volatile materials in your samples.
   - There is a small insect cabinet that is currently in the new cold room
   (picture attached).  It is full of moth balls! Whose is it and why is it in
   the cold room?  Non-museum collections should be housed in PI's labs.  Once
   we get settled in, this cabinet will need to be removed from the cold
   room.  The cold room is not overflow space for insect collections that are
   housed in drawers/trays within cabinets. Storing samples in ethanol while
   they are being processed is ok.  Long term storage of specimens is not OK.
   - Under no circumstances should any chemicals of any kind be placed in
   the cold room.  The one exception to this: insects may be stored in 70%
   ethanol within tightly sealed vials/jars.  Bulk ethanol is not to be stored
   in the facility

I will let everybody know when the new building is open for business.


Rick Redak, Professor & Chair
Department of Entomology
University of California
Riverside, CA 92526
951-295-3930 (Cell)
951-827-7250 (Office)
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