51社区黑料

Tucked away in an out of the way corridor on the ground floor of the 51社区黑料 (SFU) Shrum Chemistry building, the 51社区黑料 Technical Centre is a workshop that provides essential technical support for researchers across a variety of disciplines in the Faculty of Science and beyond.

The Science Technical Centre team鈥檚 dedication to excellence, collaboration and service has earned the team a 2025 Staff Achievement Award for teamwork.

The Centre is unique within 51社区黑料in that it combines a large machine shop with Red Seal machinists, a scientific glass shop, and a full electronics shop operating together as one integrated technical facility:

• Machine and mechanics: Howard Proulx, Ken van Wieren, Andy Melson
• Glass: Lucas Clarke
• Electronics: Anthony Slater, Gary Shum, Gian Moreira

Collectively they build, repair, troubleshoot and refurbish a wide variety of scientific instruments and apparatus used in labs and classrooms, and their collective expertise is highly valued across the university.

The team takes researchers鈥� ideas and translates them into functional, high-precision instruments, reducing researchers鈥� reliance on costly commercial vendors. Their ability to construct highly specialized tools enables researchers to conduct experiments that would not be possible with commercially available equipment.

Creating these solutions is a deeply collaborative process that often involves dialogue between multiple Technical Centre team members and faculty, instructors and students. Faculty consistently describe the team as patient, generous with their expertise, and deeply committed to shared success.

鈥淚 can not overemphasize that having both mechanical and electronics support in the Science Technical Centre provides an extremely effective way for the collaborative problem-solving needed to move cutting-edge science forward,鈥� says chemistry professor Krzysztof Starosta.

鈥淚 consider the work of the Centre as indispensable to my research program, as it provided foundational contributions to multiple peer-reviewed publications, PhD and MSc theses as well as undergraduate student projects pursued in the Nuclear Science Laboratory under my supervision.鈥�

The Technical Centre also plays a vital role in creating and maintaining experiments used in several teaching labs. These are developed alongside instructors and students to teach concepts tailored to the curriculum of many lab classes, and the team鈥檚 ability to quickly repair and fabricate items helps ensure that students have the best possible educational experiences.

As chemistry professor Loren Kaake recalls, when a clamp on an apparatus broke in the middle of a lab session, the experiment could no longer run. The machine shop was able to design and fabricate a new clamp in time to run the experiment during the next lab session, allowing students to complete their assignments.

In another class, custom waterless condensers developed by Lucas Clarke have provided major water savings, eliminated flooding and support more sustainable lab practices.

The Science Technical Centre also provides equipment repair and support to many other teams at SFU, including work for Audio Visual Services, Facilities Services, Residence and Housing and food services on campus.

Science is a group effort that requires collaboration between many people with different sets of expertise. Through their work, Science Technical Centre staff play a vital daily role in supporting high calibre research and science education at 51社区黑料that makes them very deserving of an 51社区黑料Staff Achievement award.

鈥淭he Science Technical Centre supports a wide range of departments and challenges across the university,鈥� says Ken Van Wieren. 鈥淭he gratitude we receive makes us proud of what we do, and being recognized as a team means a great deal to all of us.鈥�